COP31

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. What level of confidence does the Premier have that our state will host COP31 in November next year? With your leave, sir, and that of the house I'll explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT:TheAustralianFinancial Review today revealed the Prime Minister is unlikely to attend the Brazil summit 'as COP bid teeters'.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:02): I thank the member for Frome for her question. It's a good one and one that we'd like to have an answer to ourselves. Naturally, I have been monitoring the negotiations and been in discussions with commonwealth colleagues regarding how they are proceeding.

The first thing is this: no matter what happens from here I can't tell you how proud I am that South Australia is currently in the position to be the hosts—or Adelaide is to be the host city—in the event that Australia wins the right to host COP. I don't think it's fully appreciated that this was not the way it was supposed to go. These events always tend to be in either Sydney or Melbourne, but if Australia wins the rights it's in Adelaide. And well it should be given that we've got a pretty good story to tell on all things associated with decarbonisation, apart from the fact that we've demonstrated our capacity to host a pretty good event, notwithstanding the fact that this will be the biggest we've ever had by a proverbial mile.

We are very excited about the proposition. Australia ostensibly—and this was also reported in the Fin this morning—has the support of the overall majority of member nations that are otherwise eligible to have a say, overwhelmingly. However, we have this system that we are subject to in the UN where everything has to be done via consensus. People might debate the merit of having such an arrangement in a different forum. I am happy to contribute to that discussion.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: No, we are not. We make decisions; that's right, and we have means to resolve how those decisions are made, even including things such as that. But there is no mechanism here: we need Turkiye to withdraw. So we do not know what is going to happen. Only the Turkish government, or the government of Turkiye, can truly say whether or not they are likely to withdraw. Time will tell.

There have been negotiations about what a potential compromise option might look like. I welcome those discussions, but we are in the box seat. I certainly hope we get the result we are looking for, but we can't be guaranteed it. Anyone who says they know how this is going to play out, unless it is President Erdogan, probably does not know. We will wait and see. The advice that I have received is that it is ultimately going to have to be decided at the Brazil COP, as was foreshadowed in that article as well. We will wait and see how it transpires.

Our fingers are crossed, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. It will be a huge upside for the state if we get it. In fact, if we do not get it, we have already had a benefit by virtue of the fact that we have procured a lot of IP and got our name out there with very small cost indeed. In fact, we have got a bit of international recognition out of it. It is good to be in the position we are in, and we will wait to see how it plays out. It is impossible to predict. What I do know is, like I said, you have got to be in it to win it, and we are very much in it.