Torres Strait Islands

But unlike a national park or marine reserve, IPAs are voluntarily declared and run by First Nations people.

In the Torres Strait Islands, this new approach is helping combat the effects of sea level rise by giving community a role in how they adapt to climate change.

SBS travelled to Massick Island off Queensland's northern tip where key sites are already being lost to rising sea levels.

Yessie Mosby is walking along the southern side of Massick Island.

Uh, she said that she's had feedback about, uh, whether or not kids are learning appropriate Australian history.

And then she went on to say, "What the hell have they," Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, "done in this country?" And she said, you know, "It's been 60,000 years.

They never invented the wheel." Uh, she then went on to say, "What are we actually holding up here? A, a few rock paintings." And then further, and I think this is the thing that really upset the minister Malarndirri McCarthy, Pauline Hanson said, "They," Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, "are the most primitive race on Earth, and we're supposed to be holding them up and saying what they've achieved? They've achieved nothing." It's a s-

Anna

... quite an extensive quote that I'm reading out, but I think it's good to know the context.

And instead of trying to differentiate the Liberal Party from Pauline Hanson, the leader of the Liberal Party, Angus Taylor, just keeps following her deeper and deeper and deeper into the culture wars and just making sure that he's either a step ahead or at least not too far ahead.

Now, he's got a proposal to criminalise the burning or the desecration of the national flag, and I assume that's just for the Australian flag day, but not the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander flags.

And he also wants to enshrine in law forever that January 26th will always be Australia Day.

Now, someone should tell Angus Taylor that a law doesn't last forever.

And I guess that's a metaphor for the whole world that there's things going on in other countries because of climate change.

Or even in our own country, the Torres Strait Islands are going underwater from rising sea levels.

We've got glaciers collapsing on villages in Nepal.

And I mean, we're all... paying attention to it but there's so much more going on out of sight out of mind i had a

But, you know, it is this thing here with the Liberals.

They were in power for how long? They didn't do anything about that Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander thing in the curriculum, so every single subject It has to get filtered through that lens, which is, you know, a little bit tough in some subjects.

But, you know, it is interesting, though, just to go back to these councils, it's really interesting, because what you find here...

I don't know what it's like in Melbourne, Rita, but in Sydney, for example, many of the Western Sydney councils on Australia Day are going to be doing... much bigger things for Australia today.

But then you get a tragedy like the Bondi Massacre, predicted by many, including security bureaucrats and Australian Jews, and the public are rightly outraged, which is why One Nation's popularity has soared because Pauline Hanson has shown she understands...

We cannot tolerate intolerance.

Now, there's anger in Victoria with One Nation taking aim at Melbourne... ..with One Nation taking aim at Melbourne University for not flying the Australian flag on campus, but instead flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander...

I can't believe these people.

They see it as a symbol of colonial oppression or whatever they want to impose on it.

But as the Speaker and as a member of the Labor Party, Does it worry you then that at pretty much every press conference that one of your colleagues holds that you can barely see the Australian flag? I mean, there's the Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag.

They tend to be pretty prominently displayed, but you might get the Australian flag tucked in behind it somewhere.

But it doesn't have the prominence it did even 30 years ago at Labor conferences.

And I just did an image of the Treasurer.

There's an image of Richard Marles, the Australian flag behind them.

But then there's the Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag.

Look, I understand why they do it.

His interpretation?

If you'd like to come in on the 3rd of September, you're more than welcome to grab a Australian Aboriginal flag, Torres Strait Islander flag, or Old Trustee.

Okay, the flag day is for Old Trustee.

As for another Labor MP, this one's Susan Templeton, uh, Templeman, sorry.