Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown has written to the Minister responsible for the Antarctic Division, Senator Robert Hill, saying P&O should pay the costs of the failed Aurora Australis winter expedition to Antarctica.

"It will cost a lot to bring the Aurora Australis and its expeditioners and crew home, not to mention the expense of the abandoned research into climate change, which was the aim of the expedition.

"Antarctic Division research and other activities should not be curtailed by having to bear these costs.

Replying to Greens Senator Bob Brown today, Leader of the Government in the Senate Robert Hill, said that the proposed Antarctic Treaty System secretariat HQ for Tasmania will be treated no differently to similar organisations elsewhere in Australia.

Senator Hill was answering Senator Brown's direct challenge to the Federal Government to drop the stipulation that Tasmania would have to make up the $700 000 tax shortfall if secretariat staff were given the usual tax exempt status that applies to world treaty secretariats.

Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown says Senator Hill is in danger of earning himself and Australia the tag of 'global vandal' after his performance at the Climate Change Convention in Kyoto.

"While Senator Hill parades the world stage making a fool of himself he also brings shame on Australia. His constant threat that Australia may not sign a very watered down greenhouse gas reduction convention has seriously undermined international attempts to reach a meaningful and strong consensus at Kyoto," Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said in Canberra today.

Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown today revealed that the Australian Government has abolished funding for renewable energy research while spending over $111 million on R&D for coal and other fossil fuel industries during the next five years.

"As the climate change convention gets underway in Kyoto, Australia's greenhouse response strategy is to preserve the coal industry, not the planet. It's a fossilised plan from a government embedded in the past and ignoring the sunny future -- the next century will be the solar century", said Senator Brown.