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Australian minister's 'lapping' waves quip falls flat after climate talks
Leaders attend the official opening of the 46th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Port Moresby on Thursday
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Leaders attend the official opening of the 46th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Port Moresby on Thursday. The 16-nation grouping consists mainly of small island nations, together with Australia and New Zealand, with the two developed nations being accused of dragging their feet on climate change. (AFP/Ness Kerton) (PIF) in Port Moresby on Thursday. The 16-nation grouping consists mainly of small island nations, together with Australia and New Zealand, with the two developed nations being accused of dragging their feet on climate change. (AFP/Ness Kerton)
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span class="inline inline-center">Leaders attend the official opening of the 46th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Port Moresby on Thursday. The 16-nation grouping consists mainly of small island nations, together with Australia and New Zealand, with the two developed nations being accused of dragging their feet on climate change. (AFP/Ness Kerton)
An Australian minister's quip about "water lapping at your door" after talks with Pacific island leaders concerned about rising sea levels was criticized Friday as a "bad joke" which could horrify regional neighbors.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton made the comment to Prime Minister Tony Abbott -- who had just returned from the Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby -- as a meeting on refugees ran late.
Dutton said the event was running to "Cape York time", a reference to the remote Aboriginal area in Australia's far northeast where Abbott recently visited, to which the prime minister replied: "We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby".
"Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to be, you know, have water lapping at your door," Dutton added.
Footage from media which had been invited to cover the start of the meeting shows Abbott laughing somewhat awkwardly at that comment before Social Services Minister Scott Morrison points out the sound boom microphone above their heads.
The Pacific Islands Forum, a 16-nation group of mainly small island nations, some of which are susceptible to rising sea levels, wrapped up this week with leaders agreeing to disagree.
The smaller nations wanted to use the meeting to send a clear message to climate talks in Paris in December that the average global warming should be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
But regional powers Australia and New Zealand refused to commit to that target, which is tougher than the UN mandate for no more than a 2.0-degree rise.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters said Pacific leaders, particularly those who believe their islands are in danger of inundation from climate change, would be unimpressed.
"I think our regional neighbors are going to be utterly horrified at the disdain that our prime minister has shown them," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten echoed comments made by United States President Barack Obama earlier this year that "any leader who treats climate change as a joke isn't fit to lead".
"It was a bad joke by a minister who is a bad joke," Shorten told reporters.
Dutton has refused to explain what he meant by the comment, saying only it was a "private conversation with the prime minister".
"I don't intend to comment publicly on that," he said.(++++)
