Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There's so much that is incorrect in those assertions. Can I make this point: if you have followed this, Senator—and you may be aware of this—you'll know that we did have very broad support. You will also know that there is no way to avoid or to break the impasse at a Conference of the Parties and that, under the UNFCCC rules, in the absence of that impasse being broken, the conference would have reverted to Bonn. The COP president would not have been elected until the first day of that conference, which has implications for global climate negotiations and for the Pacific.

These were the real issues that we worked through very carefully with the Pacific, and we're very pleased that we were able to achieve a whole range of propositions, including a pre-COP held in the Pacific with leaders, pledging for the Pacific Resilience Facility and Pacific engagements in leading aspects of the negotiations. We were very pleased that we were able to achieve that with the support of the Pacific.