Chris Bowen’s Acknowledgement to Country in Dubai ignites backlash – as the energy minister lashes out at fierce critic: ‘Racist and disgusting’

Chris Bowen called for fierce critic Andrew Bolt to be sacked for saying the energy secretary was “bowing to the primitive” as he opened a speech in Dubai with a modified “Acknowledgment of Country”.

On Thursday, Bowen hit back at Bolt, saying the barb had crossed the line and was a “racist and disgusting” attack on Indigenous people.

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

“But in this case I won’t.” His attacks on Indigenous people as “primitive” are racist and disgusting. News Ltd should sack him.”

The word Mr Bowen objected to was in the context of Bolt denouncing the amended “Acknowledgment of Country” the minister gave to “indigenous peoples around the world” while speaking on Saturday during last week’s UN Cop28 climate talks in Dubai.

“Don’t Bowen and the Prime Minister himself realize that many Australians are sick and tired of this groveling before the primitives?” Bolt wrote.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has called for the sacking of Conservative pundit Andrew Bolt, accusing him of calling Indigenous Australians “primitive”.

While country acknowledgment is usually an acknowledgment by non-Indigenous people that they are on Aboriginal land, Mr Bowen made it much more general and expansive ahead of his Cop28 speech.

“I start by recognizing that climate action must be based on deep respect for the people who have cared for our lands for millennia – the world’s indigenous peoples,” Mr Bowen said on Saturday.

“I reaffirm our government’s commitment to including Indigenous people in our fight against climate change and a clean energy future.

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

Bolt called Bowen’s gesture “brainless posturing” and “racial tribalism with its destructive crusade against oil and gas.”

“Every resident of Australia is probably connected with some kind of indigenous people somewhere on the planet from the ‘millennium’ of the past,” he argued.

“Does Bowen seriously demand “deep” respect for the “indigenous knowledge” of every Celt from England, every Saxon from Germany, every Gaul from France or every Roman from central Italy?

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

In a tweet, Bowen called Bolt’s column attacking him “racist and disgusting.”

“In fact, Bowen’s little sermon is not only racist, but anti-science, which makes him a threat to Australia.”

Bolt argued that “indigenous peoples” in Europe and Asia “left their ‘indigenous knowledge’ behind as they used reason and science to find a better way to live without dying early or dying in poverty.”

“Instead, we must show “deep respect” for Aboriginal “indigenous knowledge,” Bolt wrote.

“Some of them are now in Federal Court trying to stop a $5.6 billion offshore gas project, arguing that an undersea pipeline would upset the crocodile-turned-man that they claim has lived on this stretch of ocean since the Time of Dreams.” .

Bolt said that by sacking 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 which makes it seem so dangerously out of control voter control.”

Cop28 climate talks concluded in Dubai but required an unscheduled extra day to smooth out the agreement, which for the first time commits countries to transitioning away from fossil fuels in a “fair and orderly manner” but does not give a specific timetable.

Bolt called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sack Bowen for his “anti-science activities”

The United Arab Emirates’ Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the head of giant state oil company Adnoc, is credited with brokering the deal after a summit deadlocked over whether countries would commit to “phasing out” fossil fuels.

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

Veteran climate campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore tweeted that the compromise agreement was a “major milestone” but also “the bare minimum we need and are long overdue.”

“Whether this is a turning point that truly marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era depends on further action and the mobilization of finance needed to achieve it,” he wrote.

During the Cop28 conference, Mr Bowen said phasing out fossil fuels was vital for the Pacific region.

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

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

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

“It will not phase out subsidies or take us beyond the status quo.”

“We see no commitment or even invitation to Parties to achieve peak emissions by 2025.”

Mr Bown opened his speech at the Cop28 climate talks with an “acknowledgment” of all the world’s indigenous peoples.