‘Imperial Thinking’: Tuvalu PM Slams Kevin Rudd’s Citizenship Swap Proposal
Aproposal from Kevin Rudd to address the impacts of climate change on the Pacific has been labelled as “imperial thinking” by Tuvalu’s leader, who lambasted the former Prime Minister’s suggestion to swap Australian citizenship for maritime resources.
Mr Rudd wrote in a recent essay that Australia should offer citizenship to residents of the small Pacific nations of Tuvalu, Kiribati and Nauru in exchange for control of their seas, Exclusive Economic Zones and fisheries.
“Under this arrangement, Australia would also become responsible for the relocation over time of the exposed populations of these countries [totalling less than 75,000 people altogether] to Australia where they would enjoy the full rights of Australian citizens,” Mr Rudd wrote.
But the idea — which in essence would see the countries give up their sovereignty — has been strongly criticised by Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, who warned it amounts to a form of neo-colonialism.
“The days of that type of imperial thinking are over,” Mr Sopoaga told the ABC.
“We are a fully independent country, and there is no way I’m going to compromise our rights to fisheries resources, our rights to our immediate resources.” Australia, New Zealand and Pacific nations last year signed a declaration calling climate change “the single greatest threat” to Pacific people. Mr Sopoaga pointed out that Mr Rudd’s proposal came after Australia exported AU$66 billion in coal last year, making it our most valuable traded commodity.
“The more [Australia fails to be] serious about cutting coal mining and exporting this for money, the more problematic the issue of global warming and the more we have to adapt,” he said.
“These are the real issues that need [to be] settled and addressed, and perhaps leaders of Australia could focus more on that.” Instead, Mr Sopoaga has called for the establishment of a Pacific supra-state, along the lines of the European Union, that is “based on cooperation and integration, perhaps into some sort of United States of the Pacific”.
Mr Sopoaga says this would be a more realistic way for small Pacific Island nations to amplify their concerns about climate change on the global stage.
“We will stand together to address issues of sustainable development, climate change, plastic pollution and the management of our shared resources,” he said.
The message is for the world to work urgently to cut down the cause of climate change, says Enele Sopoaga, Prime Minister of Tuvalu