Sky News host James Morrow says Prime Minister Scott Morrison got the opportunity to 'pick a fight' with the French instead of being 'beaten up' over Australia's climate policy while he was attending the COP26 conference in Glasgow.
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron accused Mr Morrison of lying to him about the fate of the axed $90 billion submarine deal ahead of the AUKUS agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom.
A private text exchange between Mr Macron and Mr Morrison was then leaked and published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday evening to show the French president was aware his country's submarine deal was in trouble.
Mr Morrow said the submarine spat ended up being the 'number one story' in a week which was meant to be all about climate.
'So in a weird sort of way this ended up benefiting the Prime Minister because instead of getting beaten up by everybody over climate � Scott Morrison got the opportunity to pick a fight with the French.'
