Price in strife for telling Pacific leader ‘you’re here for the cash’

Environment Minister Melissa Price expresses regret after telling a senior Pacific leader he was visiting Australia “for the cash”

Environment Minister Melissa Price during question time yesterday. Picture: AAP

Environment Minister Melissa Price has expressed regret, but failed to apologise, after telling a senior Pacific leader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee that he was visiting Australia “for the cash”.

Ms Price made the comment when she was introduced to former Kiribati president Anote Tong in a Canberra restaurant on Tuesday night, in a diplomatic setback to Australia’s attempts to improve vital strategic relationships in the region.

“I know why you’re here,” she told Mr Tong, a prominent global campaigner against climate change. “It’s for the cash. For the Pacific it’s always about the cash. I have my chequebook here. How much do you want?”

Mr Tong was dining with Labor senator Patrick Dodson, Edmund Rice Centre director Phil Glendenning and Oxfam climate change expert Simon Bradshaw at La Rustica restaurant, in Kingston.

Mr Glendenning confirmed the exchange, saying: “That is absolutely what I heard”. He said he was embarrassed Mr Tong had been treated in such a manner by an Australian government minister.

“President Tong is a very important world figure who is in Australia on very serious business,” Mr Glendenning said.

Mr Tong yesterday dismissed the insult, saying it was “not important” when compared to his climate change advocacy. “It is hardly relevant to the mission that I am trying to embark on, and so let’s focus on that,” he told Sky News.

Senator Dodson wrote to Ms Price to protest at what he described as “your discourteous and offensive behaviour”.

Ms Price told parliament she had not intended to offend Mr Tong. “I am very concerned that in some way the president has been offended in any way,” she said.

“I’ve spoken to Senator Dodson today … I 100 per cent disagree with what he has said was the conversation. What I did say was that the Pacific is a very good friend and neighbour to Australia. In fact that’s exactly what I said to president Tong last night.”

Ms Price’s spokeswoman later told The Australian the minister had nothing to add.

Mr Tong, who led Kiribati, from 2003 to 2016, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his global climate change advocacy, after buying 20 square kilometres of land in Fiji to relocate his people to in the event Kiribati became inundated.

Australia has sought to “step up” relations with Pacific neighbours amid a push by China to gain influence in the region with soft loans for infrastructure projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has identified Australia’s Pacific relationships as a key reason for remaining in the Paris climate change agreement.