Morrison’s ‘arrogance’ on climate blasted as Australia accused of ‘trying to destroy’ Pacific islands

Extract from The Guardian

Penny Wong

Labor says PM has trashed Australia’s standing as former Kiribati president urges review of Australia’s membership

Lisa Cox and AAP

Sat 17 Aug 2019 18.11 AEST First published on Sat 17 Aug 2019 16.35 AEST

Labor’s shadow foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says Scott Morrison has ‘undermined the Pacific step-up’ with his behaviour at the Pacific Islands Forum. Photograph: Sam Wundke/AAP

Labor has accused Scott Morrison of trashing Australia’s standing in the Pacific and alienating its friends at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, while a former president of Kiribati has urged Australia’s membership to be reviewed.
Anote Tong said the forum should consider possible sanctions or suspension of Australia for its continued “protestations” on coal and climate.
“What is the relevance of Australia’s ongoing protestations in the forum?,” he said. “If it’s going to continue with that line, it poses a danger to the other countries in that forum.
“How can you justify being part of a family and part of a group which you’re trying to destroy?”

Tong, who will be in Canberra next week, is an advocate for low-lying nations that are in danger from sea level rise. He said while other countries were scaling back their reliance on coal, Australia was doing the opposite and “at the same time, it is saying they’re a so-called friend”.
“Should there be sanctions imposed? I think that’s a question that leaders are no doubt asking themselves,” he said. “I think these things have got to be expressed. It’s not only in my mind, I’m sure it’s in everybody else’s mind.
“I’m surprised Australia is not seeing this, or they’re ignoring it, which is the height of arrogance.”
Labor’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Saturday that Morrison’s “arrogance” was to blame for tension at the summit. Her comments were in response to Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama telling Guardian Australia that Morrison’s approach during the leaders’ retreat on Thursday was “very insulting and condescending” and would push nations closer to China.
Bainimarama described the leaders’ retreat, which lasted for nearly 12 hours and almost broke down over Australia’s “red lines” on the climate crisis, as “probably one of the most frustrating days I have ever had”.

‘How can you justify being part of a family and part of a group which you’re trying to destroy?’: former Kiribati president Anote Tong. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“I gathered [Morrison] was here only to make sure that the Australian policies were upheld by the Pacific island nations,” Bainimarama said. “I thought Morrison was a good friend of mine; apparently not.”

Wong said Morrison’s “arrogance has done great damage to our relationships and Australia’s standing in the region”.
“He’s undermined the Pacific step-up and alienated our friends,” she said.
“It’s no way to treat our neighbours. At a time when we need closer engagement with our region, Australia’s PM has diminished our influence.”
Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, made controversial remarks on Friday that Pacific island nations affected by the climate crisis would continue to survive “because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit”.
“I also get a little bit annoyed when we have people in those sorts of countries pointing the finger at Australia and say we should be shutting down all our resources sector so that, you know, they will continue to survive,” McCormack told a business function in Wagga Wagga on Friday.
On Saturday, Labor’s climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, said the long-standing relationship with Pacific countries had been damaged by Morrison’s heavy-handedness.
“It just adds insult to injury to have the deputy prime minister of the country then say if you lose your home through sea level rise you’ll be fine because you’ll be able to access some job opportunities in Australia,” Butler said.
Labor frontbencher Jason Clare also criticised McCormack’s remarks, saying they showed the Australian government had lost credibility on climate change.
“If you want to have real credibility in a debate with our neighbours ... if you want to have the support of the region, then you need to demonstrate that you are taking climate change seriously,” he said.
The minister in assistance to the president of Marshall Islands, David Paul, wrote on Twitter: “As deputy leader of one country to another let me say this: the Pacific’s survival – and the Australian fruit industry – requires leadership on the greatest threat to our region and to the world. Unfortunately, $500m does not go very far when you are at risk of losing everything.”

Asked if Morrison’s approach might cause some Pacific leaders to look to China, which is locked in a battle for influence in the region with Australia, Bainimarama said: “After what we went through with Morrison, nothing can be worse than him.
“China never insults the Pacific. You say it as if there’s a competition between Australia and China. There’s no competition, except to say the Chinese don’t insult us.”
Vanuatu’s foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, told the Guardian that Australia had several “red lines” during negotiations that it refused to budge on, meaning Pacific leaders had to remove all references to coal, references to limiting warming to less than 1.5C and to setting out a plan for net zero emissions by 2050 from the forum communique and climate change statement that came out of the meeting.