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Torres Strait Islanders invite Anthony Albanese to witness climate harms firsthand
Torres Strait Islanders invite Anthony Albanese to witness climate harms firsthand

ABC News

time6 hours ago

  • Politics
  • ABC News

Torres Strait Islanders invite Anthony Albanese to witness climate harms firsthand

Two Torres Strait traditional owners at the heart of a landmark climate case against the Australian government have invited the prime minister to their islands after they lost in the Federal Court. Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai from the remote low-lying islands of Saibai and Boigu, just kilometres from Papua New Guinea, have spent four years fighting for the government to be found negligent when it comes to its emissions reduction targets and adaptation measures. On Tuesday, Federal Court Judge Michael Wigney found the government did not owe them a duty of care. But the Guda Maluyligal traditional owners said their home and cultural connection was too important for them not to keep up the fight. "It is overwhelming for me and Uncle Pabai as we have gone through this journey since 2021 and for us, it is emotional," Uncle Paul told ABC News Breakfast. "We're not going to stop here." From Cairns, hundreds of kilometres from his ancestral home of Saibai, he called on all Australians to "battle together and give a strong voice to the government". "It's time now for us to keep knocking at the government's door." On Tuesday, Justice Wigney said that while the Torres Strait Islanders' case had proven many of its factual allegations, the law currently did not provide an "effective legal avenue" to claim damages for harm "as a result of government decisions and conduct". He said he was bound by the previous decisions of appellate courts. "That will remain the case unless and until the law in Australia changes either by the incremental development or expansion of the common law by appellate courts, or by the enactment of legislation," he said. "Until then, the only real avenue available to those in the position of the applicants and other Torres Strait Islanders involves public advocacy and protest, and ultimately, recourse via the ballot box." The judge said that without urgent action, the Torres Strait Islanders' worst fears would be realised. "Unless something is done to arrest global warming and the resulting escalating impacts of climate change, there is a very real risk that the applicant's worst fears will be realised and they will lose their islands, their culture and their way of life, and will become, as it were, climate refugees." The Grata Fund financed the case, which was modelled on a successful case from the Netherlands. Its executive director and founder, Isabelle Reinecke, said they were "just getting started". "Last night I think [there] was a lot of defiance and anger and grief and I now just actually feel a strong sense of hope," she told the Indigenous Affairs Team. "We've seen outpourings of solidarity from around the country and I know the community are feeling strong and this is just the beginning of the next chapter." She said the court made "strong statements of fact". "I also have hope, because the court did not say that accountability is impossible under the law, it just said that it is not ready yet and so I have a lot of hope that the law will and can develop," she said. "The findings of the court were extraordinarily strong on the facts and the uncles are still considering an appeal, so that journey is not yet over." She said the fact that legal change could be slow was evidenced by the Mabo case, led by Meriam man Eddie Koiki Mabo, which spent 10 years in the courts. She said the team was pleased to see the government's response to Tuesday's decision included a commitment to "adapting to climate impacts", and she called for the government to commission a study into what those adaptation measures could be. The judge was highly critical of climate targets set by the Coalition in 2015, 2020 and 2021, finding they did not "engage with or give real or genuine consideration to the best available science". Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Dan Tehan defended the previous government's record and said in a statement that in 2021–22 "emissions were down 28 per cent on 2005 levels, exceeding our international commitments." "Labor is yet to explain credibly how they will achieve their targets and how much it will cost, without fudging the numbers," he said.

Court finds no duty of care owed to Torres Strait Islanders over climate change
Court finds no duty of care owed to Torres Strait Islanders over climate change

ABC News

timea day ago

  • Politics
  • ABC News

Court finds no duty of care owed to Torres Strait Islanders over climate change

The Federal Court has found the Commonwealth does not owe a duty of care to Torres Strait Islander peoples to protect them from the impacts of climate change or fund adaptation measures. Judge Michael Wigney ruled Australia's greenhouse gas emissions targets are matters of "core government policy" which should be decided by the parliament, not the courts. "My heart is broken for my families and my community," Guda Maluyligal traditional owner Uncle Pabai Pabai said after the decision was handed down. The judge also rejected the Torres Strait Islanders' claims that their cultural loss should be compensated under negligence law. Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai — from the islands of Saibai and Boigu — brought the case and travelled almost 900 kilometres from their ancestral homes to the Federal Court in Cairns to hear the outcome. Despite the finding, the judge also said the Uncles had proven many of the factual elements of their case, including that Australia's emissions targets between 2015 and 2021 were not consistent with the best available science to hold global temperatures to 1.5 degrees. He found the Commonwealth "did not engage with or give real or genuine consideration to the best available science" when setting those targets. The judge said the Torres Strait Islander peoples' case did not fail because there was no merit in their allegations, but rather because negligence law does not allow compensation for matters of government policy. Supporters wearing colourful dresses gathered in a separate room in the courthouse to watch the judgement, singing songs from their homeland, and waving Torres Strait Islander flags. Judge Wigney acknowledged the Torres Strait Islands "have in recent years been ravaged by the impacts of human-induced climate change … rising sea levels, storm surges and other extreme water level events". "The Torres Strait Islands and their inhabitants are, however, undoubtedly far more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than other communities in Australia," he said. "There could be little, if any, doubt that the Torres Strait Islands and their traditional inhabitants will face a bleak future if urgent action is not taken to address climate change and its impacts." This is the first time an Australian court has ruled on whether the Commonwealth has a legal duty of care to protect their citizens from the impacts of climate change, and whether cultural loss from climate change should be compensated. The landmark litigation has been financed through the NGO the Grata Fund, and modelled on a successful case from the Netherlands. As part of the case the Federal Court visited the islands of Boigu and Saibai, about 6 kilometres from the shores of Papua New Guinea, and Badu. Evidence of coastal erosion, destruction of ancestral graves and soil salinity that prevents crops from growing was presented to the court. It also heard of extreme weather events, including storms that cause intense flooding and inundate the islands, which lie at just 1.6 metres above sea level. The court heard sea levels in the Torres Strait were rising at double the rate of the rest of the world and that inaction on climate change may cause irreversible impacts for First Nations people in the Torres Strait. The plantiffs' legal team argued the Guda Maluyligal people risked losing their culture if rising sea levels, caused by climate change, forced them to leave their homes. The court heard breaching the 1.5 degrees global emissions limit would cause irreversible damage to small and low-lying islands, including those in the Torres Strait. Judge Wigney said today's findings "should not be construed as somehow sanctioning or justifying being the unquestionably modest and unambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets that were set by the Commonwealth in 2015, 2020 and 2021". "Unless something is done to arrest global warming and the resulting escalating impacts of climate change, there is a very real risk that the applicant's worst fears will be realised and they will lose their islands, their culture and their way of life, and will become, as it were, climate refugees," he said. This is not the first time Torres Strait Islanders have taken the federal government to court over their long connection to Country. The decade-long Mabo case led by Meriam man Eddie Koiki Mabo dispelled the legal notion of terra nullius — land belonging to no-one and recognised the land of his people. It also led to the development of the Native Title Act.

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