Immigration minister says after mocking Pacific Islands’ climate change situation: ‘I made a mistake, I apologise to anyone who has taken offence’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has apologised for joking about the plight of Pacific island nations facing rising seas from climate change.

Dutton was overheard making a quip about “water lapping at your door” in Port Moresby to the prime minister, Tony Abbott, on Friday, comments that offended Pacific island leaders.

“I made a mistake, I apologise to anyone who has taken offence. It was a light hearted discussion with the PM and I did not mean any offence to anyone,” Mr Dutton told Sky News.

Earlier the prime minister, Tony Abbott, dodged questions about his leadership and criticism of an insensitive joke made by government frontbencher, saying both issues were “not about me”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Peter Dutton is overheard joking with the prime minister, Tony Abbott, about rising sea levels. Link to video. Source ABC

Abbott, in Western Australia to campaign for the Canning byelection – a poll which according to the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, could see a challenge to Abbott’s leadership if the swing away from the government is big enough.

“This [the Syrian refugee deal] is a historic announcement, and frankly, it says something about the quality of our national conversation that a lame joke should be of more interest than something which is truly nation-building and truly transforming, and which reflects Australia at its best,” Abbott said.

“And then we have a subsequent Twitter-storm which, if I may say so, reflects Australia at its worst.”

Dutton’s “lame joke” was to quip that the roundtable, which was running late, was on “Cape York time,” and then respond to Abbott’s comment that his meetings in Port Moresby had also run late with: “Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re, you know, about to have water lapping at your door.” Abbott laughed until the social services minister, Scott Morrison, pointed out the microphone.

Abbott responded to questions about the potential threat to his leadership and the joke he shared with the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, with the same refrain: “It’s not about me.”

On Sunday, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, said Dutton’s comments were unfortunate and he hoped the attention the issue had received would help highlight the threat faced by many people.

“Rising sea levels is a serious issue affecting thousands of our people around the Pacific,” O’Neill said. “Communities are under threat and they are losing homes and their food source. People around the Pacific are living in fear with each high tide of storm.

“People are being forced off the land where their families have lived for thousands of years. Connection to the land is very important for Pacific people so having to leave their land is heartbreaking for many people.”

He said Pacific island nations looked to the December climate change conference in Paris to get help from other countries.

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Speaking at a tree lopping business in Kelmscott, about 32km south-east of Perth, on Saturday, Abbott dismissed international criticism of Dutton’s remarks, which were caught by a live microphone before a community roundtable on Friday, and repeated his earlier comment that Dutton should be remembered this week for agreement to bring 12,000 Syrian refugees to Australia, and not for a “lame joke”.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Dutton’s apology was not about what he said, but the fact that he was caught.

“It was offensive and demonstrated just how arrogant and out-of-touch this government is,” Shorten told AAP.



He also questioned why it was Dutton apologising and not Abbott. “The prime minister was guffawing at the plight of Pacific Islanders and he thinks that’s acceptable? Is this what Tony Abbott and his ministers laugh about in their private conversations?”



With AAP