Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton have been caught insulting Aboriginal people and ethnic and Muslim leaders, and then joking about the threat that climate change poses to small island nations in the Pacific.
The vision, which has been released by the ABC a short time ago, shows Abbott, Dutton and Minister for Family Services Scott Morrison standing smiling during a forum on Syrian refugees earlier today.
The conversation begins with Peter Dutton insulting Aboriginal people – and ethnic and Muslim leaders who were attending the roundtable summit – about their perceived indifference to punctuality.
DUTTON: It’s Cape York time.
ABBOTT: (laughs) What’s this mate?
DUTTON: It’s Cape York time.
ABBOTT: We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby.
DUTTON: Oh yeah.
ABBOTT: Yeah, yeah.
ABBOTT: Anyway, it was a good meeting. It was a good meeting.
MORRISON: When was… was it in Moresby?
ABBOTT: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DUTTON: Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to be, you know, have water lapping at your door.
ABBOTT: (laughs) Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Morrison interrupts with a warning.
MORRISON: There’s a boom (microphone) up there.
ABBOTT: Yeah, yeah.
Ironically, Abbott returned overnight from the Pacific Islands Forum, a regional body established to ensure meaningful discussion between nations in the Pacific on major issues, such as the economy.
At this year’s forum, there was a particular emphasis on national responses to climate change, which threatens to wipe out small island nations like Kirabati and Micronesia unless warming is contained to 1.5 degrees.
Rumours had swept the media prior to the forum that the Australian Government would not be invited, because of its continued intransigence on policies which would seriously lower Australia’s carbon emissions.
In the past, Abbott has labeled climate change ‘crap’, and made Australia the only nation on earth to abolish a price on carbon.
* Correction: An early version of this story reported the incident occurred at the Pacific Islands Forum. It occurred this afternoon, at a meeting on Syrian refugees.
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