Kiribati criticises 'water lapping' joke

The president of Kiribati has hit out at Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's "vulgar" joke about rising sea levels in the Pacific, saying it was "quite unbecoming of leadership".

Mr Dutton was on Friday caught out joking about the plight of Pacific island nations facing rising seas from climate change.

Noting that a meeting in Canberra was running a bit late, Mr Dutton quipped that it was running to "Cape York time", to which Prime Minister Tony Abbott replied: "We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby."

Mr Dutton then said: "Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door."

Kiribati's leader Anote Tong described the joke as "vulgar".

"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," Anote Tong said.

A traditional owner on Cape York, Gerhardt Pearson, also responded angrily to the comments, calling his views "soft bigotry" and saying they hark back to mission days of the last century.