The federal government has defended spending $20 million (US$14.12 million) of taxpayers’ money on a global climate conference being held in Fiji, arguing Australia’s involvement is “critical to our nation’s future”.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has agreed to cover the costs of this year’s United Nations Climate Pre-Summit, despite the event not taking place in Australia.
More than $17 million (US$12 million) will reportedly be spent on event management, with a further $2 million (US$1.41 million allocated for broadcasting services and another $2 million (US$1.41 million) for resort accommodation.
Bowen has invited world leaders from the US, China, France, Japan, and the UK to attend, but none has confirmed they will come.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil defended the spending on Sunrise on Wednesday, saying Australia needed to be leading discussions around climate.
“This conference is about Australia playing a leadership role in determining the world’s climate future, literally shaping the question of the kind of Australia that my children are going to grow up in,” O’Neil said.
“Whether we like it or not, these agreements will help determine things like how frequent and serious natural disasters are in our country, the livelihood of Australian farmers, the extent of erosion that we see around our country.”
O’Neil said Australia was among the nations with the most to lose if climate change continued on its current trajectory.
“We’ve got a lot to gain if the world does the right thing and acts … we should be really proud that Australia is playing a leadership role in trying to guide the world on a better path,” she said.
Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash slammed the spending as an “absolute disgrace” while Australians struggled with cost-of-living pressures.
“You actually can’t make this up. Luxury resorts, luxury islands, you know, event planners, Chris Bowen spending taxpayers’ hard-earned money,” Cash told Sunrise.
“Australians are just sick and tired of the Labor government splashing around their hard-earned money while they struggle to pay their power bills, while they struggle to pay their mortgage, while they’re cutting back at the supermarket.”
Cash called on the government to focus on domestic priorities, including lowering household energy costs.
“They have an ideological obsession when it comes to energy at the expense of the Australian people,” she said.
“Let’s focus on getting energy costs down for the Australian taxpayer.
“And that is at the heart of the Coalition’s plan. Scrap net zero, get rid of Labor’s carbon taxes and ensure that the Australian people have affordable, reliable energy, not luxury hotels, resort islands and event planners.”
O’Neil rejected the criticism, arguing it would be “irresponsible” for Australia not to take a leadership role on climate change.
“We’re literally determining the future of our climate, how many natural disasters we have, how frequent and serious they are, how we support our agriculture and our farming industries in Australia,” she said.
“I understand people look at these dollars and it feels like a lot of money, and I really respect and appreciate that, but these are critically important conversations and we do need Australia to be at the front of the discussion.”
She said the conference was “critical to our nation’s future”.
“We have every piece of evidence we could want to show us that one of the reasons we’ve got issues with energy as a country is because the Liberals and the Nationals spent nine years with their heads in the sand, many of them denying that climate change is even happening when we can see it around us already.
“It is absolutely in our national interest to lead this conversation globally, and that’s what we are doing,” she said.
