Senior National MP Gerry Brownlee has hailed the deal signed between Australia and Tuvalu as a “very good deal” for the Pacific nation.
Speaking to Q+A with Jack Tame after attending the Pacific Leaders Forum, Brownlee said he takes his hat off to the leadership of Tuvalu “for being prepared to recognise they need to do something.”
“So it’s 280 people a year at this stage, and to empty Tuvalu would take about 40 years, but that’s not the intention – it’s to make life a bit easier for those who are most affected by the sea level rise.”
As a low-lying Pacific nation, Tuvalu is under severe pressure from climate change, and there are fears that at some point in the future, some or all of the islands will disappear beneath the waves.
Called the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union, the agreement states that the interests of both countries "are intertwined and the decisions taken by one Party affect the interests of the other".
Under the treaty, Tuvalu has to get Australia’s approval for any partnership, arrangement or engagement it wants to make with any other country on security and defence-related matters, even building critical infrastructure "including ports, telecommunications and energy infrastructure".
Tuvalu has clear strategic military interest for Australia in the Pacific, and both countries will work out timeframes and conditions for Australian personnel to operate in Tuvalu’s territory.
In exchange, Tuvalu is to get $16.9 million in climate adaptation projects to extend the land by 6 per cent. Access for Tuvaluans to live and work in Australia is also on the cards but for now, that’s limited to up to 280 people annually.
The arrangement has similarities to those New Zealand has with Niue, the Cook Islands, and Tokelau, whose residents hold New Zealand citizenship, and there is an allocation of 1100 places from Sāmoa each year.
“Migration out of the Pacific is not something that’s uncommon. I think one of the things that worries Pacific governments is that they could be emptying out their brightest and best,” said Brownlee.
“Tuvalu wanted this deal, Tuvalu proposed this deal and put it on the table, and Australia picked up aspects of it,” said Brownlee.
Brownlee also responded to comments made by Vanuatu’s climate minister Ralph Regenvanu, who has criticised the incoming government’s policy to restart oil and gas exploration.
Newsroom reported him as saying: "We call on them not to do it. To be in line with Paris, the 1.5 degree target, the science says you cannot do new fossil fuels.”
“That’s fair enough, he can make that criticism, but it’s going to be a very long time before the world is completely away from fossil fuels,” said Brownlee.
“It will be at the end of that process I suspect that Pacific Island countries are removed from the need for fossil fuels – a lot of them are reliant on it for electricity, but they’re completely reliant on it for transport needs.”
“We [in New Zealand] are also going to be a number of years before we’re completely free of fossil fuels.”
Q+A is public interest journalism funded by NZ on Air
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