Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question. The short answer to the question is that Australia has made a strong commitment to climate finance, including in the Pacific. That includes, between 2020 and 2025, $1.5 billion, with at least $500 million of that going to the Pacific. That's to directly answer your question. There are a number of other pejoratives in your question, some of which I'll seek to address. When it comes to the issue of climate finance, we will have more to say going forward. But when it comes to doing our bit, we absolutely reject the Greens' constant incorrect, inadequate assertions that we are somehow not doing our bit when it comes to climate change. We hear from the Greens constantly. They parrot it. They talk our country down, and they ignore the facts. When I'm speaking with Pacific leaders, we deal with the facts rather than the assertions that are made by the Greens. Those facts include that we have reduced our emissions by 20 per cent since 2005. When we compare that to other similar economies around the world, we are doing far more than our bit. When you look at countries like Canada, we are well ahead; when you look at the OECD average of wealthy nations, we are well ahead. We have reduced our emissions at a faster rate than places like the US and Japan and the OECD average.

The Greens might want to put forward this assertion, which is completely not based in fact—which is, in fact, incorrect—you might want to talk our country down when it comes to these actions, but whether we're talking to our Pacific neighbours or whether we are going on to the world stage more broadly, we have a proud record. We will do our bit and continue to do our bit and work with countries in the region and beyond to deal with these challenging issues.