George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

That is a question that, even from you, Senator Waters, is so ridiculous that I am embarrassed to hear it asked. But I will tell you what we are doing for Pacific nations and for our neighbours in the south-west Pacific in relation to the problem of climate change. We are spending over $50 million on climate resilience related projects throughout the Pacific: in Kiribati, in Fiji and in other Pacific nations. We are supporting national weather and climate services in 14 of the Pacific nations, and that is only a small proportion of the foreign aid budget of this country, which—as you should know, Senator Waters—is concentrated primarily in our region. Placing the focus of our foreign aid budget on our region is one of the reforms that this government has undertaken, and that is a lot more important than an unfortunate joke.