Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

With regard to the agricultural side of the portfolio, I have a climate change action plan which I am funding to the degree of several million dollars. I have asked for projects from researchers and industries and we will be considering them over time. It is much debated. Some people see climate change and agriculture simplistically. The north will get wetter and the further south you come it will get drier and hotter. Farmers are constantly looking at research through their research and development corporations and companies—different varieties, different pastures, different management practices. All that is happening at a grassroots level in preparation for climate change or to survive and manage as best they can through the drought.

At the moment, for most farmers, it has been drought management. Climate change, which may have influenced or even brought about the drought—in the worst case scenario—is allowed for by primary producers but it is really handling the dry conditions. If that becomes a permanent or semi-permanent state, they have had the last few years experience to see them through it.

State governments are doing a lot also. They are probably doing more of the modelling and the scenarios as to what certain regions will look like with this current climatic trend over the next 20 or 30 years. There is a lot of information around. As you know, for Northern Australia Senator Heffernan’s Northern Australia Land and Water Task Force holds great promise for potential expansion of agriculture in the north, and I am sure the member for Lingiari wants to support it.

See this speech in context