Photo: US Embassy Kabul Afghanistan Flickr Creative Commons
The Greens have described Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the “biggest threat to Australia’s reputation” after his decision not to attend the UN Climate Summit.
Hosted by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the summit will be held in New York next week with more than 125 heads of nations attending. Mr Abbott will be in New York the day after to attend a a UN Security Council meeting.
Melbourne Greens MP Adam Bandt said the prime minister’s decisions to “snub” the climate summit is a “clear sign of his priorities that he’s happy to send the country off to war but he’s not happy to tackle global warming”.
With national leaders such as Barack Obama and David Cameron planning to be at the meeting, Tony Abbott’s non-attendance has been noticed by the European Union’s Climate Chief who says the PM’s absence will be a pity.
European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard told ABC AM radio, “The world will interpret who is showing up and who will not be showing up, so that’s for your prime minister and your government to decide what kind of profile do they want to have in this.”
Mr Bandt says the prime minister’s actions are dangerous for Australia’s international reputation.
“Tony Abbott is the biggest threat to Australia’s reputation. He is failing in his number one duty, which is to protect this country and its way of life,” he said.
“It’ll damage Australia’s international reputation even further as both a country that signs up very quickly to send troops off to war but won’t act with the same speed to tackle climate change.”
