Adelie penguins colony on the iceberg Antarctica
An Adelie penguin colony in Antarctica (Image: Suppled)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried and failed to make it to Antarctica this week. Bad weather may have made her four-day mission down south go south, but the trip remains significant.

No sitting Australian prime minister has paid Antarctica a visit. Australia claims more than 42% of the Antarctic continent — the largest territory of any nation operating in Antarctica. So why no PM pilgrimage?

Crikey asked the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet whether it would entertain sending Anthony Albanese to Antarctica. It said it was “unable to comment on potential official visits until a formal announcement is made”.

Oceans and Antarctic expert from the University of Tasmania Dr Marcus Haward said: “There’s nothing stopping the Australian PM from going.”

Logistically it’s feasible. There are no commercial flights from Australia to Antarctica. But industry experts say a charter flight seats about 50 people and would not break the bank.

Alternatively, there’s the Barnaby Joyce seaborne option. In 2006, after only one year as a Queensland National Party senator, he went south by boat. Joyce was travelling as part of the federal government’s External Territories Committee, but he video-logged his month-long expedition for an Australian Story special and made a name for himself advocating for mining. The big question at the time was: “Would Antarctica change Barnaby Joyce or would Barnaby Joyce seek to change Antarctica?”

More than a decade later, insert politician of choice and the question still holds. Haward said politicians “from the most senior to the most junior” would benefit from an IRL (in-real-life) insight into Australian activities in Antarctica.

But equally, there’s political clout in a PM showing face. He said it sends a message about the degree to which Antarctic interests are part of national policy. Given Australia has environmental, security and strategic interests in the South Pole — including a sizable territorial claim — Haward said it’s much like a diplomatic visit overseas, albeit in our own backyard: “The New Zealand prime minister making a visit to Antarctica is no different to an Australian prime minister going to the Northern Territory.”

Australia and New Zealand are two of only seven states that claim territory under the Antarctic Treaty. Argentina, Chile, France, Norway and the UK are the other five. The territorial claims of those seven nations are recognised by … only those seven nations. And yet 27 nations operate in Antarctica as member nations of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), and a further 10 acceding nations. Many of these nations, including the US, also assert territory in Antarctica, but have their own systems for doing so.

From the point of politics, University of Canterbury international relations Professor Anne-Marie Brady said Ardern’s trip south was because “NZ has a 15% claim there and all NZ PMs in recent years have visited our base”. She added that the Ardern government had recently approved funding to rebuild NZ’s base and “she is going to view progress”.

Politicians in Antarctica are not a new phenomenon. In 1999, 24 nations convened on the ice for a “first of its kind” meeting to discuss the ecology of the frozen continent. Over the years, Chile and Argentina have sent presidents and even held a cabinet meeting at an Argentinian station.

Australia has also had its fair share of politicians past and present pay the place a visit. In 2008, then environment minister Peter Garrett joined the first Australian flight to Antarctica. In 2013, former PM Bob Hawke flew in for an official opening ceremony. Twenty years prior when in government, Hawke successfully led a campaign to ban mining in Antarctica. In 2016, it was then governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove who travelled there.

Still, no sitting Australian PM. So should we send Albanese?

Tony Press, another Antarctic expert from the University of Tasmania said yes, so long as it’s for something of substance: “It needs to be tied to something important otherwise it’s just seen as a ‘jolly’. That’s a term used by the Antarctic community which basically means you go off and see Antarctica but don’t actually do anything there.”