WELLINGTON:
Influential Pacific island leaders have called for Australia to be ousted from
the region's main regional grouping, criticizing Canberra's
"neo-colonial" attitudes and refusal to take urgent action on climate
change. It comes after Australia was accused of muzzling leaders who wanted to
use last week's Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu to issue a global call for
action on climate change ahead of UN-sponsored talks in New York next month.

Australia's
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack then added further insult when he
dismissed the islanders' concerns and said they could "come here and pick
our fruit" to survive. Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga labelled
McCormack's comments "abusive and offensive", challenging Australia's
right to a place in the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum. "The spirit of
the Pacific way is not understood by these guys, I don't think they understand
anything about (it)," he told Radio New Zealand. "And if that's the
case, what is the point of these guys remaining in the Pacific Island Leaders'
Forum? I don't see any merit in that."

Sopoaga's views
echoed those of Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who over the weekend
described his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison as "very
insulting" and said China offered a more welcoming brand of diplomacy.
Australia has a complex relationship with its Pacific island neighbours, who
receive about Aus$1.4 billion ($950 million) a year in aid from Canberra. Despite
the generous handouts, Pacific islanders often bristle at Australian attitudes
to a region that officials in Canberra refer to as "our backyard".

'Difficult
conversations'

Sopoaga said the
Pacific Islands Forum row on climate change reminded him of regional meetings
decades ago, when "colonial masters" set the agenda. "We are
still seeing reflections and manifestations of this neo-colonialist approach to
what the leaders are talking about," he told RNZ. Canberra, alarmed at Beijing's
diplomatic inroads into the region, last year launched a charm offensive
labelled "the Pacific Step-up", aimed at bringing the islands closer
and forestalling any chance of a Chinese military base in the region.

But the divisions
over climate change exposed at the summit have proved deeper than expected,
driving a wedge between Australia and the islands. Pacific leaders view global
warming as an existential threat to low-lying nations requiring immediate
action, including a rapid transition away from coal, to save their homes.

Australia's Prime
Minister Scott Morrison concedes climate change is real but insists it can be
managed in a way that does not hurt the economy, including the lucrative coal
industry. Former Kiribati president Anote Tong, a long-time climate campaigner,
said China now appeared a better partner in the Pacific because Australia's
priority appeared to be preserving its coal industry, not helping to stop
global warming.

"It's really
about the lesser of two evils, I guess, and at the moment Australia is coming
up as the worst of the two evils," he told the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. "There's got to be a more respectful way of understanding
each other. It cannot be dictated by the coal industry in the background."
Tong called for Australia to be suspended from the PIF or sanctioned over its
climate stance.

Morrison
acknowledged there had been "difficult conversations" with Pacific
leaders but likened them to a family spat, denying there was any long-term
damage to relations. "Just like any family that comes around the table we
discuss all these things through... 
we've always been there. We will always be there," he told
reporters over the weekend. - AFP