Norman Russel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Norman Russel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 19 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8606. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
4. 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he stand by his response that human-induced climate change “may well be” real? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Acting Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Yes the Minister stands by his full statement in which he also said: “The fact is that the Government is assisting farmers with short-term emergency-type assistance through a drought. If there is a succession of droughts farmers would need to change their farming practice; Government assistance will not protect them from the consequences of it.” 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Why cannot he simply say yes that he accepts the basic fact that human-induced climate change is happening and that it is causing more frequent and more intense droughts? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I think the second part of that member’s question is open to debate actually by a whole range of experts. The point that the Minister was making last week in response to the member’s previous question is that in terms of the current drought the contribution by climate change is not as material as dealing with the drought. I think that is a very fair response. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Well then in relation to his answer to that question does he disagree with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research when it states: “Droughts are projected to become more frequent and more intense under climate change.”? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No. The point that he was making is that the climate has many changes: firstly year-to-year variability and longer-term climate change. These are things that farmers have dealt with since time immemorial. Also farmers deal with other things including economic change and technology change. They no longer for example use horses to pull ploughs which may come as news to the member. But the reality is all these things change and farmers are capable of coping with those changes. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Does he think that 97.4 percent of climate scientists in an international survey who think that human-induced climate change is real were being far too definite and maybe they should have said it just “may well be” happening? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I am not sure which rabbit hole the member is trying to chase the Minister down at this point. There is no issue in terms of the work that is being done by climate scientists around the world. The only questions are firstly whether this particular drought is caused by climate-change and secondly whether the actual cause of it is as relevant at this point as the mitigation measures that are taken to help farmers through it. I think the Minister made the point that it was the mitigation measures that he was focused on. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Well does he understand—to help the Minister—that the particular hole that I am trying to chase this rabbit down is the hole that says climate change causes more droughts and more intense droughts so the drought that we have just seen is more likely to occur in the future so the Government needs an adaptation plan? Does he have an adaptation plan? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The reality is that I do not think anybody yet knows whether this drought is a consequence of anthropogenic climate change or not. The reality is that there is a drought this year. If there were a succession of droughts then obviously there would be further need to adjust. The Government has a number of adjustment measures including a huge amount of work going on in the water-quality space with the farming community— 
Hon Member 
: Irrigation. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: There are irrigation proposals that are being advanced as we speak and more generally there are also adaptation proposals. The Minister makes the other point that actually people—individuals and businesses—are very good at doing adaptation as well. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Well then was US President Obama right when he said in relation to this issue: “We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy and the most severe drought in decades and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”? When will he act? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I am not qualified to comment on the President’s view of the Sandy storm but what I would point out is that actually in terms of individual weather events whether it is a drought or whether it is a flood I would very much doubt that many scientists would link those to climate change. What they would link it to is climate change over a period and there is no argument with that. Again I cannot think why the member is wasting all his supplementary questions on it.