ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
As the Prime Minister returned home from the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu last week, in his briefcase was a copy of the historic She’ll Be Right Agreement on Climate Change. The only signature on it was his own.
ScoMo, the Prime Minister, drafted the key points of the agreement in his head as he took a slash after the Pacific Leaders Luncheon on Thursday.
Most of what’s in the landmark agreement is unknown but a few of the more important ideas have since come to light.
One of them being the creation of a new protection visa for citizens of Pacific Nations displaced by climate change.
The other being that Fiji will remain the choice holiday destination for our nation’s swelling aspirational class – ushering the end of the Bali era.
Nevertheless, the gist of the Agreement is that the current status quo of simply not worrying about climate change is how things are going to continue into the foreseeable future.
The Advocate spoke to Mr Henry Puna, Prime Minister of the Cook Island, about his refusal to sign the agreement.
“I don’t know who the ‘she’ was the Agreement was referring,” he said.
“But she is not right, nothing is right about that Agreement. There was a part on it about how we Cook Islanders would be allowed to move to a regional part of Australia if our home is destroyed by climate change,”
“Who would trade an island in the South Pacific for a place like Dalby or Wangaratta? Nobody,”
“The whole thing was disappointing and I hated it. Thanks for calling.”
More to come.
