Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen began attending a multi-day United Nations pre-COP meeting in Fiji and Tuvalu on Monday, October 5. Bowen wouldn't outline the total cost to Australian taxpayers. The meeting forms part of an international hosting arrangement, but the public still doesn't have a total price from the minister responsible for negotiations.
A deal made above the public
Australia's arrangement with Türkiye over hosting rights for COP31 included a lead-up event in Fiji and Tuvalu. It also made Bowen President of Negotiations. Under those terms, the pre-COP meeting became part of a diplomatic deal: the government would organise the event, and taxpayers would foot an unspecified total bill.
The main conference is scheduled for next month. The pre-COP meeting began Monday, October 5, and runs over multiple days. Albanese and Bowen attended as the country's prime minister and climate change minister, giving the gathering the weight of federal authority.
The federal government struggled to attract prime ministers and presidents. The account doesn't give a number of expected or attending leaders, but the difficulty in drawing them became part of the scrutiny surrounding the event. Diplomatic machinery can arrange a meeting. It can't make other leaders show up.
The bill without a total
On ABC Radio National Breakfast, Bowen declined to outline the total cost of organising the meeting. Asked what it would cost Australian taxpayers, he sidestepped the question. Pressed on whether the cost was $20 million, he said that figure was “keeping with estimates.” The account leaves the total unconfirmed, even as the meeting proceeds under the government's arrangement.
Bowen defended the event as a matter of regional influence. “This is the most important diplomatic engagement Australia will have in the Pacific this term,” he said. He also called it “the most important climate conference that's been held in the Pacific, probably ever, at least in a decade.” The minister's pitch asks people to accept the importance of the process while the full organising cost remains undisclosed.
He added: “If you care about the Pacific, if you care about our region, and you care about Australia's influence in our region, then you support this process.” That's the official choice on offer: support the process, or be cast as indifferent to the Pacific and Australia's influence. The account describes no grassroots, self-organized response or mutual-aid effort.
The opposition's counter-pitch
Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan called the meeting a “farce” and said it wasn't good value for taxpayers. He accused Albanese of leaving the country during a cost of living crisis and said Australia had “serious” domestic challenges to address.
Tehan told ABC Radio National Breakfast: “I do think that we're much better off if we're helping the Pacific with a strong economy where we are making sure that we're looking after Australians,” Tehan says. His answer contests the government's priorities, but offers no alternative mechanism beyond directing attention to the domestic economy. Here, the argument stays between federal politicians: one defends a diplomatic process with an unclear total cost, while the other attacks its value during a cost of living crisis.