ACLF 2021 – Renewal in the Pacific

good morning i'm dr cheval mcdonnell from the crawford school of public policy and i'm co-chairing today's session on renewal in the pacific beyond covert challenges charting new horizons today i'm joining you from canberra the land of the nanawala nambri people our australian audience joins us from many different parts of the country and today we acknowledge and celebrate the first australians on tradition on whose traditional lands each of us meet i pay my respects to elders past and present and i'd like to thank you for joining us for our panel discussion today across the pacific we've seen the region face challenges not only of extremely high rates per capita of coverage in some countries including fiji french polynesia and growing numbers of cases in png timor-leste and guam all countries across the pacific have restricted travel and many have seen marked downturns in their economies as a result developing responses to covert were occurring in 2020 at the same time that many countries were impacted by tropical cyclone herald the second category 5 cyclone to hit the western pacific in the space of five years so in this panel we will reflect on these challenges the experience of living with these challenges and what they've meant in the pacific how are specific countries working to keep their people safe and to create economic pathways for renewal how could us how can australia help in this space and how have we been helping can we set a new agenda for regionalism and how can we move forward on climate change these and other important regional issues are going to frame our discussions today so i'd like to introduce our eminent speakers to you today we have senator zed saselja the minister for international development and the pacific her excellency hinari patana the high commissioner for samoa his excellency robert sasillo high commissioner for the solomon islands and his excellency sampson faring high commissioner for vanuatu so i'd like to begin and open up our our first question to the panel i like to ask each of our high commissioners because i don't think this gets enough coverage in australia um to really reflect on what their country's experience has been like during this period of covert 19. perhaps each of them could really just spend three minutes um describing that experience to us as an opening uh perhaps scenario if you could go first that was right well thank you very much siobhan i'm absolutely delighted to be able to be one of the participants this morning with the honorable minister as the government speaker may i also add my own comments in paying my respects to the traditional leaders of the uh land of naganoman and naganbri people are both present past and emerging um some more i would say was one of the first to actually lock down and that was because we were just coming out of a measles epidemic in late 2019 when the covet first came on and so the immediate response was just to lock down and contain the whatever was going to start coming in i think we already had a first case that had actually entered somewhere and that triggered off a lot of of safety mechanisms so what did it mean you know like everybody else normal the normal life that you live you know day to day suddenly changed in terms of um orders that were you know proclamations about what you can do where you can go um but the immediate well both medium to long-term effect from then was of course the contraction of the economy um you know the decline in gdp growth at the same time increasing budget deficit um luckily the key essential services were not affected because the government decided to focus on that it helps us especially and immediately they went into a national emergency committee to coordinate everything that was had to be coordinated and what i think the outcome of this is looking at uh you know from the duration of this and the mutating virus still spells a lot of unpredictability for all of the small island countries especially as small open economies and price takers and right now with the global impact of the pandemic nobody knows how this is going to pan out but you know debt stress is probably one of those things we did have a stimulus package that we um actually introduced in the first budget uh 2019-2020 and again in this budget but unfortunately we also had elections and the political uncertainty for about four months and the outcome of which now we will see some uh by elections so it it'll just add to the cost and i think the real effect of that stimulus package uh is highly questionable now because of all of these factors coming into play but what is the positive side for samoa samoa is probably one of the only one of the countries that is called free at present because excuse me we're locked down and we lock down hard and we continue to do that and because of that uh we also would like to thank our development partners who came to the rescue with the vaccines and the roll out has been pretty good um at present we're hitting a rate of um close to 80 percent for the first jab and close to 50 for the second jab and so if that momentum is carried uh we would probably be good for the rest before the end of the year and i think we can then probably be much more hopeful in terms of the travel bubble and so the health sector continues to be a primary focus in that um so i think our most immediate concern and need would be to look at that vaccine rollout i mean we're now talking in new zealand in australia new zealand of boosters and if it did come to that i think all of us island countries of the pacific are still vulnerable and would certainly look to where we can continue to have that assistance because that is the key to everything else if there are other areas that we would like to see australia sort of look at in terms of economic recovery to assist us there then australia has to be commended for a lot of the assistance that went into not just covet but the economic recovery by way of readjusting its economic it's a aid program particularly in terms of financial financial assistance and also are targeting special sectors that had been prioritized by government with