While Australians struggle to pay the bills, Chris Bowen's department reserves luxury Fiji resorts costing up to $4.2million for climate summit delegates

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 22:39, 20 July 2026 | Updated: 22:41, 20 July 2026 Energy Minister Chris Bowen has finally pioneered a climate policy with immediate, tangible results, putting as much as $4.2 million of Australian taxpayers’ money on the line to reserve luxury resorts in Fiji. But don’t worry, because the government says it’s all in order and utterly appropriate apparently. If that’s their attitude, that’s part of the problem. The climate change department has signed contracts for accommodation and meeting facilities for foreign delegates attending an October pre-COP gathering. What’s that, I hear you ask? COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the annual United Nations summit at which governments negotiate global climate policy.  A pre-COP is therefore the conference before the conference, because apparently one enormous international climate talkfest is no longer enough. While Australians battle mortgage stress, soaring grocery bills and crippling energy prices, international bureaucrats will be enjoying five-star beachfront resorts, an 18-hole golf course, wellness facilities, lagoon pools and even an in-house nightclub. Australians, well we get to enjoy paying for it all. And this is only the entrée. The four-day Fiji gathering comes before the actual COP31 conference, which takes place in Turkey the following month.  Energy Minister Chris Bowen's office has spent up to $4.2m of taxpayers’ money to reserve luxury resorts in Fiji The minister's department has reserved luxury resorts for a pre-COP delegtaion. Pictured is the Radisson Blu Resort in Fiji It will inevitably result in another round of taxpayer funded flights, accommodation and general expenses.  What a joke. There’s also more than a whiff of parody in flying scores of delegates to a tropical island to discuss reducing emissions.  But the carbon footprint of this travelling climate circus isn’t even its central offence. The government’s defence of the largesse is that the final Fiji holiday bill will likely be lower than the millions paid upfront.  Turkey will pay its own costs, amazing, and some delegations may choose to reimburse Australia.  Plus unwanted rooms can be cancelled, because we’ve paid top dollar on the room rates to allow that. Of course a government famous for cost blowouts can’t guarantee that the inverse doesn’t happen here, like it so often does in other spending areas. How many foreign delegations will Australia ultimately subsidise? Which countries will receive free accommodation?  Some of the foreign delegates and Australian bureaucrats will stay at the five-star Sheraton Fiji Golf & Beach Resort The Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa Escape has also been booked What proportion of the $4.2 million does the government expect to recover? What is the estimated final cost to the Commonwealth? I guess we’ll find all that out in the aftermath. For now, Bowen’s department will not say. Adding insult to injury, the accommodation and venue expenditure won’t do anything for Australian hotels, conference operators or tourism workers.  Had the event been held here, the government could at least argue that the money would circulate through the domestic economy.  Instead, Australian taxpayers are underwriting an offshore warm-up meeting, the economic benefits of which flow to Fiji and the actual conference will be held in Turkey. Australia failed to secure the right to host COP31, but Bowen emerged with the consolation prize of a co-presidency. But at what cost? Nearly $500,000 was spent on travel during the first four months of this year alone, including more than $24,000 on business class flights to Fiji for an ‘operational scoping visit’.  The broader taxpayer commitment surrounding Bowen’s presidency and Pacific COP engagement runs into the hundreds of millions. The pre-COP cash splash won’t do anything for Australian hotels, conference operators or tourism workers, PVO (pictured) writes All this comes as Australians confront a relentless cost of living crisis, government debt climbs, deficits remain entrenched and interest payments on all of the above consume money that could otherwise fund essential services. Yet when foreign climate bureaucrats require beachfront accommodation, the national credit card miraculously has no limits.