Prime Minister Tony Abbott has shrugged off criticism of his environmental policy from Australia’s newest Man Booker Prize-winning author.

Richard Flanagan said he is “ashamed to be Australian” when he sees the damage done to Australia’s environment.

Mr Abbott said he was pleased another Australian had won the prestigious prize, but defended his government’s environmental record.

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Author Richard Flanagan. Photo: Getty

“I don’t spend my life commenting on literature, and I’ll leave litterateurs to make their comments on politics,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

“I’m confident that we are a country which has a very, very strong environmental record.”

Mr Abbott pointed to his government’s work protecting the Great Barrier Reef and deploying the Green Army to environmental projects as evidence of that record.

Mr Flanagan claimed the $91,000 literary award for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Tony Abbott at the opening of Caval Ridge coal mine. Photo: AAP

After accepting the prize in London, Mr Flanagan was asked how he felt about Mr Abbott’s comment this week that “coal is good for humanity”.

“I’m very saddened because Australia has the most extraordinary environment and I don’t understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that’s unique in the world,” the Tasmanian writer told BBC television.

Mr Abbott said he hadn’t yet had a chance to read Mr Flanagan’s book.

“It must be pretty good or it wouldn’t have won,” he said.

“I’ve read a couple of his previous works and I think he’s an interesting and stimulating author.”

Direct action push

Meanwhile, the federal government is quietly confident of reaching a deal to pass its Direct Action climate policy through the Senate.

The Carbon Farming Initiative bill – which implements the $2.5 billion Direct Action plan – is before the Senate, which has only three more sitting weeks before the year’s end.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has been stepping up efforts in public and behind the scenes to pass the bill in the coming fortnight of parliament sittings.

The government needs either six crossbenchers, the 10 Greens or the Labor opposition’s support to pass the laws.

Government figures believe the Palmer United Party’s position – supporting Direct Action in exchange for a zero-rated emissions trading scheme which kicks in only when a global ETS starts – has been softening over the past few months.

Greens leader Christine Milne, who has met with Mr Hunt, dealt the party back into the talks by offering in a recent speech to put some “spine and rigour” into Direct Action if the renewable energy target is retained.

The government is considering a review’s report into the RET, but has committed to retaining the target of 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Mr Hunt said he wanted to get the bill passed this month.

The minister said the upcoming G20 leaders’ summit in Brisbane, which had energy efficiency on the agenda, would form part of the process in coming to a new global agreement.

Former treasurer Wayne Swan said listing energy efficiency on the G20 agenda was a “fig leaf” for Australia’s inaction on climate change.

“In the corridors of Washington, Berlin and elsewhere there is genuine dismay about the lack of attention to climate change in the G20 agenda,” Mr Swan told the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

-AAP