QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:53): I thank the member for her question, and the Minister for Health and Ageing will respond. The issues that the member raises, of course, go across climate change. She asked about it in her preamble.

I have warned—as the emergency management authorities, including NEMA here, have warned—Australians about the period ahead. The super El Nino represents, with the heating of the water in the Pacific Ocean in particular that we are seeing, with those rising temperatures—it will have an impact on weather patterns here. The summer ahead is why we've already war-gamed, if you like, with emergency management authorities in the Commonwealth but also with state agencies to work through these issues as we get ahead.

Preparedness in areas in which bushfires in particular can have an impact is very important—that people use this time to do things such as clean gutters and follow the expert advice, to make sure that that moves forward. In our cities, including in Western Sydney, because of the geography, topography and climate, there can be a capture of heat in between the Blue Mountains and the plains, that occurs to the east of the mountains.

Often, that heat that can be captured there can provide quite dangerous circumstances unless it is dealt with ahead. This is just one of the reasons why the government is continuing to act on climate change. We don't question the science; we follow the science, and the science tells us that this is real and that we need to act.