Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 1:48:10 to 1:54:10
Ms. Munro provides a detailed list of the 53 leaders and ministers, along with hundreds of delegates, who attended the conference and stakeholder programs.
Topics: Climate change, Diplomatic events
Speakers: Ms Kushla Munro, Hon Sarah Henderson, Hon Tim Ayres, Varun Ghosh, Unknown Speaker
>> Um now Senator McDonald you had a question I think that you'd put um did the officials at the table want to answer or
provide some further context because I do think it's important uh and we weren't able to to answer this before, but in terms of the uh broader uh representation of of leaders and ministers, there were 53 uh leaders and ministers, around 600 official delegates uh from 61 countries, and 3,199 participants as part of the the stakeholder program uh representing over a 100 countries and importantly just when we are talking about uh the the tualoo component um so it did include the president of the Asian development bank the executive director of the green climate fund the secretary general of the pacific islands forum the executive secretary of the the UNF the deputy uh secretary general of the UN amina Muhammad as well as uh the former prime minister of Australia and chair of the welcome trust Julia Gillard. There were again a number of other ministerial and senior representatives uh including uh the COP 31 president designate uh min M minister Kurum uh the minister from Antigga and Barbuda Minister from Barbados the European Commissioner for Climate Action. Miss
Monroe, could I maybe ask you to put that full list on notice because we're
on >> just just I mean
>> I appreciate the point you're making, but if you could just put that full list on notice, please.
>> I can I can do that, but I also wanted just to continue because it didn't include the the the minister of foreign affairs uh from Nepal for example. I think uh and the minister of environment, forest and climate from India, the minister of environment from Indonesia. So I do think that broader perspective of who was actually uh represented at both leader and senior level uh ministerial level is is quite
significant for the for the complexity >> asking about that >> sorry miss Monroe the reason
>> can I finish my answer
>> well it's we we have to keep the answers truncated because otherwise we will not get through our questions
the question
No, no one is but me. So, let's just
pause for a moment then.
>> Minister, do you have a point of order you want to raise?
>> Yeah, look, the the the official is entitled to answer the question. Just because it it underm the the answer is inconsistent with the coalition's talking points does not mean that she can be cut off.
>> She's entitled to answer the question. >> We're running an hour.
>> So, that's a matter for you. I I just say officials are entitled to answer the questions no matter how inconvenient to
the Liberal party they might be. Every senators senators please come to order.
Senator Henderson, please come to order. Every time that we engage in this little exchange, we lose time as well. >> My sense of it was that the official had not given an overong answer to a question and the answer was relevant to the question being asked. Um, we understand now as I understood it, Miss Monroe did take the point that what could be put on notice would be put on notice, but there was a part of the answer she wanted to give in direct response to the question. I'm going to allow her to do that in as brief a way as is possible to give justice to the answer and then we're moving on.
>> Thank you, chair. The reason that I thought it was important to to provide that broader list and we'll provide um the rest of those names on um on notice is that it did go to um the the contingency planning uh for the relevant security and also the venue. And I think that's important because that goes to what your question was actually about in terms of the uh the planning uh that went into security for example and very happy for my colleague uh Mr. Higgins to talk more about those those contingency
plannings on security. >> We're under a lot of time pressure in relation to the the planning um concerning the prospective list of world leaders. uh if you could please put that on notice including correspondence as to between your department and PMNC and DEFAT uh planning in relation to the possible attendance of world leaders such as the US president the prime minister of the UK and other world leaders and I say that Miss Monroe because your own minister Minister Bowen said on the 5th of October. This is the first preop where we've invited world leaders and yet the government is keeping this list secret. So it's not unreasonable that we would seek the details of who was invited.
>> Well, you you'll have to ask that question in PNC.
>> Well, it it just seems to me extraordinary. Minister, do you are you aware of whether the US president or uh other world leaders apart from in the region were invited
>> in relation to the president of the United States? I don't know. Um I I mean the the the United States um is is not um in the Paris agreement. Um so I don't know what that means in terms of uh invitations that are extended. It's really >> a question for Prime Minister and cabinet to answer. I have no knowledge of uh which invitations were issued. Uh I've got no knowledge of when they issued. I've got no knowledge of the process that was engaged in there. this line agency's job is to uh is to book the rooms and to deliver the conference. Um that's um that's as far as that goes. Uh can I ask