Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has records of station closures since February 2008 in its database of observing stations, as indicated below. It should be noted that a turnover of some 240 rainfall stations in a network of some 7000 such stations during this period equates to an annual turnover of around one percent per annum. The number of new stations opened was about the same as the number that ceased reporting so the overall network was held at close to the same size.

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