Australia Should create ‘Pacific visa’ to Reduce Impact of Climate Change, Disaster on Islanders
Australia should establish a new “Pacific Access” visa category that could be used by Pacific islanders forced from their homes by climate change and natural disasters, a new policy paper has argued, warning of growing displacement in Australia’s region in coming decades.
Disasters displaced three times as many people as conflict around the world last year, the paper from University of New South Wales’ Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law says, and the Asia-Pacific region is the hardest hit.
Between 2008 and 2018, the Asia-Pacific saw more than 80 per cent of all new global displacement.
“Australia cannot afford to ignore the fact that in its own region, internal and cross-border displacement within and from the Pacific islands is likely to increase as disasters intensify and become more frequent, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change,” authors Jane McAdam and Jonathan Pryke write.
“While Australia cannot stop such displacement altogether, it can implement policy changes now that would help to reduce its scale and impact.”
New Zealand has, for decades, run a Pacific Access Visa category, allowing residents of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga and Fiji to apply to permanently migrate under a ballot system. Residents of Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau are automatically New Zealand citizens.
The Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau are in ‘compacts of free association’ with the US, allowing free movement.
The Kaldor policy paper argues for an expansion of Australia’s existing seasonal worker programme and Pacific labour scheme, and for the creation of a Pacific access-style visa category similar to New Zealand’s model. It would be for countries in the Pacific without free movement to other large Pacific rim countries. Director of the Kaldor Centre, Prof Jane McAdam, said that while Pacific islanders overwhelmingly wanted to stay in their homes, and their governments were focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation, that migration planning would be needed as part of a “suite of policies” for coming decades.