respect to the business sector running again alongside that stimulus package that the government has also put out and i think we would certainly look to two things because these are the two sectors that have been affected uh that's agriculture and tourism and we would certainly look to first of all australia seeing to the implementation of the pacer plus and of course the continuation of the labor mobility schemes so i will stop there for and give the opportunity to my other colleagues thank you yeah thank you there's a lot really in there um a whole range of issues so i'll pass now to his excellency robert sisilo thank you thank you uh ceo i i liken the kobe 19 pandemic to a big dark cloud that has descended on our countries and to protect our people on our our weak health systems are we like some worlds are close to our borders and imposed conditions via declarations of state of emergencies and lockdowns to slow the spread and contain the virus as a result i think many local businesses have to close down or scale down their operations and has had a negative effect on the national economy and of course high unemployment rates and with many in the formal sector laid off there is a sharp increase now in poverty rates with many families finding difficult to make ends meet under the current circumstances but like every play black cloud covered 19 now they have some silver linings uh without income starting a lot of families across the region not taken to subsistence farming to stay alive in the case of solomon islands a lot of people went back to their home islands and villages to sustain themselves so it is basically our rural people who have helped sustain our economy when we found ourselves in economic strife as a result there are now more investments in the cocoa and coconut industries and cover and we are now exporting cassava to uh australia something we didn't uh do in the past and hopefully uh by the end of this year if the commercial importation of cover kicks off then we look forward to have some of kava also landing here in the australian market so we can only look to ourselves and our own resources to help create a new economic future for our peoples but despite closing our london cnn borders i think we continue to work very closely with our development partners supporting our efforts to contain the virus and i think it has brought salmon islands and australia closer than ever australia has been of great assistance with vaccines it has so far sent 1 million coveted vats in those and pledged another 14 million over the next year and it has also committed a record aid to the region of 1.44 billion dollars in 2020 and 2021 and recently has also doubled the number of pacific workers in australia under the pacific labor scheme and the seasonal worker program bringing in an extra 12 500 workers so these are testimonies or cases you know of this silver lining and i think i have to acknowledge this and thank you minister zed and thank you australia thank you thank you thank you very much for those comments um and i'll now pass to his excellency samson fari um good morning uh good morning longing for everyone uh bonjour uh i i'm joining also my colleagues here to do today online to first of all acknowledge the traditional land owners of the land that i am on today they don't know all people i'd like to pay my respect to uh past present and future leaders and i also pay my respect to uh the traditional owners of the various lands that you are on today um good morning to honorable minister who is with us today we're very uh delighted to have you online today with us and i'd also like to thank anu for organizing this and giving me the opportunity to say a few words i think um a lot of similar issues that have already been raised by my good colleague from samoan the solomon islands about kovid and uh we would definitely i would like to join my voice in thanking australia for all the supports that they provide in terms of kovid package relief to us not only in terms of vaccines but also uh in terms of um the economic uh support recovery for kobe 19. um my thanks go also to other international partners that have joined force with australia as well to provide uh crucial supports to our people uh in vanuatu as you know vanuatu closed uh its borders last year in march and um and vanuatu's economy depend uh depends mainly on tourism and this has uh badly affected the tourism sector uh across the country um while we we still um we're still covered free and uh since the beginning of kobe until now we only had three cases um our economy is badly is badly affected by uh the closure of the international uh borders and which uh really triggers down into the local community as well um especially those that have relied a lot on tourism um i think looking at that uh the government has uh put out rapidly back home uh some stimulus package to support small businesses but uh again kovid got really all over us by surprise and that means that we have to come up with a lot of different uh innovative solutions to tackle the problem at hand um we i i'd like to also mention that the government has focused heavily on the agriculture sector and as you might know uh we've recently had our national agriculture week on the island of china and this was a success whereby uh we bring um a lot of farmers from across the countries to come and uh display their produce but also display their techniques on and and provide more of a i would say a platform where um people can come and and see how agriculture can actually be a benefit to uh the current situations in the country um on a number of issues uh that i'd like to raise uh in moving forward um i'd i'd like to say that uh vanuatu like other pacific island countries uh we've already faced with a lot of uh um a lot of negative impact of the climate change and so before kovid um uh the climate change has has already affected the economy of the country in terms of uh a lot of different um negative impacts that we've noticed in the country especially eurozone erosion of the important um you know uh infrastructure because most of our islands in the pacific the infrastructure are located on the