Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to reports just published online by Fairfax Media headlined '"For the Pacific it's always about cash": Environment Minister in diplomatic incident over climate change'. These reports indicate that last night, when the Minister for the Environment, Melissa Price, was told the former President of Kiribati was in Australia to deliver a message on climate change, the environment minister told the former President:

I know why you're here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific it's always about the cash. I have my chequebook here. How much do you want?

Does the minister consider this to be an appropriate thing for a minister to say to the former President of one of Australia's Pacific neighbours?