Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, do you think that all of us who live in North Queensland and are worried about this are simply making political points? What representations has the minister received from the Queensland Labor government about these savage job losses in meteorology and the loss of services in areas of Queensland which as recently as this week have experienced cyclones, floods and other weather conditions which even the minister herself has said will become more volatile with climate change? Can the minister point to anything the Bligh government in Queensland has done to ensure that meteorological jobs in North and Central Queensland are maintained? If she can point to anything, why then hasn’t the federal government acted upon those representations?