coastal uh area and so this is a big one that uh we faced in the country but also displacement internal displacement of people as well because of the negative impact of climate change and so um adding to that kobe has uh definitely put another another layer of uh complexities in terms of uh the issues that climate change has already brought forward to us and so um like other pacific island countries uh our small and vulnerable economies have sometimes to uh uh either innovate or either sink and so uh vanuatu decides that you know we need to move forward and we need to find solutions when it comes to adaptation uh in terms of uh climate change but also in terms of recovery with kovit 19. um i'd like to uh also mention in terms of the different supports that we have received as well and how can we move forward in uh also implementing them i think uh looking right now as it stands right now um all the government stimulus obviously will come to an end and we will now have to think forward on how to make sure that we recover from discovery but we also look into the long term but uh looking into long-term means that comes with responsibilities but also challenges that uh are at hand and you know ahead of us i think um for us agriculture would be one of the area that we heavily invest in and we would definitely like to see partners such as australia to come in and um to find a lot of our numbers of our priority commodities that the country has i think um it would be also probably the same and i'm hearing my colleague from samoa was mentioned as well has mentioned agriculture sector as well and i think varmatu would look mainly into the agriculture sector as well in moving forward uh having said that we would also look into investment on people to people because we know that a lot of social issues that uh have reason kovit has brought into the country as well uh or some of the underlining issues that kovit has now uh making them important issues such as you know youth women marginalized community these are some of the issues as well that we would definitely uh look for support uh in supporting these people in adapting uh to that um in terms of the economy itself uh we've seen obviously vanuatu and continue to have the biggest number of seasonal workers coming to work in australia and that also contributes uh to the economy of the country and uh we're looking to continue this partnership uh in making sure that people are coming to australia and continue to work here and send rami tenses back home as well um i think i i heard uh someone mentioned in terms of the debt uh the debt relief as well the debt stress i think this is also something that is very important that we look into it as well uh as we know um and minister probably would touch a word on that but australia is also a member of the oecd countries uh and uh being a member of that uh definitely a member of that countries as well and so uh we're also probably advocating for debt reliefs as well and looking into different mechanisms for especially for small island developing countries how uh in the international community could support us in a better way uh as you all know vanuatu got out recently from the ldc's country and that means that you know getting out of the least developed countries um comes with responsibilities and challenges and that too a number of our small island in the pacific which are already uh out of that list also would uh probably face the same challenge as vanuatu and i think some of the uh debt relief strategies and mechanisms that we could also uh look into uh australia for some support in advocating for that and by by saying this i'm thinking mainly out and loud about the vulnerability index um that you know that our um well-being the economic well-being of a country should not only be measured uh based solely on its gdp but it could it should also take into account different factors as especially uh such as the impact of climate change that we've already seen recently the report from ipcc that uh didn't put the pacific island countries in a very good uh status when it comes to that so vulnerability index could definitely be one that we should also consider when we look at debt relief and uh you know in supporting those these small and vulnerable economies and so i'll stop here and i'll let the members of the panel uh say more stuff about this but i think this is really important to us that we look into this direction i think i i would like to raise uh sorry uh uh the chill i'd just like to raise one last word i think right now uh when i speak when i spoke about the agriculture i'm thinking mainly about kava itself and we're very much delighted that australia has uh announced or had announced previously about the commercial pilot on cover and we would definitely be looking forward to work closely with australia in speeding up the process of this commercial pilot to be to be coming into realization thank you thank you well a range of issues there we've heard about covert vaccines agricultural support obviously the seasonal worker pacific labor program um debt relief a whole a whole series of issues um i'd like to ask minister saselja how can australia best assist the pacific region given its special status as our family well thank you very much siobhan um and excellencies great to see you all um thank you for your contributions um i'm sorry we're not able to meet in person at the moment but i've enjoyed those discussions we have had in person uh in in recent months um samson can i can i say i'm i'm disappointed you chose to dress so conservatively today i was hoping that you might wear something bright and loud for us but uh you've gone very conservative so next time uh we'll go even further but um but look thank you siobhan for hosting and and thank you for the contributions i've been uh taking notes um but certainly since i've taken on this role in december of last year and and well before that um the government of course has been when we look to the pacific as we always do uh we've looked to listen to the needs and the concerns of our pacific family and and of course at this time um with the covert crisis and we've heard i think