by CRYSTAL-ROSE JONES – AUSTRALIA could be home to the entire population of a Pacific island nation within 35 years under a climate change-inspired immigration plan by Anthony Albanese.
Australia will take a maximum of 280 Tuvalu citizens every year amid Labor’s concerns of worsening climate conditions on the tiny nation of Tuvalu.
- Academics question whether Tuvalu is passively sinking beneath the ocean.
- Islands are dynamic landforms that can naturally adjust, grow and change shape over time.
- Island’s immigrants claim move is not only for physical but economic well-being.
The first batch of climate migrants have already arrived in Australia from the 9600-people nation.
Tuvalu is located in the central Pacific Ocean between Australia and Hawaii. Labor claims sea level rises and coastal erosion are an increasing threat to the island.
TREATY
The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty was signed in 2023 and entered into full effect in 2024.
Under the treaty, a special visa pathway was created to allow Tuvalu citizens temporary or permanent entry to Australia and the right to live, work and study.
PM Albanese described it “a ground-breaking arrangement in terms of foreign relations”.
Included among the initial intake is a dentist, Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver and a church pastor to guide the Christian migrants’ spiritual wellbeing.
Trainee pastor Maipua Puafolau came to Australia in recent weeks from the main island of Funafuti.
“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said.
Earlier this year, the nation of Tuvalu announced its National Adaptation Plan.
The document lists increasing concerns, such as flooding, salination, severe heat waves, intense cyclones and storm surges, ocean acidification, prolonged droughts and a sea-level rise of 0.15 metres in 30 years.
“One of the most pressing climate change concerns for Tuvalu is the rise in sea levels and the associated projected shoreline retreat resulting from global warming,” the plan states.
Between 1901 and 2018, the sea level rose 20cm, according to questionable CSIRO statics.
A number of academics, such as Australian Paul Kench, however, question whether Tuvalu is passively sinking beneath the ocean.
He believes its islands are dynamic landforms that can naturally adjust, grow and change shape over time.
Using aerial data from 1971-2014 (pdf), Prof Kench and fellow researchers came to the conclusion that 73 per cent of Tuvalu’s islands had increased in size, 27 per cent had decreased, but overall, Tuvalu had gained 2.9 per cent in total land area.
Prof Kench said Tuvalu’s atolls are built from coral sediment that moves and accumulates through waves, storms and reef processes which all add sand and gravel to the shore.
All of this, he argues, can allow islands to shift position and expand, even as seas rise.PC
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