Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their so-called reporting of the temperature change in Australia since 1910, saying that the temperature has risen by 1.44 degrees. When I read that number, I nearly fell off my chair, because in estimates I asked the Bureau of Meteorology whether they report actual observations or their homogenised data. Their homogenised data is based on shoddy mathematical practices that were highlighted in the 2011 independent peer review that was commissioned by the then Gillard government and whose recommendations have been completely ignored.

I will break that detail down further. That 1.44 degree rise was in 2019. In 2020 the temperature had only risen by 1.15 degrees, so the actual temperature in Australia declined by 0.3 degrees. Of course, that decline was conveniently ignored. On top of that, the homogenised data runs at about half a degree hotter than the actual data. If we take the half a degree off the homogenised data, that brings it back to 0.65.

The homogenised data actually ignores changes in equipment. If you look at recommendation C4 of the independent peer review, it says that you cannot rely on reference stations when trying to detect network equipment changes. If we also look at their second recommendation, at the end, on the 10 best sustainable practices in measuring records, they say you should always do a new and old parallel run together. When I asked the bureau whether or not they had actually done parallel runs here in Australia, they had only done parallel runs at four out of 700 stations in Australia. That is not statistically significant. (Time expired)