Hope for the Pacific - Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education

The Edmund Rice Centre for Justice is hopeful the election of Anthony Albanese as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister heralds a new era for Australia-Pacific relations. The Australian Labor Party has committed to policies that will be significant for Pacific Island nations including ramped-up climate action, boosting Pacific migration to Australia, expanding the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme and increasing foreign aid to the region.

The Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) works to promote human rights, social justice and eco-justice through research, community education, advocacy and networking. The priority areas are Indigenous People and Reconciliation, Refugees and People Seeking Asylum and Pacific Island people affected by climate change.

Founded in May 2006, the Pacific Calling Partnership (PCP) of ERC has worked tirelessly in partnership with Pacific nations to increase awareness of the negative impacts climate change was having on the peoples of Kiribati, Tuvalu and islands of the Torres Strait.   

“We are committed to listening to what islanders are saying about imminent threats to their way of life and helping to promote this important message in Australia and internationally. "

~ Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education

Corinne Fagueret is the PCP Co-ordinator at the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and has travelled to both Kiribati and Tuvalu in the Pacific. She has a special interest in community empowerment and grassroots campaigning.  In 2013, Corinne was awarded the Nature Conservation Council of NSW's Myles Dunphy Award for ‘most outstanding environmental effort by an individual’ and in 2014, she received a Pride of Australia Medal in the NSW Environment category.

The work of the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice is shaped by a commitment to the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice, the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Earth Charter.  The Edmund Rice charism espouses presence in that we are present among and stand in solidarity with those who are victims of any form of disadvantage, marginalisation and exclusion; compassion in how we respond with compassion, which refuses to accept global poverty and suffering and which awakens us to our responsibilities and compels us to take action; and liberation because compassion by definition demands action to address injustice and a strong commitment to justice is the foundation for a peaceful world

Since 2006, the PCP has been taking steps to help ensure that the voice of Pacific Islands on climate change is heard in the Australian and global community. Key focus areas include:

• The impacts of climate change on Pacific Islands, particularly Kiribati and Tuvalu

• Climate justice in the Pacific: climate change as a human rights issue

• Climate science

• Climate action- what you can do to help

• Eco-justice/spirituality

• Laudato Si, Pope Francis's powerful encyclical on sustainability and climate justice

• Cross-cultural awareness: differences between Pacific and Australian cultures

The new Labor Government has committed to increasing foreign aid to Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste by $525m over four years, as it follows through on an election pledge to “restore Australia’s place as first partner of choice for our Pacific family”. 

Labor has said it would “restore Australia’s climate leadership” and establish a Pacific climate infrastructure financing partnership to support climate and clean energy infrastructure projects in Pacific countries. This remains of the upmost urgency as leaders of the Pacific region have voiced following the weekend’s election results. Reactions in the Pacific to Anthony Albanese's appointment as PM have been voiced by H.E. Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati and Hon. Enele Sopoaga, former Tuvaluan PM, and can be read in ERC’s media release.

Along with increased climate action in the Pacific, the new Labor Government is planning to address Pacific economic challenges and ease Australia’s agricultural worker shortages by reforming the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme’s Seasonal Worker Program.

Labor said it would also establish a dedicated agriculture visa stream under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme, “creating a robust and sustainable four-year visa, with portability, strong oversight mechanisms, and protections and rights for workers”.

Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Commununity Education Director, Phil Glendenning in Tuvalu in 2019 on the acute threats posed by climate change to the Pacific region.