Doorstop interview - Suva, Fiji

CHRIS BOWEN: Thank you. Well, firstly, I've been attending the Pacific Climate Forum for the last few days with my climate minister colleagues. I want to thank Fiji for being such a good host. Prime Minister Rabuka was an excellent host. Together with the Deputy Prime Minister and all the Pacific Parliament Ministers meeting with me and the New Zealand Minister, including this morning a round table, about how we can work together in potentially hosting COP 31.

I'm also delighted that my last engagement here is a visit to this beautiful village to see the practical impact of Australia and Fiji working together with other development partners - dealing with the practical impacts of a changing climate, making people's lives a little bit better, a little bit easier on a day-to-day basis. Building a new bridge as opposed to tossing a coconut tree all the time. Nice step forward for this region and Australia is very proud and happy to be able to help.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] the round table.

CHRIS BOWEN: The roundtable. We had lots of discussions about the lead up to the very important COP meeting in Dubai later this year. Talked about how we can work together to push for more action around the world. We talked about how Australia might be able to assist Pacific Islanders on their own decarbonisation and some things to work on going forward, but a very good general discussion.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: We are all on different parts of the journey. I met yesterday with EFL, the energy company, talking about how the transition is going in Australia, how the transition is going in Fiji, and what we can learn from each other. From Australia we are lifting renewable energy from around 35 per cent to 82 per cent by 2030. And Fiji has many advantages. Very sunny, very good for solar panels on roofs. [indistinct] challenges. We talked about what more we might be able to do to assist and we'll take that home to Australia some of the [indistinct] that we've been thinking and make further announcements. Very good to me with EFL and Minister [indistinct].

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes. I had a wonderful meeting with all the Pacific Climate Ministers who are here and there was strong support for the Australia-Pacific bid. We talked about how we might be able to work together to ensure that this is truly and genuinely a Pacific COP. I want as I said to the Ministers, I want people to leave COP 31, if Australia hosts it saying, "wow, that really was a Pacific COP". And by that it means a chance to elevate Pacific issues at a time when Pacific has the world's attention. You know, when the COP is on, the whole world is watching the COP. And it's a remarkable opportunity to elevate Pacific issues to the top of the international agenda in a way which meaningful and [indistinct].

JOURNALIST: The Pacific are calling for [indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: We had a good discussion across few days about the transition occurring in Australia. Moving from 35 per cent of our renewable energy to 82 per cent. That's a big jump in seven years. It takes all the management, also that Australia increasingly has become a renewable energy superpower. We're working with countries that traditionally have bought our fossil fuels like Korea and Japan and other countries to help them on their transition to renewable energy. We can export through green hydrogen, et cetera. Now, yes, they're on a journey, we're not going to remove coal and gas tomorrow, nobody really is expecting. But it's been a good discussion about how fast the transition in Australia is going. And it's going very, very fast. We have the highest rooftop solar penetration in the world. But we have a lot more to do. All of us have a lot more to do [indistinct].

JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen, you [indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: We accepted the findings of the IEAE, and obviously, I discussed it with Prime Minister Rabuka. He made a strong speech about it at the Farmer Minister's Conference. I know different countries have different views, which we respect. We also respect the scientific evidence.

JOURNALIST: In relation to the Pacific balance [indistinct] working here?

CHRIS BOWEN: One Minister raised it on behalf of her country, but I recognise that different countries in the Pacific have different views.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: We accept the scientific evidence.

SPEAKER: Ladies and gentlemen, maybe one more question.

JOURNALIST: Also, we talked about a few months ago, the Australian Government [indistinct] budget announcements trying to support the Pacific [indistinct]. Can you speak a little bit about that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there was the budget announcements and also there was the recent Foreign Minister's announcement of change to our aid program. As you know, on coming to office, we allocated an extra $900 million to the Pacific. And we've also announced that we will move towards 80 per cent in that of all our aid being climate related, that includes adaptation [indistinct] So, better and deeper and stronger engagement with the Pacific is our number one foreign policy priority in the Albanese Government and that happens through many avenues, but overseas [indistinct] is primary amongst them. And it's been good to be here today to see some of the just practical impacts. Okay, thank you very much.