Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Minister, how can the Bureau of Meteorology possibly maintain the services in this cyclone-prone area of Queensland when staff numbers are being cut by 50 per cent and when the Townsville office will now no longer be a 24-hour operation? I also ask the minister to explain how, when staff in the Mackay office are being cut from three to one, it can possibly provide the same services as cyclones pass by or through that community. How can Rockhampton, where the Prime Minister promised there would be no reduction in services, maintain services with such a savage reduction in staff numbers?