Australia’s Opposition energy spokesman, Dan Tehan, has described the Pre-Cop climate conference as a “farce”, questioning the value of the event to taxpayers while the prime minister is overseas attending it.
Mr Tehan said the number of leaders expected to attend was unclear and criticised the government for not disclosing the conference’s cost.
“We’ve got the prime minister leaving the country in a cost-of-living crisis to attend a leaders’ event, and we think there might be seven or eight leaders there, we don’t know,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast.
“The whole thing has sort of become a farce,” he said.
Mr Tehan said Australia should pay greater attention to climate change in island nations, but argued that any response should involve “good, practical things… in a sensible way”.
“And it’s very hard to see how this, in any way, is getting value for money for the Australian taxpayer, and the reason we know that is because the government won’t come clean with the costs,” he said.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen earlier avoided a question about the cost of the Pre-Cop climate conference before saying a reported figure of $20 million was “keeping with estimates”.
