Page 5481 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 November 2010
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Climate change is occurring. Climate change always occurs. It has done for thousands and thousands of years. Indeed, you only have to look at the Wilsons Promontory lighthouse annual mean temperature. The annual mean temperature at the Wilsons Promontory lighthouse in 1880 was 20 degrees Celsius. By 1885 it was about 18 degrees Celsius. By 1935 it was 17 degrees Celsius. In between it was just a jagged peak. It was about 17 degrees in 1988. In 1995, the mean was 16.2 degrees. Has it got hotter since? Yes, it went up in 2000 but then it dropped again. The climate does change all the time. But the mean for the Wilsons Promontory lighthouse is pretty consistent at about 16.3 degrees.
This is the sort of pseudo-science propagated by Lord Monckton and his followers. But I guess at least Lord Monckton has the courage to publicly state his scepticism. Frankly, the research of more than 2,000 scientists who participate in the IPCC process, the research of Noah, NASA, and even locally the CSIRO, carry a little more weight than Mr Smyth’s irrelevant grab bag of random recordings from Wilsons Promontory and it gives me some reassurance that most of the members in this place do actually believe in science, not junk information.
One must always be open to debating the science and to having a thorough analysis of what we think we know. But such an argument should not be based on lazy pseudo-science. It should be based on the evidence, the data and expertise. In tabling this information I invite all members to review the latest science.
Sport—participation by children with a disability
International Disability Day
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (5.03): In my capacity as shadow sports minister as well as shadow disability minister, it has been my pleasure to have attended, over the past few weeks, a wonderful initiative by the sporting community aimed at helping children with disability enjoy some outdoor activity and involvement in sport. The initiative was by Capital Football. I must compliment Heather Reid and, in particular, coaching coordinator, Pat McCann, and his wonderful team. They have done a fantastic job in involving children with disability in this initiative. The sporting community, furthermore, included Donna O’Brien and the Weston Creek football club and Malcolm Buchanan and Belnorth and Belconnen United football clubs, who sponsored the development of this idea that was built on the networks and contacts developed in cooperation with the Paralympics and Special Olympics organisations.
There have been weekend training and open day activities held at Hawker oval for the past few months. I have attended a number of these and spoken to many of the parents and coaches who have been involved. Their enthusiasm and dedication are inspirational. The parents I have spoken to are very appreciative of the contributions of all the coaches. I would like to echo the parents’ thanks to all of the organisations, clubs and individuals involved. In particular, I would like to read out a letter from a parent I met at Hawker oval who wrote to me and copied me a letter she sent to Pat McCann of Capital Football:
Hi Pat,
I attended today’s Football-Connect Development games and just wanted to say what a wonderful thing you are doing! My husband, son and I travelled from
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