Chris Bowen rejects ‘hypocritical’ part-time minister quip
Climate Minister Chris Bowen faces fierce attacks from Coalition and Greens over his COP presidency role, with critics branding him a ‘part-time minister’.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is facing attacks from the left and the right of politics over his new job as COP negotiations president, with the Coalition demanding he not miss a single day of parliament as part of the role while the Greens insist he not bend to pressure and skip coming international climate summits.
As the opposition benches on Wednesday exploded with laughter and yells following an outage of the lights in the lower house – which many quipped was proof of the unreliability of energy under Labor – Mr Bowen was also accused of “breathtaking arrogance” by NSW Independent Dai Le.
Ms Le, who holds the role of federal member and local councillor in her southwestern Sydney electorate, told The Australian on Wednesday that Mr Bowen was “hypocritical” for baulking at his new moniker of “part-time minister, full-time president” when he had used similar language to attack her two months earlier.
“Mr Bowen cannot double hat on the world stage but then turn around and take issue with (the title), it is breathtaking arrogance,” Ms Le said.
Ms Le pointed to an incident in question time on September 4 when she asked how battery rebates would help lower soaring energy costs in her electorate, to which she was met with a fiery response by Mr Bowen who called her a “part time” MP.
“Some of us served on local government, and when we came (to parliament), decided to be full-time federal members of parliament,” Mr Bowen said.
“Other people have made other choices … We will continue to act on the cost of living full-time with our full energy, not part-time.”
Mr Bowen was contacted for comment.
The Australian reported on Tuesday Mr Bowen would not travel to Colombia in April for an international summit on the phasing-out of fossil fuels – despite being the COP31 negotiations president – in the face of heated pressure from the Coalition over the potential for his new international role to interfere with his domestic responsibilities.
It came after the Labor frontbencher failed to say how many sitting days of parliament he would miss and how much in taxpayer funds would be spent on his international travel as the world’s senior climate change negotiator.
On Wednesday the Coalition sought to continue its line of attack with a procedural stunt that demanded the government add an amendment to the traditional schedule for the next sitting year, mandating Mr Bowen attend all the parliamentary sitting days.
Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said Mr Bowen was “completely conflicted”, blasting the frontbencher for signing up to a declaration with 23 other countries at COP last week committing to phasing out fossil fuels.
“He put his COP presidency cap on and signed Australia up to a declaration that even the Prime Minister has walked away from. Australia generated $100bn from coal and gas last financial year and Chris Bowen wants to stop this export income,” he said.
“What will it be replaced with? This is the danger of being a full-time UN COP president and a part-time Australian Energy Minister. No wonder the Prime Minister has banned Chris Bowen from going to Colombia next year.”
However, Greens climate assistant spokeswoman Steph Hodgins-May demanded Mr Bowen not cave to pressure and skip April’s summit, declaring “real climate action takes work”.
“The Climate Minister skipping the Colombia summit says it all – this government works for the coal and gas giants, not the people,” she said.
“A COP president should be leading the global phase-out of fossil fuels, not sitting it out.
“If Australia wants credibility at COP, the minister needs to turn up, and the government needs to rule out new coal and gas.”
Mr Bowen would have been able to travel to Colombia without missing parliament, with the government's newly released calendar revealing no sitting weeks in April.
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