Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for the question. We have already had a number of references in question time today to the different impacts of climate change in different parts of the nation. Whilst you can never pinpoint a single weather event and say it is due to climate change, it is true that the trend lines provide you with opportunities to see how events which have always occurred to some extent become more severe and occur more regularly—whether it be examples around the current drought, whether it be last year’s heatwaves across South Australia and parts of Victoria or whether it be the increased severity of major weather events in the north of our country. For this reason the research into the responses needs to take account of regional differences. That is why the soil carbon work that we are doing under Australia’s Farming Future, which was referred to earlier by the Prime Minister, deals with soils as far south as the electorates of Lyons, Franklin, Bass and Braddon and as far north as the electorates of Maranoa, Dawson and Kennedy.

In the same way, it is important for those local experiences to find their way into discussion here in the parliament. That is why it has been my focus as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to meet with the people who work the land on their own land. I have conducted many of those visits with members opposite and members behind me in different regional seats. You need those experiences to be brought here to the parliament, whether they be from the massive pastoral properties in the north or from the smaller cattle and dairy operations in areas like Pine Rivers. The importance of an area like Pine Rivers receiving local representation was made to the parliament last year in a wonderful statement by the shadow minister for health and member for Dickson.

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