Fiji’s prime minister has hit tennis great-turned-Liberal MP John Alexander with a backhander for telling Fijians they should “move to higher ground” to escape the rising sea waters caused by climate change.

Frank Bainimarama also said former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd was insensitive and “neo-colonial” for wanting Australia to relocate Pacific islanders in exchange for control of oceans and fisheries.

In a speech to the sixth Australasian Emissions Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday, Mr Bainimarama said Fiji was lucky to even have higher ground to move people to as it dealt with the effects of climate change

“I will hit back the proverbial tennis ball, of course, with this: In Fiji, we have already moved three communities and have a priority queue of about some 40 others waiting to be relocated,” he said.

“The decision to relocate a Fijian community may seem like an easy one, but abandoning your home isn’t some cold and calculated business decision.

“For those affected, it’s a deeply emotional loss.”

Mr Alexander told an election forum in his Sydney electorate last week that Australia’s priority should be assisting its neighbours to move “their settlements to higher ground”.

“I think we should turn our minds to that positive contribution to our region,” he said.

“It’s very much like your house is on fire, your children are in the house – should you call the fire brigade and get the children out of the house?”

On Wednesday, Mr Bainimarama repeated his call for Australia to ban the construction of new coal mines.

“We need to address the root of the [climate change] problem by urgently modernising and decarbonising our economies,” he said.

“It is also a mistake to talk only about the cost of mitigation because mitigation brings new technologies and new opportunities.”

Mr Rudd’s call for Australia to offer Pacific islanders homes in exchange for control over their seas was also strongly rebuked.

“In a time where we must be future-facing, we can hardly tolerate such insensitive neo-colonial prescriptions,” Mr Bainimarama said.

Mr Bainimarama called on Australia to show leadership, as Canada, Argentina, New Zealand and Scandinavian countries, which have promised to do more to cut emissions, have done.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week admitted emissions had risen under the coalition government since 2013.

Mr Bainimarama said getting 200 nations to agree to collective action was always going to take time but it needed to accelerate.

“Slow progress was to be expected until we reached a crisis point. The existential crisis of humankind has arrived, in 2019,” he said.

Labor environment spokesman Mark Butler will speak at the conference, but unlike previous years, no Coalition government MP will be present.

-with AAP