Climate change first order issue of Australia's pacific neighbours: opposition leader

The plight of climate change on the small island nations of the Pacific is being highlighted by Australia's opposition Labor party in an effort to increase pressure on the government to take action at the Paris climate talks in December.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Peter O'Neill met with opposition leader Bill Shorten in Port Moresby on Monday to discuss climate change and other issues including PNG's refugee resettlement policy and the future of the Pacific nation that is crippled by falling revenue from severe drought and the rout in global commodities.

Shorten cautiously welcomed PNG's new resettlement policy that allows refugees from Australia's immigration detention center on PNG's Manus Island to work and "where appropriate", re-settle, but warned Australia's government must actively provide support to make it happen.

Asylum seekers wishing to reach the Australian mainland have instead been controversially shipped to one of two Australian-run immigration detention centers on PNG's Manus Island and the small Pacific nation of Nauru, in a policy adopted in 2013 to curb asylum-seeker boat arrivals.

It is understood PNG Foreign Minister Rimbank Pato pressed the importance of Australia taking the lead to articulate the Pacific's stance on climate change at the upcoming Paris talks in December in an informal meeting with Shorten's delegation on their arrival into Port Moresby on Sunday.

"The message I'm already getting loud and clear is that climate change is a first order issue for our neighbours and we need ... Australia to have serious policies, credible policies which will help to contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change in our region," Shorten told Australia's national broadcaster on Monday.

The smaller pacific nations have been vocal opponents to the snail's pace of reform to the global climate policies, seeking an agreement to limit warming to a 1.5 degree Celsius rise, fearing their islands will be swallowed up by the eventual sea-level rises if a two-degree increase is agreed.

"We in the Pacific did not cause climate change, but we suffer because of it," O'Neill told the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders summit in September that was dominated by climate change.

It has been reported the small island nation of Kiribati has bought land in Fiji in case the country must evacuate and that seawater is encroaching on grave sites in the Marshall Islands.

The delegation is hoping the significance of the opposition's visit will not be lost on the Pacific nation which see's closer ties to PNG as an integral part of its foreign policy.

Shorten dismissed claims the visit is an effort in capitalise on perceived tensions between the Pacific nations and Australia's government after Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton joked about water lapping at the doorstep of their homes only days after former PM Tony Abbott returned from the PIF leaders summit.

"Having Liberal Ministers making a joke about climate change, especially when rising sea levels are threatening the livelihoods and homes of our neighbours, was incredibly poor taste," Shorten said.

"But Labor doesn't get distracted by Liberal gaffes."

Shorten's delegation will now travel to the Marshall Islands and Kiribati where the climate change becomes more intensely focused.

Meanwhile Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific Steve Ciobo will travel to Fiji and New Caledonia and Niue. Endit