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SYDNEY - Arguments against travelling overseas or buying foreign food because of the carbon footprint are "idiotic" and not the way to tackle climate change, Helen Clark has said.
The Prime Minister, in Sydney on a week-long tour of Australia, said such arguments about the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the use of fossil fuels were "false science".
"If you want to talk about threats, the next threat to trade from our part of the world is going to be idiotic arguments about food miles and travel miles - don't travel all the way to Australia, think of the carbon footprint, don't buy their food, think of the carbon footprint," Miss Clark told the Seven Network.
"We have got to knock those arguments underwater because they're false science."
Miss Clark said she thought Australia and New Zealand faced different challenges when dealing with climate change.
"Australia is of course very dependent on coal, so for you what really matters is big investment in clean coal technology," she said.
"So I think it's really a question of these issues coming up the priority tree in Australia.
"And with the extreme weather you've had, the terrible, terrible droughts, followed by bushfires, followed by terrible flooding, I think people know there's issues here and climate's got to be tackled."
Miss Clark, who is due to meet Prime Minister John Howard in Canberra this afternoon, refused to compare him with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, saying she had good relations with both of them.
She said she thought Australia would have a female prime minister at some time in the future.
"I don't know about near (future), because the timing's got to be right, you've got to have the right person in the right place," she said.
"But yes, Australia will have a woman prime minister, of course it will, one day."
Miss Clark said being a woman in politics required a strong personality and thick skin, and Australia would have many good candidates.
"Australia has strong, stroppy women who do as good a job as anybody else," she said.
"You'll have every put-down in creation when you go to the job, and they'll all want to talk about your makeup and the colour of your clothes.
"You have to break through all that and bring a different standard to it."
- AAP
