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Miami Herald
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Indigenous Australians lose climate change case against government
July 15 (UPI) -- An Australian federal court ruled Tuesday that Indigenous residents of the Torres Strait Islands are not owed environmental protections from the nation's government. Justice Michael Wigney said in his dismissal that "changes wrought by the escalating impacts of global warming and climate change in the Torres Strait have had, and continue to have, a devastating impact on the traditional way of life of Torres Strait Islanders." However, he concluded that the case brought by island community elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai "failed because the law in Australia as it currently stands provides no real or effective avenue through which the applicants were able to pursue their claims." Wigney further explained that current common Australian law is not written in a way that the plaintiffs could seek relief in regard to what they considered a failure of the federal government. The elders, Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai, launched legal action in 2021 against the government for allegedly failing to protect the Torres Strait Islands from the impact of climate change. The plaintiffs charged that governmental negligence interfered with the completion of Ailan Kastom, customary practices unique to Torres Strait Islanders that relate to a spiritual connection to the islands and surrounding waters. "I thought that the decision would be in our favor, and I'm in shock," said Kabai Tuesday. "My heart is broken for my family and my community," said Pabai. There are around 4,000 residents of the Torres Strait Islands, with 90% who identify as Indigenous. Wigney concluded his ruling with a notation that any future, similar lawsuits will also fail "until the law in Australia changes." He then added that until it does, "the only recourse that those in the position of the applicants and other Torres Strait Islanders have is recourse via the ballot box." Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowenreleased a joint statement with the Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy Tuesday in regard to the case. The release noted ways the current government has attempted to deal with climate change, and that it "remains committed to both acting to continue to cut emissions and adapting to climate impacts we cannot avoid." As for Tuesday dismissal of the case brought by Pabai and Kabai, it concluded that "As the Commonwealth is carefully considering the detailed judgment, it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific findings while this occurs." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
15-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Indigenous Australians lose climate change case against government
Paul Kabai (L) and Pabai Pabai, seen here after the Federal Court of Australia decision in Cairns, Australia on Tuesday. EPA/BRIAN CASSEY AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT July 15 (UPI) -- An Australian federal court ruled Tuesday that Indigenous residents of the Torres Strait Islands are not owed environmental protections from the nation's government. Justice Michael Wigney said in his dismissal that "changes wrought by the escalating impacts of global warming and climate change in the Torres Strait have had, and continue to have, a devastating impact on the traditional way of life of Torres Strait Islanders." However, he concluded that the case brought by island community elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai "failed because the law in Australia as it currently stands provides no real or effective avenue through which the applicants were able to pursue their claims." Wigney further explained that current common Australian law is not written in a way that the plaintiffs could seek relief in regard to what they considered a failure of the federal government. The elders, Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai, launched legal action in 2021 against the government for allegedly failing to protect the Torres Strait Islands from the impact of climate change. The plaintiffs charged that governmental negligence interfered with the completion of Ailan Kastom, customary practices unique to Torres Strait Islanders that relate to a spiritual connection to the islands and surrounding waters. "I thought that the decision would be in our favor, and I'm in shock," said Kabai Tuesday. "My heart is broken for my family and my community," said Pabai. There are around 4,000 residents of the Torres Strait Islands, with 90% who identify as Indigenous. Wigney concluded his ruling with a notation that any future, similar lawsuits will also fail "until the law in Australia changes." He then added that until it does, "the only recourse that those in the position of the applicants and other Torres Strait Islanders have is recourse via the ballot box." Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen released a joint statement with the Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy Tuesday in regard to the case. The release noted ways the current government has attempted to deal with climate change, and that it "remains committed to both acting to continue to cut emissions and adapting to climate impacts we cannot avoid." As for Tuesday dismissal of the case brought by Pabai and Kabai, it concluded that "As the Commonwealth is carefully considering the detailed judgment, it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific findings while this occurs."
