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Scott Morrison’s appointment of Alex Hawke as both Assistant Minister for Defence and Minister for International Development and the Pacific is an indication that the prime minister believes Australia’s national security extends across the Pacific islands region. But securing the region is not only about strategic denial and increasing aid. The combination of responsibilities Hawke holds could be highly effective in pursuing Australia’s interests – if the government acknowledges that climate change poses a grave security risk not only to Pacific states but also to Australia and the rest of the world. An assistant defence minister who is comfortable talking about climate change as a threat to security and who can mobilise more Australian and international assistance for mitigation, adaptation and resilience will win friends and trust in the Pacific. The Australian government could then build on that trust to have more serious conversations with island leaders about how the region can manage the growing influence of China – conversations that involve listening to leaders’ concerns and sharing Australian evidence of the adverse impacts of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. Without a radical new global approach to handling the climate emergency, the Pacific islands will never be secure – and Australia and the region will be dealing with a crisis more dangerous than the threat from Beijing. • 50 AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS
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NO DISTANT FUTURE Climate change as an existential threat Katerina Teaiwa The office of Nei Tabera Ni Kai (NTK), a film unit based in the town of Bairiki, in the small island nation of Kiribati, is a small concrete building situated two metres above sea level, thirty metres from the lagoon on one side and forty-­five metres from the ocean on the other. Stacked under the louvered glass windows of one of its small rooms are 200 internal hard drives taken from computers over a period of twenty years. The office has no air conditioning, and the air is salty; there are regular electricity blackouts; and higher than normal wave surges, or “king tides”, threaten the town – and the whole southern end of the atoll, South Tarawa, on which it is located – more frequently than they used to. Once a Kiribati household name, NTK has not worked on major projects for a couple of years. One of the co-founders, John Anderson, cameraman and editor, passed away in 2016. His long-­time partner, producer, manager and scriptwriter Linda Uan, has been dealing with N o D ista nt Future 51

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NO DISTANT FUTURE

Climate change as an existential threat

Katerina Teaiwa

The office of Nei Tabera Ni Kai (NTK), a film unit based in the town of Bairiki, in the small island nation of Kiribati, is a small concrete building situated two metres above sea level, thirty metres from the lagoon on one side and forty-­five metres from the ocean on the other. Stacked under the louvered glass windows of one of its small rooms are 200 internal hard drives taken from computers over a period of twenty years. The office has no air conditioning, and the air is salty; there are regular electricity blackouts; and higher than normal wave surges, or “king tides”, threaten the town – and the whole southern end of the atoll, South Tarawa, on which it is located – more frequently than they used to.

Once a Kiribati household name, NTK has not worked on major projects for a couple of years. One of the co-founders, John Anderson, cameraman and editor, passed away in 2016. His long-­time partner, producer, manager and scriptwriter Linda Uan, has been dealing with

N o D ista nt Future

51

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