Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do support the Meteorology Amendment (Online Advertising) Bill 2014. As Senator Ludlam mentioned, the Bureau of Meteorology has a very, very valuable product—a product that is much in demand. I have always had the view that some of the great work the bureau does should be converted into a cash return to the taxpayer for the enormous amount of money the taxpayer has put into the bureau over a period of very many years. So, I certainly support the bill. I once had the privilege of being the minister in charge of the bureau, and I remember that even back in those days we were always trying to find ways that we could sell the wonderful product that the bureau produces to save the taxpayer the complete 100 per cent investment in the bureau, which does become more difficult to fund each and every year.

The bureau has a wonderful reputation, and I well recall my happy years interacting very closely with the bureau. I remember some wonderful people there, including Mr Bill Kininmonth. Talking about Mr Bill Kininmonth just reminds me—slightly off the subject, but certainly relating to the bureau—that I saw a letter in one of the papers the other day from Mr Kininmonth about a recent controversy with the bureau. As I said, I have a very high regard for the bureau, but there is a scientist who has recently been doing some work on what is called the harmonisation of temperature readings. Unfortunately, I am not terribly well prepared for this speech, and I do not even have the name of the scientist who raised some concerns about the bureau's harmonisation of temperature. As I always say—and Senator Ludlam will well agree—I am no expert in this field and in fact am just an ordinary member of the public reading reports.

But, as I understand it, there are a couple of places in Australia where the same temperature recording instruments have been used for decades and decades. One of them was Amberley in Queensland. These recordings show that the temperature is actually dropping, not increasing. There is not global warming in these couple of instances. Rather, those instruments—the same ones that have always been there—are showing that the temperature is falling. As I understand it, this scientist has done a lot of research and she has actually worked out that the bureau was not prepared to accept this one reading from Amberley and another place that was mentioned—I have forgotten what it is—but did what they call harmonising, which means that they take that temperature reading and harmonise it with other recordings around the area. And in this case, according to this researcher, it was not even near the area, near Amberley. This scientist raised the question of why the Bureau of Meteorology—someone as respectable and responsible as that—would be engaged in this harmonisation when, as I understand it, they did not need to, because it was the same instrument that was used. I understand from these reports that harmonisation is for where you have one sort of measuring device but then change it. And because there can be changes in devices you sometimes get different readings, which they then harmonise. But why you would harmonise when it was the same recording instrument is the question that has arisen.

I understand that the bureau has refuted that publicly and has given an explanation, but I noticed quite a number of letters to the editor that share my concern about the fact that there needs to be ongoing debate on the cause of climate change—the human induced carbon emissions that so many talk about. As one of the letters—or perhaps even this research—said, it is very clear that with peer reviewed research it is the peer reviewers who, like the initial researcher, are getting grants from governments time in, time out. And dare I say, without defaming them, that they have another interest, in making sure that this global warming debate is there. It always concerns me that if you are like this independent researcher, having a different view, or like Professor Bob Carter, having a different view, then you are pilloried. I am surprised that the Greens have not catcalled as they usually do when I mention any scientist who does not conform with the standard IPCC view on life of man induced global warming.