from our from our homes there about the dual nature of these crises um uh the health crisis uh and the economic crisis in the pacific that has been quite pronounced because uh you know as we know uh there have been parts of the pacific that have been completely covered free and done an extraordinary job uh in preventing the spread of this disease uh other places are battling outbreaks and battling those serious health impacts that come with that but all of them uh regardless of their covert status have suffered the economic impacts of uh responding to this virus and so when i think about what we can do going forward i the framework i think that the pm set out and the statement of principle that our prime minister set out some time ago when he said that we have a moral and economic responsibility to support our pacific neighbours in getting vaccinated and coming through this crisis has very much framed the way we've responded so whether that is in vaccine support and that's now around 1.7 million doses australian doses have gone into the pacific over two and a half million now into the region and of course many more to come but the vaccine support is not just about dumping vaccines by any stretch it is about delivering the vaccines that are much needed but providing the end-to-end support so we've backed that up with equipment we've backed that up with um with osmat teams uh where they've been required uh with other specialist support uh with testing equipment uh with logistics all of these things are important uh over and above uh that those much-needed life-saving vaccines and we've been partnering uh with countries in the region to make sure that we're able to deliver that the other area of course is the is the economic side of things and as as i mentioned earlier we know that for some countries that have been very very successful uh in controlling covert in some cases no covert uh though the economic impacts of those shut borders particularly on tourism rely on economies but beyond uh even that the economic disruption has been real and so our 300 million package that we announced was all about helping stabilize governments and economies helping them deliver social safety nets health uh making sure that uh air conductivity continued uh we've provided uh loans um on on top of those grants uh substantial loans that help stabilize government's responses and we've also been investing in the future and infrastructure that's important because that creates jobs now but also economic recovery and then we've also as as we look at other levels of support i think the other thing that's been really important for and it's been really mutually beneficial has been the resumption of pacific labor over 10 000 have come since september since we resumed and that has i think been a real lifeline for our farmers who are putting food on our table uh but also it's been i know very important to pacific island nations as those remittances are an important part of the economy and have become a more important part of the economy as other as other sources of revenue have significantly slowed down going forward i've certainly heard what our homs have had to say today at what their excellencies have had to say today and certainly issues around tourism and agriculture you know tourism if we look at if we look at government support it is absolutely dwarfed uh by how much australians would spend in the region uh in tourism dollars in an ordinary year and of course that has virtually completely dried up and so looking at getting populations vaccinated both here in australia and in the pacific and then looking at how we can safely start to travel again and you know uh qantas has announced flights uh going to places like fiji and that will go beyond i'm sure from about november december i think that's a great aspirational goal i think there's a lot of work to do at both ends to make sure that it's a reality that australians can start traveling to the region and people from uh pacific island nations can come to australia uh that'll be a great thing and the amount of money that flows in ordinary times as i say dwarfs anything that governments are able to do despite our record 1.7 billion dollar investment in the pacific uh in the last 12 months so i'll probably leave it there chair there is a lot to discuss there's a lot of important issues that have been raised but i know you've got other questions and i'm sure you'll you'll draw us out on that and i'm keen to hear more from our from our excellencies yeah thank you so much and you've touched on a range of incredibly important issues there i want i want to pull back into into one issue that keeps getting raised um and it's been raised by all of you today so far in the panel um and that is is this issue of of the pacific labor scheme so we've we've heard recently that the australian government's announced a new class of agricultural visas to secure additional labor on australian farms and that the visa will operate as a pathway to permanent residency um could this provide a pathway for economic renewal in the pacific so i'd i'd just like to open that up to the panel but obviously i think it's important to hear from you minister on on this issue would you like me to start siobhan and then yeah i think that would be helpful to others sure um look i think it's a very important pathway um the pacific labor scheme and seasonal worker program uh which has obviously been very very important for a number of years but as i touched on has become i think more important during this time because of the real economic impact particularly tourism but we know all sorts of other economic activity has been curtailed so we restarted it in september and since then over 10 000 have come from various pacific island nations into australia there's about 14 000 workers under the scheme in australia at the moment and our aim and our prime minister announced uh the intention to double uh the numbers that are coming in uh by about march of next year so that's another 12 and a half thousand from when that was announced so that's obviously a very substantial amount though those remittances are important as i say it's very