Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the Bureau of Meteorology is centralising Tasmanian forecasting on the mainland. One project, well advanced, bases aviation forecasting in Melbourne and Brisbane, but emergency services, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia, tourism companies and smaller aircraft operators haven't been properly consulted, nor has it been on the agenda of the regular RAPAC meetings between industry and government. Another project to base other forecasting on the mainland is equally irrational—a hit to jobs and puts lives at risk, especially in remote areas and during emergencies. Prime Minister, will you reverse this madness? We've already lost our airport Federal Police. Will you be the PM to accept that Tasmania is a state of the Commonwealth and should be treated equally?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. That is exactly what I believe. I can assure the member for Denison that there will be no loss of positions at the Bureau of Meteorology in Tasmania. That's a position that has already been made public to date, and I'm happy to restate that here today. I'm also happy to advise the member that the Bureau of Meteorology has recently been the beneficiary, as it rightly should, of the government's investment to reinvest in its technology platforms, which were in desperate need of investment to ensure that our farmers and others can have the best of all possible weather information. This information and how it's relayed to them, using new technology, is critical for modern farming practices. It is working its way into it the way financial models and financing techniques are used to support agriculture all around the country. The work that continues to be done in Tasmania, and additional work that will go to Tasmania to focus more specifically on the skills and needs that are there, will continue to follow.

In the budget we made an investment in not only the Bureau of Meteorology but also a whole range of important research infrastructure in Australia, such as in supercomputers, the Australian Phenomics Network, the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, the Australia Telescope National Facility, the National Imaging Facility and the Population Health Research Network.

Ms Collins interjecting—

I'm asked, 'Wasn't that a decision of the Turnbull government?' Yes, it was. You may have noticed that I was the Treasurer and delivered the budget and was integrally involved in this.

Ms Collins interjecting—

You make a good point. I'm happy to take the interjection as Prime Minister in this government. I stood with the member for Warringah when we stopped the boats and I stood with the former member for Wentworth, the then Prime Minister, as we balanced the budget, and now my team stands with me.