Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the planned continuation of job cuts to the Bureau of Meteorology in my electorate. This week in Senate estimates, the director of the Bureau of Meteorology was unable to say how many people are employed in the Northern Territory BOM, so I decided to go and have a bit of a look myself. I found out that, lo and behold, when those opposite took government, there were 80 staff employed by the Bureau of Meteorology in the NT, but that's being cut by 25 per cent. When I asked the Minister for the Environment about this last week in this place, she failed to confirm that forecasting jobs will not be lost from Darwin. What a disgrace!

The Minister for the Environment, the member for Durack, is in an area that's hit by cyclones. The honourable member should be aware that the Bureau of Meteorology being able to forecast and track cyclones in an area that's hit by cyclones is kind of important. Perhaps, because she lives in Perth, she's unaware. Those opposite, especially those from Western Australia, should know that the BOM's important. So, again, I say to them: stop cutting jobs from the BOM.