Chris Bowen has accused the Coalition of being unpatriotic as he defended travel expenses and staffing costs for his role as the president of negotiations for the United Nations climate talks this year.

The Energy Minister said the nearly $150 million allocated to his COP duties was “very good value for money” compared with other international forums Australia has led in the past.

He took a swipe at shadow minister Dan Tehan for questioning the cost, claiming the Liberal had done far more extensive travel in his final year as a minister.

“Whenever Australia steps up internationally and chairs a big international meeting, it does come with some expense,” Mr Bowen told reporters.

He cited the $400 million cost to host the G20 in 2014 and $330 million for APEC in 2007.

By contrast, Australia’s role here is costing $50 million in direct COP costs as part of a $150 million investment in climate initiatives across the Pacific.

Australia lost the bid to host the conference in Adelaide, instead coming to an agreement with Turkey that it would host the summit and Mr Bowen would be the president of negotiations.

“This is unquestionably in Australia’s best interest to step up and play an outsized role in the world,” Mr Bowen said.

“We believe Australia having more influence is a good thing. The Coalition believes Australia having more influence is a bad thing.

“A patriot party would embrace this. A partisan party would reject it.”

Documents obtained by the Opposition under freedom of information laws show the department spent $485,602 for staff to travel to Turkey, Fiji, Germany and Korea in January and February on trips relating to the UN negotiations.

Officials revealed in Senate estimates that the business class travel included a visit to Fijian resort island Denarau in Fiji to inspect the five-star Sheraton hotel, which is likely to be the venue for the pre-COP climate conference.

Mr Tehan said that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, it was outrageous.

“That’s not for Chris Bowen to travel to be at the seat at the table, that was so they could travel to look at venues,” he said.

“When it comes to the resort in Fiji, they’ve got an embassy, why can’t those people go and have a look? I’ve been a diplomat, I’ve been and had a look at venues for APEC conferences.”

Mr Bowen said there were 30 bureaucrats in his department’s COP presidency unit, all of whom were involved in climate discussions anyway.

He said the only overseas trip he’s made personally this year was to Denmark last week, for the regular Copenhagen pre-COP ministerial meeting.

The minister labelled Mr Tehan “the biggest hypocrite in the federal parliament” on travel costs.

“In his last year as minister, he went to France, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, United States, Indonesia, India, United Arab Emirates, France again, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom and the Maldives twice at taxpayer expense,” Mr Bowen said of his opponent.

“Now, if Mr Tehan’s going to criticise me for federal travel, for ministerial travel, he needs to justify why was he in all those countries at taxpayer expense in his last year as minister, including on the VIP, on the Royal Australian Air Force plane, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in those last period as minister.

“Now, if he wants to have a debate about international travel, I’ll have it with him. I didn’t seek it. I’d rather debate policy.”

Mr Tehan was the trade minister in the final years of the Morrison government, a role that typically involves a lot of international travel for in-person negotiations.

He denied any hypocrisy.

“I’m happy to go toe to toe with Chris Bowen on that. I mean, sure, I was trade minister and I traveled to negotiate trade agreements, and you’ve got to look (then-UK prime minister) Liz Truss in the eye,” he said.

The stops in the Maldives and the use of the RAAF jet were necessary because his travel happened during COVID when commercial flights weren’t available, Mr Tehan said.