important to our economy you you talk about uh the agricultural visa and there's been a lot of discussion about what that means for the pacific labor scheme and um i've made it clear and i'll reiterate and the prime minister's made it clear that our priority when it comes to um when it comes to labor in agriculture in particular but going beyond we are going to continue to prioritize the pacific labour scheme and seasonal worker program and in fact we're going through a process now where we are going to improve and streamline that process uh but that that those schemes will continue to grow we're going to build on those uh they are important to us and they are important to our our family in the pacific and we value those schemes for the for both of those reasons uh and so we put an absolute premium on it um there's no doubt though that our um that our agriculture sector is suffering from pretty significant shortages and so not only will we need to significantly boost the number of uh people coming through the pacific labor scheme but we will look for other ways and the agricultural visa is part of that of course we've we've seen issues around uh free trade agreements with the uk and some of the changes to the rules around backpackers which necessitated some adjustments as well so it's really important that our farmers have the workers that they need that's for our export markets but for also for australians to be able to get the food and fibre produce that they need but just to make it clear as we go through that process and we will be engaging with pacific island nations now as we go through a reform process to improve so we'll be listening to that feedback and of course some of that feedback will start today no doubt but uh the feedback on what needs to change or improve but that's very much the pathway that we've set out and it will be very a very important part of the economic recovery okay i'd like to open it up to some of the other panelists and thank you siobhan if i can just come in of course um i think um there is something to say about this pathway to um you know the resident permanent residency uh that's under the agriculture visa in some ways it you could say it's a double-edged sword for you know the pacific in terms of you know the strain of skilled and semi-skilled workers and especially those who will have been under the pacific scheme um you know for quite some time and have probably developed skills that would actually enhance um you know the hot whether it's horticulture or other forms of um sectors the sectors will be working in other forms of um of engaging in in invest in economic activity but i think to me yes the uh labor schemes are certainly you know part and parcel of um looking at economic recovery for the region and we've all been engaged with the government for quite some time now in terms of looking at this new roadmap on sustainable uh you know practice of the uh implementation of the mobility schemes i think if there's one thing i might like to explore with respect to the uh this pathway if there is a chance going into the future and we're talking now bringing in climate change with respect to uh climate refugees that might come out as a result of you know um uh rising sea levels uh you to value guillotine being the worst off at the moment um i think we're heading that way as we see the progressive impact of climate change of the pacific and that there is real concern that there will be you know climate change refugees and so if there is some way of looking at both medium to long term as to whether um the migration i mean the migration the labor mobility schemes can be seen as an instrument towards some way of facilitating into the future such a pathway um you know for not necessarily that but also pass a parallel way of looking to where uh australia and other nations could look at um accommodating uh the impact of climate change on the potential real threat of having refugees coming out of there thank you thank you and that was a position that was long put forward by former president another but also resisted by many other pacific leaders the pathway of climate refugees um any other yeah on the yeah on the new ag visa my only hope is that the terms and conditions of the ag visa will be exactly the same as the seasonal workers program and the pls visas and that the for the latter two to be fair if the option of permanent residency should also be uh uh given to the ladder too how and when that will further i guess it's a matter for each country to decide and also on the age limit i think the current age limit for the two schemes is from 21 to 45 i think our preference now is to increase it to 55 since a lot of our workers with the necessary skills are around that age and also in their experience and i'm sure a lot of employers would like to employ you know experienced workers who can take up senior management roles and only also on the current arrangements i think the swp and the pls are only confined to rural and regional australia maybe perhaps we should also start looking about opening up the urban and metropolitan australia where the demand for semi-skilled labor is uh is very very high uh i thought i'll just flag those uh issues for future consideration especially in terms of uh you know making these schemes uh very well but otherwise it's a very very important scheme and uh i'm sure it benefits both countries australia and solomon island so it's a win-win situation thank you all right and can i just uh come in quickly and uh and mention a few words around the uh pacific labor uh mobility but especially agriculture visa i think uh from our side um we've had a couple of uh meetings with the uh dfat in terms of uh you know getting more information in terms of agricultural visa i think what on way forward we would like to see more engagement uh with dfat in terms of uh the agricultural visa itself and i joined my colleague from the solomon islands uh uh by saying that if the terms and conditions could uh be uh exactly the same as ours and not making one more favorable to the other one and as we all know pacific labor mobility is so important to us to us pacific island