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Minister sorry for climate change ‘joke’
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Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton apologized yesterday after offending Pacific island leaders with his remarks about “water lapping at your door” following regional talks involving climate change, saying they were meant to be “light-hearted”.
Dutton made the comments as he chatted to Prime Minister Tony Abbott Friday ahead of an event which appeared to be running late, quipping as a microphone hovered overhead that “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to be, you know, have water lapping at your door”.
Abbott had just returned from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting between regional leaders in Papua New Guinea, where combatting climate change was a key issue.
“I should have realized the mike was there and didn’t,” Dutton told Sky News.
“But I made a mistake. I apologize to anyone who has taken offence to it. It was a light-hearted discussion with the PM and I didn’t mean any offence to anyone.”
PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, who chaired the PIF meeting, yesterday described Dutton’s comments as “most unfortunate” and pointed out that “people in Pacific Island nations did not cause climate change but they are suffering because of it.
“Rising sea levels is a serious issue affecting thousands of our people around the Pacific,” O’Neill said in a statement.
“Communities are under threat and losing homes and their food source. People around the Pacific are living in fear with each high tide of storm.”
Leaders agreed to disagree after Australia and New Zealand blocked a bid by small island states to limit average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels rather than 2 degrees.
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