Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator Ayres. On Sunday, the Prime Minister, Minister Wong and Minister Bowen issued a joint media release outlining the details of the formal agreement with Turkiye for it to host the COP 31 climate conference. The joint media release states, 'Australia, in partnership with the Pacific island countries, will set the agenda for pre-COP in the Pacific, preside over pre-COP and fulfil all the operational and logistical responsibilities for pre-COP.' Does this mean the Australian taxpayers will be asked to pay for the costs of putting on the pre-COP? If so, how much has the government budgeted for these expenses?