Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Does the minister recall his comments of 25 September 2006:

There is no doubt that weeds pose ... a challenge much clearer, more present and possibly more serious than the unclear challenge which climate change may or may not pose to our biodiversity in 100 years time.

Didn’t the government’s own State of the environment report show that Australia’s greenhouse emissions will rise by 22 per cent by 2020? Has not the CSIRO warned that such an increase could lead to a four degree rise in temperatures, destroying the Great Barrier Reef and halving water flows in the Murray-Darling Basin? While acknowledging that weeds are a major challenge, given the CSIRO findings, does the minister stand by his assertion that weeds are a clearer threat to our children than global warming, melting icecaps, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns?