Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingston for her question. I note that we have now had more than 200 questions in this House, and we are yet to get a single question from that side of the House, including from the Nationals, about anything to do with agriculture—more than 200 questions, and not one about anything to do with agriculture. It is not as if there are not significant issues out there—for example, the issue that I was just asked about by the member for Kingston.

Look at the impact of climate change. I know there is a consensus that has emerged over the last 10 years for those opposite, and it is essentially this: climate change has definitely been happening for the last three months. That is about the level of consensus on climate change. You talk to anyone in South Australia at the moment working the land. They are living climate change. The heatwave that has just been endured has been described and reported today by one scientist as a one-in-3,000-year event.

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