Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

He's obsessed. There's a lot in that question and a lot I could talk about, but I'll deal with the latter part of the honourable member's question: because on this side of the House we do believe in engaging on how to deal with the impacts of climate change here and around the world. That's what we believe in. We believe in doing that domestically and we believe in doing that internationally, and that's what we were doing last week at the COP meeting. We believe that this is an important security issue in our region as well—in the Pacific and in South-East Asia. That's what we believe.

There is a genuine difference of view, it appears, between the opposition and the government on this question. We believe in engaging in the international conversation. We believe in shaping that conversation. That's what we were doing last week—negotiating, talking to the Pacific, talking to developed countries, talking about good design, talking about ensuring wealthy countries that weren't wealthy in 1992 are making a contribution, and making sure that the loss-and-damage payments are focused on the most vulnerable countries, countries in our region like Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa. That's what we believe.

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