countries but also with timor-leste uh that you know it sends uh important uh economic uh remittance back to our countries to support our economy um another thing that i'd like also to flag is in terms of uh uh we are looking also and we're engaging in terms of finding out more um in terms of uh um you know the remittance back to our pacific island countries anti-molester we we have some data on that we we know that some international organizations have undertaken some studies in that but we would also like to see also our contributions a specific family to australian economy in terms of knowing if some studies could be undertaken by a number of researchers that are with us here today online but also through eu minister uh if we could see some studies done here in australia to uh to value our impact in terms of the australian economy on how much in terms of the monetary value how much we contribute to the australian economy by being here in australia not only for our uh farmers that are so important to us because they put food in our plates but also to our rural towns as well in finding out how much of our workers how much of their savings or how much of their earnings are invested back into these rural communities that they live in and i think um it would be really important to to to look into that and moving forward and understanding you know mutual benefits to us as ministers mentioned it's so important to both of us because it not only contribute to our farmers um in ensuring that they put food on our plate but also uh in uh ensuring that we get the remittance also back to the pacific so i think my goal would be that uh the researchers that are here uh you know who could look into some kind of studies like that to uh evaluate the economic contributions that uh our pacific workers and timor-leste workers have contributed to the australian economy thank you thanks samson siobhan could i respond briefly to a couple of those points sure um so thank you on the questions around um and samson's call i think on on more study i think the department is always looking at these these kind of economic impacts but we've got a number of eminent people on this call so we can have more discussions about what potential research programs there are to to perhaps drill deeper on the specific issues that have been raised around age limits um i think that is something we're very carefully considering and we're very open to uh looking at potential changes to the age limits between 21 and 45 so that's something that i think we'll have more to say on soon um and also on the terms and conditions um that have been raised so we're very much proceeding on the basis so we've said we're going to reform pls and swp and those things those moves are coming but also with the ag visa we've said that it would it would mirror the kind of terms and conditions that we see with our pacific schemes and i think that's really important it's a really important point to emphasize because there's been a little bit of commentary uh even in the last couple of days that sort of suggested something quite the opposite not coming from the government but from some critics uh and so i would just make that point again uh that it's very much designed to mirror uh what we have and build on and complement uh not in any way undermine um and and ari makes the the great point about um you know if there was a pathway to permanency what does that mean from a brain drain perspective and of course that's where all of these steps forward will be done in conjunction and in consultation uh with our pacific neighbors so you know we would obviously be having those discussions and hearing uh from your governments about uh you know what kind of improvements you want and what are some things that you might be concerned about as well thank you okay thank you um it's been raised on a number of occasions already by the panel so i want us now to start um having a little discussion around these issues of of climate change um so the recent ipcc report has has put forward this um very clear scientific picture that over the next 20 years global temperatures are expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees uh of warming this has a number of very serious implications in the pacific including dramatic increases in sea level rise increased intensity of cyclones and declining availability of fresh water just to name a few pacific leaders continue to state that climate change remains the greatest threat to the future of the region and this is very important in terms of pacific island forum statements that have come out so the boy declaration for example kainaki lua the kainaki lua declaration so how in this context of of the challenges to regionalism um the the gentleman's agreement challenges that we've seen from micronesia how do australia and the pacific create a shared future with attention to the growing climate change impacts on the pacific countries but also to these kind of challenges attached to regionalism that we've seen over the last year so i'm pulling together these two issues now of climate change but also regionalism and i i open this now for discussion it's a it's a big warping maybe i'll step in and risk my neck on this one i think that um with respect to climate change i mean we all know the dire impact of that and uh we do respect australia for the standards taken on you know climate change with respect to the paris agreement and uh but at the same time i think that um there are still other areas that we could explore together and we've got the global you know fund environment fund and other financing mechanisms that the islands have fallen on in terms of seeking financing for adaptation projects to build resilience in the economy in their countries but if there's anything i think it has been raised and you see the pacific forum secretariat has been pushing this it's to look at also the possibility of a resilience fund now when crises occur usually it's more on a national basis rather than on an individual basis and most often the effects of assistance that comes in um even though it's administered widely by the government the trickle-down effects to those at