Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, we do this dance—and usually it is with Senator Di Natale, so it is lovely to have a different partner today. I don't know how often I can stand in this place and say I accept the science of climate change, our government does. We have got a suite of initiatives across all portfolios to bring down and reduce emissions. I'm happy to go to the initiatives in my own portfolio as agriculture minister which take climate change seriously and take getting our emissions down seriously. We can do that dance.

We know that climate change is causing heatwaves, fire weather and drought to become more frequent and intense. We know that. That's why we've got a raft of measures across government to actually deal with this. We're going to see sea levels rise. We're going to see a whole suite of changes across our continent and that is why we're going to keep our international commitments and reduce our emissions—$3.5 billion of our climate reductions fund to give practical measures to help small businesses and communities lower their emissions and to do their bit.

To come in here day after day as if somehow my response will change—it won't change. From agriculture's perspective, we're looking at how we can assist with soil degradation. The Landcare movement is playing a frontline role in assisting our environment and our farmers to adapt. A couple of weeks ago at the AGMIN conference, all of Australia's agriculture ministers put forward climate action around agriculture. I recommend you actually read that document before standing up here and somehow using the misery of those who are in regional New South Wales and Queensland to your political advantage.