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

Member for Shortland, have you lived through a cyclone, as I have? Have you been in the position where you need vital weather information locally? When you have a cyclone coming in across Halifax Bay in Townsville and it is bearing down on Townsville with 200-kilometre-an-hour winds, you need to know something about it. That is why it is important that the Rudd government be made to understand that we will not sit idly by. We will fight this tooth and nail. We will make sure that the weather bureau stays in the regions of Australia and certainly in the regions of Queensland. I back the statements made by Senator Ian Macdonald, senator for Queensland, who said today that the closure would affect the ability of the Townsville region to prepare for extreme weather conditions. I hope we can get some bipartisan help on that and I look forward to having a discussion with the member for Capricornia.

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