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

The Leader of the Opposition asked me about 'full time' and 'part time' and I'm more than happy to deal with that, because the position of COP president for the last 10 COPs has been held by a cabinet member continuing in that role. That's the way the position is designed: last year, it was Minister Babayev, the minister for the environment of Azerbaijan; the year before that, Minister Al Jaber, the minister of industry; before that, Minister Shoukry, the minister for foreign affairs of Egypt; before that Minister Schmidt, the minister for the environment of Chile; before that, Minister Kurtyka, the minister of climate change of Poland; before that, Prime Minister Bainimarama of Fiji was the COP president while he was prime minister; before that, Minister Mezouar, the minister for foreign affairs of Morocco; before that, Minister Fabius, the foreign affairs minister of France—all cabinet ministers who were COP presidents.

What cultural credence says that somehow they can all do it, but Australia can't? What we want is more influence for our country; they want less. They want less influence for Australia. How unpatriotic can you be? Why don't you want your country to have a bigger role in the world? Why are you so anti-Australian? Why can't you be proud that your country can play a leading role in international negotiations? This is a leader of the opposition who is so enthralled with 'Sky after dark' that she can't even know an international role when she sees one. (Time expired)

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