Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Just a few days ago, on the Central Coast, we experienced an early onset of the fire season. Once again we saw properties under threat from large bushfires. Yet the official warnings for dangerous fire conditions and extreme weather come under the Hunter, a separate region from ours. Despite improvements in town forecasts, regional Central Coast forecasts and warnings do not exist. When will the Bureau of Meteorology treat the Central Coast as a region in its own right with its own weather forecasts, warnings and observations?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dobell for his question. Particularly when it comes to issues of natural disasters, there is a very high degree of sensitivity about trying to make sure the information offered by the Bureau of Meteorology is as localised as possible. I can understand why that is a view very strongly held on the Central Coast, particularly after the recent early onset of the fire season.

I should note that weather forecasts themselves are provided on a very local basis. The bureau, for example, provides full seven-day weather forecasts for the Central Coast—I think you will find it is Norah Head, Gosford and, I think, Mangrove Mountain. But, as I understand it, the regional forecasts are tied to state government fire districts. At the moment, I think the Central Coast is tied in with the Hunter region. I would not want to depart from us having consistency between how the bureau operates and how the emergency services themselves seek to operate.

That said, I am very happy to ask the parliamentary secretary in the other place, who has responsibility for the issue, to raise this directly with both the bureau and the New South Wales authorities. The people of the Central Coast, understandably, want those warnings to be given in the most timely way and in the most localised way, and many of them would, quite rightly, regard the Hunter as being a long way from home, whether you are living in The Entrance, Terrigal or Gosford. So I will ask the parliamentary secretary to follow through with that action and report back directly to the member for Dobell.