Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, you are a Queenslander—you will understand what I am going to say. In Queensland, this year particularly, we have had some fairly wild and quite variable weather about the state. We heard in the parliament today the reference to the metres of rain which have fallen in Mackay. We have had very significant problems from monsoonal troughs coming down from the north across the state and bringing wild weather and lots of rain. We also have cyclones of course. So it is very important that our regions in Queensland have accurate weather information. Mr Deputy Speaker, in case you have not caught up with this—and I am glad the member for Capricornia is here because she may not have caught up with it either—the Rudd government has announced today that it may close the Bureau of Meteorology offices in Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton and in Launceston. That is an outrage.

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