Fraser Anning (Queensland, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is still not my first speech. I rise to say a few words regarding the baseless and, frankly, offensive effort by the Greens to co-opt the tragedy of the severe drought affecting many parts of Australia to promote their obsession with climate change. Belief in climate change as the cause of all climatic ills is superstition. Like seizing on coincidental good fortune to support your belief in horoscopes, belief that every hot day is somehow further evidence of climate change is confirmation bias of the most ridiculous type. Despite the evidence of repeated fraud amongst researchers who have purported to show climate change, the Greens' belief in their superstition remains unshakable. Their unending demands for expensive and unreliable power are like a snake oil cure for illness that you don't have or like a broken record playing the same off-key tune again and again.

A country like Australia is always subject to periodic droughts. It is not climate change; it is just geography. Next to Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent on earth. The solution to drought is not to bleat about climate change and frantically build windmills everywhere. The real solution is to build dams and irrigation projects. The best form of drought relief is water.

If North Queensland were a country, it would be the wettest country on earth. The problem is that monsoonal rains just pour down rivers and run out to sea. If we turn those rivers back and capture the water, dry cattle country and deserts would suddenly be lush green fields. This would not only ensure our own food requirements are met but also provide food for many hundreds of thousands of others in other countries as well. To imagine the benefits, we only need to see what has been achieved in places like Israel and California. Both are places in which virtual deserts have been transformed into enormous food bowls which help drive their respective economies. There is a proposal to do this. It's called the Bradfield scheme, and I'll have more to say about it tomorrow.