Desperate Straits

Islanders demand their birthright

THERE IS an element of The Mouse That Roared in the bid by Torres Strait islanders to secede from Australia. But Australian Prime Minister Mr Hawke and his Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Mr Hand would be unwise to treat the secessionists as characters in a comedy. The plight that confronts the islanders is no laughing matter.

For years the Torres Strait islands, which stretch from Australia’s Cape York to Papua New Guinea and are home to 25,000 islanders, have been exploited by foreign entre preneurs as rapacious in their way as the Vandals who sacked Rome. Island traditions have been sent reeling as the outsiders, greedy for the wealth that comes from the exploitation of prawns and pearls, rush headlong to riches then decamp, leaving behind broken promises, ruptured lives and a shattered culture.

In a sad indictment of Australia, the secessionist lead ers at present see little or no hope of things changing for the better so long as they remain annexed to the island

continent. They seek SAS billion compensation for “years of neglect” as well as the right to chart their own future.

Australia simply cannot afford to lose the islands. They sit astride vast oil and gas reserves and on the Pacific Ocean-Indian Ocean exchange current with its rich power generating potential. They also boast some of the Pacific’s most bountiful fishing, pearling and prawning fields. It is obvious, too, that the Torres Strait is an area of great stra tegic value to Australia.

For Australia to lose all this would be a disaster. For Australia to lose all this to another power would be a catastrophe.

The islanders, too, would lose much if they were to cut ties with their “mother” nation. Australia invests SA2O million a year in the islands and pays child and welfare benefits, so vital when a great majority of islanders are unemployed.

Neither Australia nor the islands can let this contre temps escalate. A resolution must be reached whereby the Torres Strait Islands and the islanders remain part of Aus tralia, but their national identity and culture can be re born and preserved and their interests safeguarded. If this means granting the islands greater autonomy, as well it might, it is a concession that would be a small price to pay for stability. n