Tony Abbott defends Peter Dutton after joke about rising Pacific Island sea levels
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Version 0 of 1. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has defended Peter Dutton a day after the immigration minister was caught joking about the plight of Pacific Island nations facing rising sea levels. Abbott drew attention to Dutton’s work on the refugee crisis, congratulating him during an address at the Nationals federal council meeting on Saturday. “If there’s one thing that should be remembered about Peter Dutton’s week, it’s that this is the week that he masterminded the plan to bring 12,000 needy people to this country,” Abbott said in Canberra. Abbott said Australia has responded “with decency and with strength to the problems of the wider world”. “Rather than just say it’s none of our business ... we have risen to the challenge,” he said. Dutton has been heavily criticised since making the joke about climate change on Friday. Related: Pacific leaders respond to Australian minister's sea level remarks Noting that a meeting in Canberra was running a bit late, Dutton quipped it was running to “Cape York time”, to which Abbott replied: “We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby.” Dutton then said: “Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door.” The president of Kiribati has since called the joke “vulgar” and “quite unbecoming of leadership”. Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite called on Dutton to apologise for the remark, saying the “distasteful” comments will do “enormous damage” to Australia’s relationship with its neighbours. He said Pacific communities have been pleading with the Abbott government to do more on climate change, and Dutton’s comment made it harder to find a solution. |