THE Queensland premier says it's "very convenient" to blame climate change for conditions that have always occurred in Australia.
Campbell Newman made the comment after federal Nationals Leader Warren Truss said it was "utterly simplistic" to draw a link between climate change and Australia's recent heatwave and bushfire crisis.
But last week, the federal government's Climate Commission said the heatwave and bushfires had been exacerbated by global warming.
On Monday, Mr Newman was asked if he believed there was a link between the bushfires, the heatwave and climate change.
"It's very convenient to blame things that have happened in this country for millennia on climate change," he replied.
He quoted poet Dorothea Mackellar's poem My Country.
"Remember 'I love a sunburnt country' ... it talks about 'flooding rains, fires' and all those sorts of things. Nothing new.
"Any such comments are still open to question.
"I believe we can leave to the experts to make the debate about whether that's the case."
Mr Newman on Monday said the Queensland government would give $200,000 to the Red Cross Tasmanian Bushfire Appeal fund.
Mr Newman spent some of his childhood in Tasmania.
The Australian Conservation Foundation hit out at Mr Newman's comments, saying the judgments should be "left to the experts".
"The Climate Commission says climate change is making heatwaves more frequent and making it more likely they will stay for longer," spokesman Tony Mohr said in a statement. "The same body of climate experts expects extreme fire danger days to rise more than 15 per cent in most of eastern Australia."
www.TheAustralian.com.au
14.1.13
