On Friday, Mr Dutton was making small talk with Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who had just returned from the Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea.
Noting that a meeting was running late, Mr Dutton remarked it was running to Cape York time, to which Mr Abbott replied: We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby.
Mr Dutton then quipped: Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door, a comment caught on a television microphone.
