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COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF – TORRES STRAIT CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER TO WITNESS KING TIDES IN LATE JANAURY 2010

For Immediate Release 11 December 2009

In an increasing effort to try and get the Australian and Queensland Governments to commit immediate tidal inundation funding assistance to stricken Torres Strait communities the Chairperson of the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) Mr John Toshie Kris is now calling for the Prime Minister to visit the region during the up-coming king tides in January 2010.

In response to recent media claims that the Torres Strait is being abandoned by both the State and Commonwealth Governments in terms of funding for the impact of tidal inundation, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong and Minister for Environment Peter Garret have all admitted this week that it is an issue for the region, but have not committed any tangible funding to assist the stricken communities, instead referring to the numerous Government Reports that substantiate the serious of the issue.

“Our effected communities require $22 million and maybe the reports referred to by the Prime Minister and Ministers Wong and Garrett can be used to fill the sand bags for the king tides in January while we wait for some real assistance, Mr Kris said.

The Chairperson also said that to ignore this issue would result in a national threat to Australia.

“The decreased security and international border patrol service provided by these Torres Strait communities, as well as the real probability that thousands of impacted PNG citizens will flood the region when their Western Province villages go under water will end up costing the Government more than $22 million in the long run.

“We know there are pots of money sitting in Canberra, and it is unreasonable that we are expected to accept this situation when hundreds of millions of dollars go to our Pacific neighbours. It all seems to go back to our original argument - how can the Australian Government give hundreds of millions of dollars to our South Pacific neighbours to help them deal with this problem, when in their own backyard they won’t give us the funding we require to deal with exactly the same issue?”

“While the people of the Torres Strait appreciate that analysis and reporting has to take place to justify spending public money, there have now been many reports and submissions made over the last 12 months, and still no tangible offer of funding has been made. The findings of the Climate Change Inquiry report identified issues of national security impact should these islands be inundated.

“If our plight is of such concern to the Prime Minister I now call upon him and various Ministers to see for themselves the impact the king tides have on our communities,” Mr Kris said.

The king tides are scheduled to occur in January 2010, and communities on Saibai, Boigu, Iama, Masig, Poruma and Warraber are bracing themselves for the worst.

END

For further information contact Rebecca Murphy
ph 0429 039 560 email rebecca.murphy@tsra.gov.au