The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C is a sobering reminder that Pacific Island nations could be wiped out by climate change, and that Australia and other polluter nations are standing idly by as the tragedy unfolds, said the Pacific Calling Partnership.

Australia looks to be withdrawing from the Pacific at precisely the time our Pacific neighbours are calling for increased and urgent involvement from Australia.

Climate change should be at the heart of any new Biketawa Plus regional security declaration, not any afterthought, according to the Edmund Rice Centre's Pacific Calling Partnership (PCP) initiative.

The Edmund Rice Centre has today expressed its grave concerns over reports that the Turnbull Government is considering a $400 million a year cut to the overseas aid budget. 

In late-February, ERC Director Phil Glendenning delivered the keynote speech to the Catholic Social Services Conference in Melbourne. Phil spoke about the deficit of leadership in Australian society, including in politics and the Catholic Church. He called for an honest and compassionate response by the Catholic Church to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which must include a fundamental shift in power relations. It is not good enough to say "yes terrible wrongs were committed, but the Catholic Church runs many schools, hospitals and social services".