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

Well, they're different jobs—to be held by a cabinet minister concurrent with their duties. Last year's COP president was Mukhtar Babayev, who was the minister for the environment of Azerbaijan. The president of the COP I went to was Minister Shoukry, who continued in his role in the Egyptian cabinet while being president of the COP. To suggest that this is a full-time job somehow is a complete and utter invention. It's a fantasy. You can say it as many times as you like; it doesn't make it true.

The Leader of the Opposition was asked this morning by Kieran Gilbert, 'Isn't it good that Australians have a seat at the table and can chair some of the important international talks?' and the Leader of the Opposition replied: 'No, it's not Kieran. No, it's not.' But Kieran Gilbert—it's not the first time he's interviewed a member of the coalition frontbench about COP, because he and interviewed the gentleman who asked me the question in 2021. On that occasion, the now shadow minister said:

As a previous diplomat who went to a COP in Buenos Aires, I can tell you Australia plays a leading role in seeking agreement and getting all countries to play their part in reducing emissions, and we'll continue to play that role.

So I have no problems whatsoever engaging with my fellow minister when he was defending COP. My predecessor as minister for energy also attended COP. The member for Hume gave a speech. Was the speech in Canberra or Sydney or Goulburn? No. It was in London. He said: 'Importantly we recognise that we cannot achieve all this alone and that international collaboration—

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