Saudi Gazette
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Australia wins landmark climate battle against Indigenous elders
SYDNEY — The Australian government has won a landmark climate case against residents of islands under siege from the impacts of climate change. In 2021, community elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai launched legal action against the then-Liberal government for breaching its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from the impacts of climate change. But a Federal Court judge dismissed the case and said climate policy was a matter for parliament, not the courts. The ruling also found that the government did not owe a duty of care to protect the islands from the impacts of climate change. The Torres Strait Islands - located between far-north Queensland and Papua New Guinea - are made up of about 270 islands, of which only a few dozen are inhabited. About 4,000 people live on the islands, according to the latest official figures, with 90% identifying as their submission, Uncle Pabai and Uncle Kabai said sea levels in the north of Australia had been rising "significantly higher than the global average".Between 1993 and 2019, sea levels in the Torres Strait rose by about 6 cm per decade, the court was court also heard that the islands are home to a "distinctive customary culture known as Ailan Kastom", where the residents have a "unique spiritual and physical connection" to the islands and case added that by failing to take greater action against climate change in its emissions targets, the islands' unique culture would be lost, and residents would become climate Justice Michael Wigney said that while he recognised the "devastating impact" caused to the islands by climate change, current negligence laws in Australia do not allow for compensation where the loss of culture, customs and traditions were the result of a government's acknowledged that while "climate change related flooding and inundation events had damaged their sacred sites and the burial grounds of their ancestors", matters of "core government policy" such as emissions targets was "ordinarily to be decided through political processes, not by judges".He did however recognise that action was needed: "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."For Uncle Pabai the decision was devastating."My heart is broken for my family and my community," he said in statement according to local media.A map shows the location of The Torres Strait Islands. They are inbetween far-north Queensland - shown on the bottom of the map- and Papua New Guinea, which is at the top of the map. The map shows Thursday Island which is the capital of the Torres Strait islands as well as a few more like Badu, Masig, Erub, Mer, Saibai and his submission to the court, Uncle Pabai - a community leader from Boigu island - described the deep spiritual connection he and other locals have with the land and waters, especially the cemeteries as "talking to my ancestors is a big part of my culture"."If Boigu was gone, or I had to leave it, because it was underwater, I will be nothing," he wrote in his court Paul, the other elder behind the court action, was equally stunned by the findings."I thought that the decision would be in our favour, and I'm in shock," he said."This pain isn't just for me, it's for all people Indigenous and non-Indigenous who have been affected by climate change. What do any of us say to our families now?"During earlier court hearings, Uncle Paul had described his childhood memories of Saibai in the 1970s and 1980s when it was a "land of plenty", with an abundance of barramundi and crabs in inland freshwater now, more extreme weather events and higher sea levels meant an increase in saltwater coming inland, and coupled with less rain, the higher salt levels in the swamps have made it impossible for fish and crabs to survive, he told the court about a seawall - built around 2017 - that was breached by a king tide in 2000, destroying crops and flooding homes."If the water keeps on rising, in the way it has in the last 10 years or so, the seawall will not be able to protect Saibai at all," he said in his submission."My country would disappear. I would lose everything: my home, my community, my culture, my stories, my identity. Without Saibai, I do not know who I would be," the court handing down his decision, Justice Wigney said that while the previous government "paid scant if any regard to the best available science" in setting emissions reductions, the new targets set by Labor were "significantly higher and more ambitious".In a joint statement following the court decision, Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, said they "understand that the Torres Strait Islands are vulnerable to climate change, and many are already feeling the impacts"."Where the former Government failed on climate change, the Albanese Government is delivering – because it's in the interest of all Australians," the statement Moodley, from the University of NSW's Institute of Climate Risk and Response said while the decision was "definitely a setback" for Torres Strait Islanders, it does not mean the law can not change."The reality is that Australian law will need adapt to meet the challenges of climate change," she told the colleague Wesley Morgan said the court's finding should also propel greater action from government on its climate policies."It must listen to the science telling us we need be ambitious as possible in the decade ahead," he said. — BBC
