Chris Bowen’s recognition for Country in Dubai sparks backlash – as Energy Minister lashes out at fierce critic: ‘Racist and disgusting’

Chris Bowen has called for the resignation of fierce critic Andrew Bolt, saying the Energy Secretary was ‘indulging the primitive’ by opening a speech in Dubai with a modified Acknowledgment of Country.

Bowen hit back at Bolt on Thursday, claiming the barb crossed the line and was a “racist and disgusting” attack on First Nations people.

“Like most Australians, I tend to ignore Andrew Bolt,” Bowen wrote.

‘But on this occasion I won’t. His attack on First Nations people as “primitive” is racist and disgusting. News Ltd should fire him.”

The word Bowen objected to was in the context of Bolt condemning the amended ‘Recognition of Country’ he gave to ‘Indigenous peoples around the world’ when he spoke on Saturday at last week’s UN Cop28 climate talks in Dubai.

“Doesn’t Bowen and the Prime Minister himself realize that many Australians are tired of this bowing to the primitive?” Bolt wrote.

While Acknowledgment to Country is normally the recognition that non-Indigenous people are on Aboriginal land, Mr Bowen made it much more general and inclusive before his Cop28 speech.

“I begin by recognizing that at the heart of action on climate change must be deep respect for the people who have cared for our respective lands for millennia – indigenous peoples around the world,” Mr Bowen said on Saturday.

“I reaffirm our government’s commitment to engaging our First Nations people in our response to climate change and the future of clean energy.

“Recognizing that respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices is critical,” he said.

Bolt branded Bowen’s gesture as “mindless posturing” and “race-based tribalism with his ruinous crusade against oil and gas.”

“Everyone in Australia is undoubtedly connected to Indigenous peoples somewhere on the planet from the past,” he argued.

‘Does Bowen seriously demand ‘profound’ respect for the ‘native knowledge’ of every Celt from England, every Saxon from Germany, every Gaul from France, or every Roman from central Italy?

“Or are the ‘indigenous people’ he flatters only people who are not white?

In the tweet, Bowen labeled Bolt’s column attacking him as “racist and disgusting”

“In fact, Bowen’s little homily is not only racist, but also anti-science, making him a threat to Australia.”

Bolt argued that the “indigenous peoples” of Europe and Asia had “left behind their ‘indigenous knowledge’ as they used reason and science to devise better ways to live without dying early and poor.”

“In contrast, we must show ‘deep respect’ for the ‘indigenous knowledge’ of Aboriginal people,” Bolt wrote.

‘Some of them are now trying to stop a $5.6 billion offshore gas project in the Federal Court by claiming that an undersea pipeline will disrupt a man-made crocodile that they claim has been living in that patch of ocean since the Dreamtime has lived.’

Bolt said that by firing Mr Bowen, the Prime Minister could show that his “government is guided by reason, and not by this new racism, tribalism or pagan earth worship that makes it seem so dangerously out of the control of voters.” ‘.

The Cop28 climate talks concluded in Dubai but took an unplanned extra day to finalize an agreement that for the first time will require countries to transition away from fossil fuels ‘in a just and orderly manner’, but without a specific timeline.

Bolt has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to fire Bowen because he is “anti-science.”

Sultan Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, who is also head of giant state-owned oil producer Adnoc, is credited with brokering an agreement after the summit deadlocked over whether countries would commit to phasing out fossil fuels to phase’.

While most countries, including Australia, wanted the summit to agree to “phase out” fossil fuels, oil-producing countries, especially Saudi Arabia, wanted an agreement that committed to “phasing out” fossil fuels and other ways can be used to reduce emissions.

Veteran climate activist and former US Vice President Al Gore tweeted that the compromise agreement was “an important milestone” but also the “bare minimum we need and is long overdue.”

“Whether this is a turning point that truly marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era will depend on the actions that come next and the mobilization of financial resources necessary to achieve them,” he wrote.

Speaking at the Cop28 conference, Mr Bowen said phasing out fossil fuels is crucial for the Pacific region.

“We also live in the Pacific Ocean, and we will not see our brothers and sisters being swamped and their countries swallowed up by the seas,” he said.

The Alliance of Small Island States, which represented a number of small Pacific countries at Cop28, expressed bitter disappointment at the conclusion of the deal.

“We see a litany of loopholes,” the Alliance statement said.

‘It will not lead to a reduction in subsidies, and it will not take us any further than the status quo.’

“We don’t see any commitment or even an invitation for parties to peak emissions in 2025.”

Mr Bown opened his speech to the Cop28 climate talks with a ‘recognition’ of all the world’s indigenous peoples