Labor Charges Howard's Gvn. With Failure To Plan For Likely Climate Impacts- ABC AU

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in July said the military would find itself involved in more disaster and relief missions because of climate change and spend more time protecting the nation's borders. Federal Labor said such threats posed critical questions for the nation's strategic and capability planning. "Yet the Howard Government is still working off a Defence White Paper developed in the late 1990s and released in the year 2000, which takes no account of the implications of climate change,'' defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said.

Mr Fitzgibbon said a Labor government defence blueprint would put climate change at the centre of defence planning.

A human rights group said it was wrong to emphasise security ahead of helping climate refugees.
"The issue of displaced people and Australia's obligations to those who need our help has always been a humanitarian issue, invoking our international obligations rather than engaging the issue of border security,'' Project SafeCom spokesman Jack Smit said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government had pointed out there could be significant security implications of climate change during a United Nations Security Council debate earlier this year. "Of course it depends on exactly what happens,'' Mr Downer told ABC radio.

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22480317-29277,00.html