The president of Kiribati has lashed out at Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, labelling him morally irresponsible for making a "vulgar" joke about rising sea levels in the Pacific.
Responding more in "sadness" than anger, Anote Tong said Mr Dutton has "got to search his own soul".
"What kind of a person is he? As long as there is this kind of attitude, this kind of arrogance in any position of leadership, we will continue to have a lot of tension," he said.
Yesterday, Mr Dutton was making small talk with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who had just returned from talks with Pacific Island leaders in Papua New Guinea.
Noting that a meeting was running late, Mr Dutton remarked it was running to "Cape York time", to which Mr Abbott replied: "We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby."
Mr Dutton then quipped: "Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door."
Six pollies caught out by a mic
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton might have described his banter about rising sea levels as a "private conversation", but as politicians should know, it's never private if there's a recording device.
Both men laughed before Social Services Minister Scott Morrison pointed out there was a microphone above their heads recording the conversation.
"It shows a sense of moral irresponsibility quite unbecoming of leadership in any capacity," Mr Tong said when asked about the joke.
"This is the issue we were arguing about yesterday."
At the meeting the Kiribati president, who has long been an outspoken advocate for global action on climate change, campaigned hard for Australia to promise to reduce emissions, support a tighter cap on global temperature rises and consider stopping building new coal mines.
"I find that extremely sad, extremely disappointing that we are making jokes about a very serious issue," he said.
Mr Tong also warned Mr Dutton that a future Australian immigration minister will have to deal with a wave of Pacific refugees from low-lying countries like Kiribati, if sea levels continue to rise.
"I don't think so, I know so, because the science is quite categorical," he said.
"I hope this just doesn't reflect the deeper feelings ... about this issue because it's a serious issue for many people on this planet."
The foreign affairs minister of the Marshall Islands, Tony de Brum, also expressed his dismay over Mr Dutton's remarks.
"Dismayed Aust ministers joking about sea level rise in Pacific. Seems insensitivity knows no bounds in the big polluting island down sth," he wrote on Twitter.
Gary Juffa, the governor of Oro province in PNG, also tweeted, saying Mr Abbott "must apologise for insensitivity towards all for laughing at climate change".
The Immigration Minister has refused to answer questions about his remark, simply stating: "I had a private conversation with the Prime Minister."
He and the Prime Minister have been criticised by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who said "it was a bad joke by a minister who is a bad joke".
"But the fact that the Prime Minister is laughing along with it reminds me of what Barack Obama said: any leader who doesn't take climate change seriously is not fit to lead," he said