INTERVIEW: The Cocos Islands will soon become uninhabitable; but what happens to the residents?

A remote Australian outpost more than 3,000 kilometres from Perth, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are facing an uncertain future. Climate modelling predicts the low-lying atoll, home to around 600 residents, could become uninhabitable within 50 years. About 460 of those residents are Cocos Malays, whose ancestors were brought to the islands generations ago as indentured labourers by the Clunies-Ross family, paid in company-issued tokens. Despite that history, the community has preserved a distinct culture and way of life that endures today. Following a United Nations-supervised vote in the 1980s, the Cocos Malays chose to integrate with Australia. Since that time, it is the isolation that has helped preserve the islands unique cultural identity. In this extended edition of Weekend One on One, Federal Minister for Local Government and Territories Kristy McBain speaks with SBS’s Christopher Tan, following the release of the Government’s Coastal Hazard Risk Management and Adaptation Plan — the final report assessing the threats facing the Cocos Islands.