Asked on Monday whether he agreed with Albanese's comments, Shorten said national security was "a first order issue".
"The message I'm already getting loud and clear is that climate change is a first order issue for our neighbours and we need... Australia to have serious policies, credible policies which will help to contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change in our region".
We are allowing a second-order issue to threaten our long-term strategy for East Asia.
"For too long the last government understood that we had a social problem, but considered it a second order issue," he told delegates.
"But because it is old judge-made law, and protects 'reputations', often of the powerful or wealthy, its reform remains a second order issue," Orr said.
They also discuss the recent United States-China agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the evolution of the Republican Party's pronouncements on environmental issues, and the fact that climate change remains a second-order issue to the American public.
The nation might be briefly cheered by such a prospect – until it takes a look at her likely replacements, that is – but next to the enormity of Brexit, the career of May is strictly a second-order issue.
Cameron believes his plan to extend the offence of wilful neglect beyond the health service and adult social care sector to a far wider group of public service workers will send out a message that child abuse can no longer be regarded as a second order issue by public service workers.
So by the time my turn came, the general picture was surprisingly, reassuringly bright: reconciling Islamic faith with liberal values is easy; the views of Muslims are basically the same as everyone else's; the oppression of Muslim women is a third-order issue.
Many Conservatives oppose what they see as a second-order issue compared with fixing the economy.
