Essay by Eric Worrall
Apparently someone in the office stuffed up the invitations.
Snubbed in Fiji: Bowen’s luxury resort summit tops Labor’s $152m climate spending under fire
BY THE EDITOR 30 JULY 2026
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The Australian has revealed Mr Bowen’s office spent $4.2m booking foreign officials into five-star Fiji resorts, on top of almost $500,000 in travel in the first four months of the year, and signed a $415,644 contract in early June with a firm, Iconic Holdings, that specialises in “behaviour change campaigns”.
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A pre-COP is the warm-up meeting held before the main UN COP climate conference. Australia is hosting this one in Fiji on October 5 to 8, with a side trip to Tuvalu, after ceding the full COP31 summit in November to Turkey. Under that compromise deal Mr Bowen was named COP31 “president of negotiations”. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who skipped the annual UN climate conference every year of his prime ministership, is now expected to attend both events.
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Why nobody is coming
The problem is that almost no one wants to come. The Australian reports the government cannot lock in a single head of government or head of state from outside the Pacific. Diplomatic sources point to long travel times, crowded leaders’ schedules, and the awkward reality that the main COP31 summit runs in Turkey just five weeks later.
However, the failure most squarely at Australia’s own door is the invitation strategy itself. Canberra pitched its invitations at prime ministers and presidents rather than foreign and climate ministers, causing surprise in international capitals. “Foreign ministers are not being considered,” one source said.
The effect is that ministers who might have filled the room were never asked, while the heads of government who were invited are not coming. Chris Bowen’s department has not explained who made that call or why. Mr Bowen himself conceded last month that modern COPs deliver no “massive breakthroughs” and are “more iterative”, which makes a warm-up event even harder to sell to a world leader’s diary.
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Read more: https://www.onenewsaustralia.com/labor-spending-under-fire/
What an embarrassment. As “President of Negotiations” for the upcoming COP31 in Turkey, Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen is supposed to be the driving force which brings everyone together to ink the next climate agreement. But he can’t even get VIPs to commit to showing up to an all expenses paid party in a tropical paradise.
Here’s a suggestion. All those families doing it tough because of Australia’s failed green energy policies, why not help some of them attend the conference? It’s probably too late to get a refund on the resort booking, but bringing some sunshine into the lives of Aussies experiencing energy poverty, many of whom are skipping meals or eating from trash cans according to the Salvation Army, at least some good would come of all this wasted money. And maybe while they are there, Bowen and Albanese can explain to ordinary Australians why they are making their lives miserable by forcing energy retailers to buy expensive green energy and pass the cost on to consumers, instead of allowing utilities to fulfil all of Australia’s electricity needs by purchasing the cheapest electricity available on the open market.
The AGW scam reeks of desperation. The “save the world” veneer has lost to reality as catastrophic forecasts of doom failed to materialize and people watched as their industries shuttered. All it took was Trump to say the king had no clothes on. All those nasty sayings about his personality may be true but you can’t deny his effectiveness in bringing government sanity back into vogue.
COP31 will be as useless as the 30 before it. So a pre-COP31 meeting will be even more useless. The Aussie government should have figured that out themselves before getting humiliated. A delightful turn of events.
Sadly, there were several pre-meetings prior to the pre-meeting.
And many, many pre-pre-meetings prior to the several pre-meetings prior to the pre-meeting.
And, no doubt, multiple post-meetings leading up to the pre-pre-meetings of the next jamboree. Great work if you get it.
“The next departure from platform 2 will be the gravy train…”
As the climate ambassador to the Land of Scissor, I will gladly accept a room but I’d also like some assistance on airfare.
You need to also demonstrate your membership of a disadvantaged group… 🙂
I identify as lower than queer trans three spirit.
But has somebody stole your lands?
I think one of the trolls grabbed Scissor land. They built a sandwich shop on it that grills fantastic vegan pastrami sandwiches so nobody wanted to make a thing of it.
These days, being a straight, white, English male pensioner who identifies as a straight, white, English male pensioner is a disadvantaged group.
It appears Greenies are very adept at throwing gold bars off the Titanic. It’s a good thing money grows on trees.
Oh wait.
Only presidents and prime ministers. The lower minions need not apply. Bowen just wants to hobnob with those he sees as his equals. Unfortunately he himself is not seen like that by his intended guests. Perhaps someone should tell him about his own insignificance.
Bow-wow’s equal would be a slug oozing across a slimy floor. !
And it would be more intelligent. !
Must you insult everyone? What have slugs done to deserve that?
I apologise to the slugs.. but they were the closest creatures to Bow-wow I could think of at the time. !!
Maybe I should have used blood-sucking leaches.. more appropriate.
I prefer “doesn’t have the brain capacity of a one-celled amoeba” as my preferred insult of Ed Miliband.
Clearly, Miliband and his ilk won’t understand the insult
Beautifully said Sir!
Bowen like Fauci wants the adulation and the virtue plaudits for his exalted position, but in reality here is just the fall guy in this latest climate pantmime, he and his deluded alarmist mates belong in psychology wards for the criminally insane for what they have done to this country.
Basically EVERYTHING this Labor government does is a total embarrassment to the Australian people. !
Albo and Bow-wow are total losers in every respect.
Maybe potential delegates to these get-togethers are coming clean and admitting that they’re not worth a damn in the first place. Or maybe the government funding to send delegates there is drying up as taxpayers are tired of being forced to support meetings that haven’t accomplished anything in the past and are unlikely to break their losing streaks in future.
I think enthusiasm for climate conferences is dying now that the USA has stopped paying for everything.
Other peoples money is such a pleasure to spend even on drivel. It gives a feeling of power.
One of my favorite sayings, “There nothing too unimportant to spend someone else’s money on.”
Australian leadership is worse than useless.
Imagine the joy of going back to the good old days of useless politicians.
Every aspect of today’s UN would have President Dwight D. Eisenhower rolling over in his grave.
It’s become exactly what he warned about –
a vast political / bureaucratic complex that sucks the financial blood out of all participating nations.
And I have no doubts at all that Bowen, Albanese et al have their career sights set on moving into cozy sinecures at some UN agency or other after they’ve done generational damage to OZ.
I’d use the same words to evaluate the individual national governments of Western nations. I can’t think of an exception, ie “all of them except…”
They could have gotten a decent comedian for less.
pre cop = foreplay 🤡
Unfortunately Australian politicians don’t do embarrassment.