the grassroots it's actually quite significantly less than expected so there's no real material impacts when the vulnerability of these people um is exposed um you know whether it's cyclones and flooding and that sort of thing so there's also a lot of bureaucracy involved in administering um funds and also the other side of the coin is that we in accessing some of these funds the amount of bureaucracy you know it's just too much and there sometimes have to be bring in capacity outside capacity to assist governments to design um you know projects that fit in um and yet we're talking about you know real lives being lost and exposed and so we the um secretariat had raised this about building in contributions from various development partners interested in building a resilience fund that could be tapped and go straight into these you know vulnerable sectors um at the grassroots when these things happen uh so that way at least you can say that at the end of the day you know don't just cover just about everybody but these vulnerable exposed parts of the of of the community thank you or stop there thank you so another another panelist who would like to make a contribution yeah um i'll take it yeah first of all the first question you posed about how do australia and the pacific create a shared future you know with the growing climate change impacts well i personally don't think australia and the pacific need to create a shared future they already have thanks to our geographical proximity historical connections including colonization trade and investment relationships education linkages and cultural exchanges so yeah we already have that shared future another leader's virtual summit just just last month on 6th of august they did reaffirm that climate change is still the single greatest threat facing the blue pacific and recommit to the goals of the paris agreement and that we are just a couple of weeks away from the cop 26 in glasgow and i am sure there are a lot of discussions now particularly among the biggest meters to the agreed target of net zero emissions by 2050 and to also increase their contributions to climate funds and here i must acknowledge australia's contribution of 500 million for climate adaptation in the region for the period 2020 to 25 under its technology investment roadmap to drive renewable energy i think that's something that we have to acknowledge and uh you know commend australia for coming up with that road map because that certainly would help in terms of meeting you know all our paris commitments and just uh last friday i was hurting to read in the canberra times that uh deputy prime minister barnaby joyce is leaving the door open to a deal with the prime minister on net zero emissions by 2050 so i hope by come the glasgow climate change meeting i think something possibly will come out of the political process here in the in australia thank you you yes hi question fari if you'd like to make a contribution sorry you're just on mute can you hear me now yes yes okay um thank you so much uh to the panelists uh but also for some of these great questions coming up uh i'd also like to add my voice in terms of uh the first question that you raised in terms of climate change um i think uh i'll join my colleague here by saying also that um um we already we're in this region together we're in this region as a family uh the vu valley spirit and i think we've we uh we have stressed uh on that partnership but also that family spirit a lot together and uh that also leads to the fact that um we're also custodian of this region and that uh we have to look after this region and that whatever that affects one member of the family could also uh uh affect the other member of the family as well so i think uh we've already seen that we have a lot of corporations already we work already closely together whether it be on economic uh economic lane but also in terms of education health uh infrastructure we already work a lot in and collaborate a lot in the in these areas but what i would like to stress on in terms of climate change um i would i would say that um i think i would like to see more about of transfer of knowledge between uh what the states and territories are doing in australia as well because i have visited uh this great country a number of times and i see that there's a lot of good uh mechanisms a lot of good uh examples of adaptation to climate change across different states and territories um in australia that we could also look into how to tap into that in terms of uh the transfer of knowledge to our pacific island country so that you know uh in the pacific we're mostly adapting to climate change we're not so much about mitigation but mostly about adapting so how can we adopt some of these mechanisms some of these good practices at the state and territory level in uh in here and then you know transfer of this knowledge back to our countries uh i think it would be great to see more of collaborations in terms of sharing of the knowledge but also sharing of the experiences as well uh another big thing that i'd like to mention as well is in terms of education because it's okay to transfer this knowledge back to the pacific in in terms of how to adapt to climate change but uh you also need to build the manpower as well in that across the pacific so education is also another area that we collaborate a lot on and so far i think we've uh most of the pacific island countries uh but especially you know our students coming to australia to study here we've relied a lot on scholarships um i'd like to see a further step into that as well in terms of how can we look into different partnerships in education in opening up the market in australia as well whereby our students can come and study these technologies here how students can be open uh you know can these technologies can be open to them where they can come and study here and get this good information about um all these transfer of technologies that i was talking about earlier uh and then you know bring those things back to the pacific and so maybe we could also look into a partnership where we could uh probably think of a moral of opening up a little bit