The Queen has been left unamused at a gesture from Scott Morrison and a host of world leaders. But PM’s office is promising an answer “soon”.
The Queen is not amused by “irritating” world leaders including Scott Morrison for dithering over whether they will be no-shows at next month’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow.
Her Majesty, who will attend the talks with Princes Charles and William, has joined her son overnight in criticising world leaders including the Australian Prime Minister when they “talk, but don’t do”.
Her candid observation was captured in mobile phone footage as she chatted with Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla Parker Bowles at the opening session of the Welsh parliament.
The women can be overheard discussing that they “still don’t know” which of 120 world leaders will attend the summit, with the Queen adding she has “no idea” who is coming.
“It’s irritating,” she said.
“Extraordinary isn’t it. I’ve been hearing all about COP, (we) still don’t know who is coming. No idea,” the Queen says in the footage.
“We only know about people who are not coming… and it’s really irritating when they talk, but they don’t do.”
Mr Morrison has been flip-flopping in recent weeks over whether or not he will attend, suggesting the two-week quarantine he must complete after he returns to Australia is a turn-off.
But even though that’s now likely to be slashed to a seven-day home quarantine in NSW by the time of the conference, the Prime Minister still hasn’t announced what he’s doing.
Government sources now claim the Queen and voters can expect an answer “soon” on the Mr Morrison’s travel plans after he revealed this week he was “more likely” to attend.
He’s currently thrashing out an agreement with the Nationals over how Australia plans to deliver net zero emissions by 2050. It was discussed by federal cabinet on Wednesday and will be considered by the Nationals party room on Sunday.
The royals have been outspoken about the climate change challenge in recent weeks, with Prince William also weighing in to complain about billionaires banging on about space travel instead of the planet where they live.
It follows environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg complaining world leaders are just contributing “blah blah blah” promises to address the climate emergency.
Prince William told the BBC Newscast podcast: “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.”
He added: “It would be an absolute disaster if George is here in 30 years’ time still saying the same thing, because by then we will be too late.”
The future King added that his son Prince George has become “a bit confused and annoyed” at the state of the planet during litter picking sessions.
“So George at school recently has been doing litter picking and I didn’t realise but talking to him the other day he was already showing that he was getting a bit confused and a bit sort of annoyed by the fact they went out litter picking one day and then the very next day they did the same route, same time and pretty much all the same litter they picked up back again,’’ he said.
“And I think that for him he was trying to understand how and where it all came from. He couldn’t understand, he’s like, ‘well, we cleaned this. Why has it not gone away?’.”
The Prince of Wales has urged Mr Morrison to attend, saying the 26th Conference of the Parties could be the world’s “last chance” to take action.
Speaking in the gardens of his house on the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, Prince Charles has told the BBC that the world is facing a “disaster” and a “catastrophe”.
Prince Charles appeared genuinely taken aback at reports that the Australian Prime Minister might be a no-show at the Glasgow climate change conference.
“Scott Morrison, the Australian PM, isn’t even certain that he could make it to the meeting in Glasgow,’’ the BBC interviewer says during the interview.
“I, is that what he says, does he? Mmm,’’ Prince Charles responds. He then goes on to explain why he’s fought so hard to encourage world leaders to attend.
“The point being that this is a last chance saloon. If we don’t really take the decisions that are vital now, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch up,’’ he says.
“It will be a disaster. I mean it will be catastrophic. It is already beginning to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather.”
The Prime Minister has been gripped with indecision over whether to attend for weeks after he first flagged that he might not attend during his trip to the US last month.
On October 1, he noted it would be his fourth two-week quarantine stint in six months if he were to attend the summit, which he nonetheless described as very important.
“I will have spent, if I do that, a total of four times 14-day quarantine, basically, in this building, not being able to engage in my normal duties around the country as much as I would like to,” Mr Morrison said.
“That’s a long time for a prime minister to be in quarantine in a six-month period.”
But Mr Morrison has been savaged by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over hinting he may not even turn up to represent Australia at the climate change conference.
“History is made by those who turn up,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
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