Palau president delivers barb at Peter Dutton over ‘water lapping your door’ hot mic joke

Surangel Whipps Jr also strongly backs Australia's bid to host a UN climate conference

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The president of Palau has delivered a pointed barb at Peter Dutton while strongly backing an Australian bid to host a UN climate conference on behalf of the Pacific, arguing that it would boost regional solidarity and he would be deeply disappointed" if the attempt was abandoned under the Coalition.

Speaking at a renewable energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Surangel Whipps Jr described seeing two-thirds of an island in his archipelago country disappear under water in his lifetime. For those of us in the Pacific who have lived through storm surges, rising ocean levels and increasingly high tides, the phrase water lapping at our door' is not a metaphor or a punchline. It's our fear and reality," he said.

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