The president of Palau has taken a swipe at Opposition leader Peter Dutton's past comments about climate change in the region, arguing that rising sea levels are not a "punchline" for the Pacific.
Appearing in Australia this week, President Sarangel Whipps Jr also urged the Coalition to back Labor's plan to co-host a UN climate conference on behalf of the Pacific, something Mr Dutton had previously called "madness".
Speaking at a renewable energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday, President Whipps said he had seen two-thirds of his tiny nation's archipelago disappear underwater during his lifetime. On climate change and the resulting rising sea levels, he said "'water lapping at our door' is not a metaphor or a punchline; It's our fear and reality".
The comment was seemingly a thinly veiled swipe at Mr Dutton, who in 2015, was caught on a hot mic making light of rising sea levels in the region.
"Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door," the then-immigration minister was caught saying alongside then-PM Tony Abbot.
Mr Dutton has since apologised for the remarks, arguing he had made a "mistake" amid a "light-hearted discussion" with colleagues in which he didn't mean to offend anyone.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has claimed Pacific leaders frequently bring up the 2015 incident, and Labor has attempted to highlight the growing discontent of many nations in the region towards the former Coalition government.
President Whipps, who was re-elected in November, also called for bipartisan support to host the Cop31 climate summit late next year. Last week, Mr Dutton said the conference would cost "tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars" and said it was "not something we're supporting".
"I saw Anthony Albanese catching up with an elderly lady and I hope he told her, she is struggling with the cost-of-living prices under Labor but the government is planning to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on hosting a COP process that will not bring down power prices and will sign a Labor government up to giving tens or hundreds of millions of dollars out to third party countries," the Opposition leader said.
A Lowy Institute survey found a majority of Australians say, "global warming is a serious and pressing problem" about which "we should begin taking steps now, even if this involves significant costs".
The financial aspect pushed by Mr Dutton was sharply rejected by Energy Minister Chris Bowen, and President Whipps told Guardian Australia "maybe they need to retool the math," and should look on the financial outlay as an investment.
"It's an investment in your Pacific brothers and sisters, it's an investment in ensuring that we have a healthy planet; it's an investment in ensuring that we build that Pacific solidarity and partnership that we need to have," he said.
The President said as the biggest island in the Pacific Island Forum, Australia needed to take a "leadership role," who he hoped the public would get behind.
"I know it's easy these days to look inwardly, and any dollar spent sometimes we think is a waste of money, and it's important that we scrutinise – but at the same time let's be fair and use facts and really weigh the benefits," he said.
The impact of Climate Change on small islands was the focus of the government on Monday, when Labor committed $77 million in funding for seawall structures and waste infrastructure for the Torres Strait in a bid to help boost climate resilience.
Torres Strait communities have the highest risks and lowest adaptive capacities of any Indigenous community to combat climate change due to their isolation and limited access to support facilities, a report prepared for the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering, and Innovation Council found in 2007.
Torres Strait Island Regional Council Mayor Phillemon Mosby said in the Torres Strait, "Climate change is real" and called for a "balance between traditional knowledge and science, and how can we maintain people practising ongoing kinship and affiliation to land and sea Country".
In March, the Prime Minister said Labor hoped to host a climate summit and he would have "more to say about that in the campaign", with the COP31 host city announcement likely to be made in November.
