Anthony Albanese has bemoaned his hectic travel jetting around the world as “hard work” while he dismissed accusations of wasting money while everyday Australians continued to struggle.
The Prime Minister flew out of Canberra on Tuesday afternoon for a 10-day trip across Turkey, Philippines, and China after last week returning from meeting King Charles and Commonwealth heads in the Caribbean.
His travel to Antigua and Barbuda had been on the same week the Reserve Bank lift rates for the fifth time, leaving his Treasurer Jim Chalmers to cop the brunt of the backlash and accusation government spending was stoking inflation.
“It can be hard work, but it’s necessary work in our national interest. It is absolutely in Australia’s national interest that we stay engaged,” the PM said when questioned about his travel.
“In each of those occasions, there will be business forums as part of ASEAN, APEC, and part of the COP.
“They will be about attracting investment to Australia and strengthening our economy here. That’s why we engage.”
Mr Albanese’s first stop will be the UN climate talks in the Turkish resort city of Antalya.
Under a COP31 compromise following rival bids between Australia and Turkey, Antalya was selected for this year’s main summit and Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen was appointed as president of negotiations.
Pacific partners had also been granted pre-COP hosting right, which was held early last month in Fiji and Tuvalu.
Mr Bowen opened COP31 on Monday evening and used his opening address to call for nations to take faster action on climate change.
“The eyes of the world are on us, and Turkey has given us the very best possible platform,” Mr Bowen said.
He also sought to build consensus around practical actions, such as “electrification”, that keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C goal alive.
World leaders are expected to make a pledge to have 35 per cent of the world powered by electricity by 2035 in the first week of talks.
However, when asked on the sideline of the conference if there was evidence of lower prices in Australia — where electrification is among the world’s highest — he admitted Labor has “more work to do” to achieve lower electricity costs.
“We’ve got wholesale prices down, we are one of the very few countries doing that and we have got a bit more work to do to have that flowing through to consumers,” he told NewsCorp.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor said while international engagement was important, the Prime Minister should be focused on fixing the economy which he accused Labor of “wrecking”.
He also slammed the Government for using $32,000 of taxpayer funds to provide free coffee to delegates at the climate conference in Turkey.
Videos of foreign delegates enjoying the coffee, including some who directly thanked Australian taxpayers, has garnered more than 80,000 views on social media.
“In a normal set of circumstances, the Prime Minister should do these overseas trips but it’s not a normal set of circumstances,” Mr Taylor said on Tuesday.
“The Prime Minister and this Government have wrecked the economy. They need to fix it.
“Their $32,000 coffee cart at COP. I mean, seriously? Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for this nonsense. Absolute utter nonsense.
“Chris Bowen is on another one of his crazy sort of trips. This guy needs to get energy prices down. That needs to be his focus.”
Nationals’ leader Matt Canavan on Tuesday accused Labor of “wasting” money in sending Mr Bowen and the PM to Turkey, while ignoring the financial pressures on ordinary Australians were facing at home.
“Over there at this latest climate conference is while your power bills are high, your power bills are higher because this federal Labor government is wasting (money) and not focused on the domestic power pressures, power price pressures here in Australia,” Senator Canavan told News24.
It echoed shadow energy minister Dan Tehan criticisms, telling The Nightly on Monday that the PM shouldn’t have to travel over to “hold Chris Bowen’s hand”.
Mr Bowen has also announced a new partnership between Australia and Denmark while in Turkey to create new “economic opportunities, technology development, investment and jobs”.
The climate and energy partnership followed talks with Australian-born Queen Mary of Denmark and his Danish counterpart Samira Nawa.
Mr Bowen’s focus on climate and energy abroad comes as South Australian Labor Premier raised the alarm at a Sydney business conference on Monday over the “just crazy” demand AI data centres would have Down Under.
When sharing his conversations on an AI focused trip to the United States earlier this year, SA State Labor leader Peter Malinaskas said an AI firm had told him they were seeking “a gigawatt in 2027”.
“Even if you had all the money in the world . . . and you threw it at that problem you could not procure that much new generation in that period of time, regardless of the source,” he told AFR’s Infrastructure summit.
Mr Bowen didn’t mention AI data centre energy demand in his address at COP31 and denied in a sideline media interview that the issue needed its own agenda item at the two-week conference.
“It doesn’t need its own agenda item. Every climate minister in the world is thinking about this but I don’t think it changes the fundamental dynamics that we need to get more renewable energy,” he told Politico on Tuesday.
“I expect in all the discussions in ministers’ and leaders’ set-piece speeches it will feature prominently.”
It comes as Australia has demanded in AI standards that tech companies bring their own renewable energy if they want to construct data centres Down Under. The standards, however, data centre will be able to be firmed with gas.
Mr Bowen again talked up the “very important” role of gas would play as a firming mechanism in the global energy transition.
“Gas is a very important firming mechanism. Our approach is that gas can play a role in peaking and firming,” Mr Bowen said.
“A gas-fired power station can be very flexible, particularly a new one, can be turned on and off at, like, two minutes’ notice.
“And so it might only come on for an hour a day or two hours a day, as opposed to coal, which runs all the time.
“So, we take quite a pragmatic approach there. We are not attracted to using gas all the time because it is high emissions and expensive as well.”
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