of education system rather than um relying a lot on on on on scholarships for our people to come and study here by means of scholarships and as we know education can is very costly and so uh we could probably think of a model where we could relax a bit of the system where whereby students can come and study here and maybe um i'm thinking loud here but maybe you know paying the same um tuition fees as australians in providing them that support whereby you know it's an indirect support but in the long run it will help them because they will be then able to uh to uh to understand and to study and to get all this knowledge about technologies especially in terms of climate change and bring them back home but also um um i'm trying to go far here in terms of pay surplus as well we've seen this economic partnership with australia new zealand but also with us that means that we will also need a manpower that is qualified to handle that and in order to be able to handle that uh it's also good to look once again into the education sector in opening up these tertiary education in australia uh to our pacific island countries where they can come here and maybe uh probably pay the same price as new zealanders that come and study here rather than be considered as international students in australia so i'll stop here but i think the transfer of knowledge but you also need to build manpower behind that yeah thank you um so minister i'd just like to ask you minister cesar to offer a response to this question and then i'd like to open up to questions more broadly from the other people who are in uh in our discussion today to invite them to ask questions of the panel sure thank you thank you siobhan um look there's a number of things there and i'll briefly touch on them i think i think a number of the points has been made around commitment to the paris agreement um and so we take those commitments very very seriously um we've reduced our emissions by 21 uh since 2005. that's that's about double uh the oecd average so the average of developed nations i think that's important there's record investments at the moment as samson's touched on in renewable energy in australia so the take-up of solar is the highest in the world the take-up of wind is right up there so when it comes to renewables we are really investing record amounts when it comes to really dealing with some of the issues on the ground in the region we've put forward 500 million dollars for climate resilience funds in the region and that involves some really important things so it can be things as simple as schools being built in fiji to be able to withstand category 4 cyclones so obviously that is very very important as we've seen cyclones in recent times it can involve flood mitigation it can involve renewable energy in the region so we're seeing uh actual examples of and that has a win-win because obviously energy security is really important for the economy uh but if it's done also in a low emissions way we're then making that contribution in terms of our climate change goals and our emissions reduction goals um the point that samson made i think is really important just to touch on about knowledge transfer because one of the things the prime minister is our prime minister has said has been that um with two-thirds of emissions uh coming from the developing world uh and he has said he doesn't want to see the developing world held back through taxes what he wants to see is the world coming together to develop the new technologies so that economic growth can occur uh whilst reducing emissions right around the world and that's the that's the way we will see the goals of the paris agreement met is when all countries have that ability to have economic development uh as well as reducing their emissions at the same time particularly through energy and other areas so that technology roadmap is important and so knowledge transfer is important but siobhan just i know you combined two things with climate change and the voice of the region and regionalism just finally on that and i might bring those two together i mean obviously we're working very closely with our colleagues in the pif our micronesian colleagues uh you know pushing and encouraging everyone to stay together and and for example i think uh when we look at the issue of climate change the voice of the pacific together the voice of has been a very powerful one far more powerful than i think the voices of any of those individual nations would be and i would just say that that perhaps highlights the importance of finding a way forward uh of listening to the concerns that have been raised you know i've had many discussions uh with counterparts uh in micronesia and beyond about their concerns uh about what reforms might be necessary in order to make sure that uh that the piff can can continue in its you know with its current membership uh and perhaps with some reforms going forward so i think those two issues come together well that on on an issue that's that's very important to the region that advocacy has been loud around the world but i think it's been far more powerful because it's been quite a united voice fabulous so i'd like us now um to just uh please join with me on reflecting on um in spite of all the difficulties of joining together in these virtual spaces we've had this amazing insight into the pacific and and the fact that the pacific does reach into canberra in all these very exceptional ways um please join with me in thanking our panelists today and um the way in which they brought us this this very complex and um rich set of perspectives so thank you very much to all our panelists thank you to all of you for joining with us um and and really engaging in what i think has been a really a really fascinating panel discussion today so thank you very much to all of you

Channel: ANU TV

Views: 1

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: ANU, The ANU, Education, Australia, Research, Policy, Academic, University, The Australian National University, Higher education, degree, study, university student

Id: HXHRFgUFzlU

Length: 56min 8sec (3368 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021