Australia has a deplorable history with refugees, having lost all our national conscience and compassion at the hands of the Liberal government. With water levels rising due to global warming and climate change, we are slap bang in an area that will likely be the most affected. The Carteret Islands of PNG are already having issues including starvation and loss of arable land to a rising ocean . It is likely the 1,400 inhabitants of the islands will become the first climate change refugees.

The Moat

I first came across climate change refugees when I was about twenty in Greg Egan's brilliant short story, "The Moat" . Egan called them "environmental refugees". From the story;

Some Pacific Islands are losing their land slowly, year by year; others are being rapidly eroded by the so-called Greenhouse storms. I've heard plenty of quibbling about the precise definition of the term 'environment refugee', but there is not much room for ambiguity when your home is literally vanishing into the ocean.

PNG claims that the Carteret Islands hastened their problems by dynamiting a coral reef when fishing, but like Egan wrote there is not much room for ambiguity. The Carteret islanders have lost their gardens to the salt of the ocean and are often existing on just coconuts and fish.

Mr Molocai said his people could no longer eat most traditional foods. "The wild taros, the greens, the breadfruit, they don't grow any more," he said. "We just got coconuts and, when we can catch them, fish. All the gardens are spoilt. When the high tide comes in, all the saltwater goes in the gardens."

In "The Moat", the main character is a lawyer who works for refugees trying to get their applications through the bureaucratic process of government. His business is often targeted for graffiti by those who don't want the refugees in Australia, and would prefer they drown in the Pacific.

I spot the graffitist from a block away. ... [After a struggle] ... I lean against the gate.

'So tell me one thing.' I point at the wall [at anti-refugee graffiti]. 'Why? Why do you do it'

He snorts. 'I could ask you the same f**king question.'

'About what?'

'About helping them stay in the country. Taking our jobs. Taking our houses. F**king things up for all of us.'

I laugh. 'You sound like my grandfather. Them and us . That's the kind of twentieth century bullsh*t that wrecked the planet. You think you can just build a fence around this country and just forget about everything outside? Draw some artificial line on a map, and say, people inside matter, people outside don't?'

'Nothing artificial about the ocean.'

'No? They'll be pleased to hear that in Tasmania.'

He just scowls at me, disgusted. There's nothing to communicate, nothing to understand. The anti-refugee lobby are always talking about preserving our common values ; that's pretty funny. Here we are, two Anglo-Australians - probably born in the very same city - and our values couldn't be further apart if we'd come from different planets.

Egan's brilliance as a writer is not only his understanding of science, but also his cultural and social insights. In Distress he successfully both satirised and described the Australian cultural and anti-cultural elite as Professional Australians .

I would hope that if, or when, the inhabitability of Pacific Islands occurs that they are welcomed to Australia with open arms, rather than being discriminated against like we used to the Kanakas, and more recently the abuse of refugees at the hands of political outcomes, including re-election of the incumbent government.

The Australian Department of Immigration is a modern day governmental disgrace, that will sit as a stain on this country in the same way that government policy with the stolen generations has. People like Blainey need to be reminded that the "black armband" in Australian history comes from the government and government policy, not the Australian people.

PNG claims it doesn't have the money to relocated the Carteret Islanders, so make it easy for the Carteret Islanders to migrate to Australia, with full work and citizenship status. Those that choose to, can come to Australia.

More Reading on Greg egan

• Greg Egan
• Climate Change Refugees
• Refugees
• Professional Australians
• The Professional Australian: Peter Costello
• Climate Change Refugees
• Suburban Production