Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama is looking forward to a new era of Fiji’s relationship with Australia.

After concluding his state visit in Australia yesterday, Bainimarama hopes that Australia and Fiji can eventually find more common ground in our vuvale on the climate issue.

At his last event of his official visit in Australia, Bainimarama continued to ask for Australia to step up their climate action.

“I understand that politics is the art of the possible. I understand the depth of feeling in coal producing communities in Australia and the wider economic imperatives at state and federal level. But I also hope that we can eventually find more common ground in our vuvale on the climate issue.”

Bainimarama says Australia and Fiji are good mates and sometimes they will have their differences.
He says right now, they may have varied level of ambition when it comes to confronting the threat of climate change.

“We naturally want Australia to join us in stepping up our collective response to the climate threat. And this includes putting the IPCC report back on the agenda at COP25 in Chile in December.”

Fiji is currently finalising a comprehensive Climate Change Act which, in part, draws on much of Australia’s experience in developing emission reduction projects.