“No Laughing Matter”: Fiji’s Prime Minister Slams Scott Morrison’s Attitude To Climate Change
"We cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples."
The Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, has used Scott Morrison’s visit to his country to slam the Australian government’s attitude to climate change, pointing out that “here in Fiji, climate change is no laughing matter”.
It was a pretty pointed warning, given that Scott Morrison was one of the MPs hanging out with Peter Dutton in 2015 as he joked about Pacific Island nations drowning as sea levels rise. At the time, Morrison didn’t bother to tell Dutton he was being a dickhead — instead, he just quietly warned him that they were standing under a giant microphone that had picked up the entire conversation.
“From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples,” Bainimarama told Morrison yesterday, though he also congratulated Morrison on stepping up and actually visiting the Pacific, given that no Australian Prime Ministers have travelled there in over a decade.
It’s about time someone called Morrison out on his attitude to climate change, though. In his short time as Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has delivered an embarrassing response to a dire UN report on the subject, told kids who are worried to sit down and shut up, and done very little, if anything, to actually address the threat of global warming.
The Australian people have had enough of it, but the threat’s even more serious for nations like Fiji, which is mostly made up of low-lying islands that risk being wiped out by sea level rise.
Whether that seriousness will make it through to ScoMo and his government, who knows. For the sake of all of our futures, we really hope so.
PM responds to Fiji’s urging for a clean energy future: “We have a comprehensive response when it comes to #climate change,” says Morrison. “We have sensible, achievable commitments.” pic.twitter.com/nWteTFivBj
— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) January 17, 2019
Feature image via Scott Morrison on Twitter