Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you didn't answer my question as to whether acknowledgement that we are in a climate crisis—the new reality of less water and hotter and drier conditions—will fundamentally be the underpinning philosophy this drought fund will be based on. I'm asking this question because the evidence I see in this chamber on a daily basis is that this government does not acknowledge that we're in a climate crisis and, basically, the way of dealing with drought is to try and work out how you can squeeze more water out of already overstressed systems.

Can you give me any assurance at all that the new reality—as the Bureau of Meteorology says and as all of the technical and scientific advice tells us—of this drought fund will be in the context of climates right across the country that are hotter and drier, which means that to deal with our water sustainably we need to use less water?