Opposition leader Peter Dutton's comments that he "can't tell you whether the temperature has risen" in parts of Queensland have been labelled by Torres Strait climate activists as "frustrating and upsetting".
At the second leaders' debate on Wednesday night, when asked if the impacts of climate change – including in Queensland – were getting worse, Mr Dutton told moderator David Speers: "I'll let scientists pass that judgment."
"I don't know because I'm not a scientist and I can't tell you whether the temperature has risen in Thargomindah because of climate change, or the water levels are up," he said.
"There's an impact. The question is what we can do about it as a population of 27 million people. We should be good corporate citizens, good international neighbours. But at the moment, China is building two coal-fired power stations a week."
In the wake of scientists confirming the sixth coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in Mr Dutton's home state of Queensland in less than a decade, several Elders from the Torres Strait—one of the most at-risk parts on the globe due to rising levels—criticised the Opposition leader's comments.
Senior Torres Strait Islander Elder and climate activist, Aunty McRose Elu, said Mr Dutton had "exposed himself as someone who does not understand the basic climate science and who doesn't care about the suffering of our communities".
"How can you hope to be the leader of our nation if you are not tuned into the most critical issue affecting the lives of people in this Country?"
Torres Strait communities have the highest risks and lowest adaptive capacities of any Indigenous community to combat climate change due to their isolation and limited access to support facilities, a report prepared for the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering, and Innovation Council found in 2007.
"In some cases, the Torres Strait islands are already at risk from inundation," it added.
Ms Elu said the opposition leader's comments were "frustrating," especially as the state has faced a barrage of "unnatural disasters" this year.
"In the Torres Strait, sea walls have been breached and our islands have flooded. Our Brothers and Sisters in the Northern Rivers are still displaced and rebuilding their homes from the floods years ago. This is climate change," she said.
"How can they be this ignorant?"
Earlier this month the government has committed $77 million in funding for seawall structures and waste infrastructure for the Torres Strait in a bid to help boost climate resilience.
Benny Dau, a proud Torres Strait Islander man from the Samu clan, lives on Boigu with his wife and children. He said Mr Dutton needed to come up to the "Torres Strait and see for himself what impacts we as Torres Strait Islanders have to endure year in and year out".
"The water is at our doorstep. Our families, our homes, our culture, and everything we know is at risk," Mr Dau said.
"Our leaders need to get their heads out of the sand and come and see for themselves first-hand what climate change looks like."
The Coalition have been criticised for having some in their party who have pushed back on climate change. Guardian Australia reported this week that Coalition MP Colin Boyce is a member of the climate change denying Saltbush Club, who state: "Our goal is to change the climate of public opinion."
Mr Boyce told a podcast in July last year: "I think in general there are more and more people starting to realise the fallacy of the whole argument, if you like, the whole carbon dioxide argument has never been scientifically proved."
In his closing remarks on Wednesday night, the PM leapt on Mr Dutton's comments, arguing, "We've heard tonight no acceptance of the science of climate change."
"We accept it and we're acting on it."
Earlier this month, federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, echoed the PM's sentiments, arguing: "The Coalition doesn't take climate change seriously."
"They brought lumps of coal into Parliament and Peter Dutton, when he was a Minister, joked about rising sea levels in the Pacific," she said.
