Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, the problem with pretending to care is that it is hard to be convincing to anyone. No better example of this was in evidence than last night when the Leader of the Opposition was interviewed on Lateline and was asked a very straightforward question:

Do you accept what’s happening to the Lower Lakes and right up the Murray is also related to climate change?

This is the answer from the Leader of the Opposition:

Well, no I don’t.

He went on to say:

What’s happening at the moment in the Murray-Darling Basin is a consequence of two things: mismanagement of the entire system for almost 100 years, and also the worst drought in 100 years. And it is quite wrong for people to suggest that what we’re seeing at the moment is a consequence of climate change.

Following that response, the Leader of the Opposition was presented with the views of Australian scientists, including from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. He then went on to say:

Climate change in so far as the impacts that we have seen may well be contributing to some of it, but essentially what we see is a product, as I say, of drought and mismanagement.

That was two positions in two minutes as the opposition leader went on to talk about mismanagement.

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