Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

The Senate notes that:

(a) valid scientific data proving cause-and-effect is vital as the only credible justification for policies claimed to be based on science;

(b) the following are often used today in our communities as substitutes for science, yet are not science:

  (i) populist views and anecdotes about weather events,

  (ii) short-term perspectives of cycles out of context,

  (iii) unsubstantiated claims of 'having the science',

  (iv) name calling,

  (v) claims of consensus,

  (vi) so-called peer-reviewed literature,

  (vii) appeals to authority,

  (viii) academic fallacies, and

  (ix) emotional claims or statements; and

(c) the ultimate arbiter of science is empirical scientific evidence, being:

  (i) objectively verified hard data as physical measurements and/or physical observations, and

  (ii) presented in a logical framework proving cause and effect.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While there are some self-evident truths in this motion about the nature of science and research, if forced to a division, the coalition will oppose it on the basis that it also contains a great deal of conjecture and subjectivity.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will not be supporting this motion. This is a thinly veiled attack on climate scientists and established climate science. I would like to place on the record that Labor notes and celebrates peer-reviewed science as science, unlike Senator Roberts. We will develop our climate change policies and decide our targets in accordance with the science.

Question negatived.