Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash has joined her cabinet colleague Attorney-General George Brandis in claiming the science of climate change is not yet settled.
Senator Nash, responsible for regional development, communications and health, told Sky News there were "varying views" on climate science and she was of the opinion it was still up for debate.
More News Videos
- Video duration
- 01:28
No time to lose on climate change: WMO
- Video duration
- 02:10
'Dinosaur' tree's secret survival plan
- Video duration
- 01:18
Sydney braces for heavy downpour
- Video duration
- 01:49
Louisiana flood rescuers go door-to-door
- Video duration
- 01:12
OOO-Orangutan day!
- Video duration
- 01:30
Backlash skewers spear-throwing bear hunter
- Video duration
- 01:18
Watch a coral bleaching
- Video duration
- 01:05
Coast guard rescues Louisiana flood victims
No time to lose on climate change: WMO
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the global average surface temperature in 2015 is likely to be the warmest on record and to reach the symbolic and significant milestone of 1°C above the pre-industrial era.
"I don't think it's necessarily settled but I think we certainly think we should be taking every precaution possible to ensure that the planet is healthy," she said.
"I think there's varying views on whether it's settled or not. What I'm really focused on, again as a farmer, is that climate is changing and that we have to be able to adapt."
Earlier in the week, Senator Brandis told the Senate there were still questions about the nature and causes of climate change, though he acknowledged he was not a scientist.
Addressing Labor's Kim Carr, Senator Brandis said: "Senator Carr, you're the one who says the science is settled. I don't."
"I'm aware that there are a number of views about the two questions of the nature and the causes of climate change," he said. "It doesn't seem to me that the science is settled at all. But I'm not a scientist, and I'm agnostic really on that question."
He made the comments during the tabling of documents in relation to the CSIRO, which is taking a major hit to its climate research capacity courtesy of job cuts.
Senator Brandis said it was illogical for Labor to contend the science was settled but simultaneously oppose changes to the CSIRO that "would reflect the fact that the science is settled".
He appeared to be arguing that the CSIRO had been restructured because climate science was now settled.
Labor seized on Senator Brandis' remarks, labelling them "breathtaking" and suggesting climate scepticism was still prevalent within Coalition ranks.
The vast majority - in excess of 97 per cent - of scientific papers on climate change agree its causes are primarily man-made.
CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall told staff in February: "The question has been answered, and the new question is what do we do about it, and how can we find solutions for the climate we will be living with."
But as recently as last month, the NSW Liberal Party called on the Turnbull government to conduct a series of public debates about climate change, including one on the question: "Is all the science settled?"
The motion reportedly passed the Liberal Party's state council with the support of more than 70 per cent of delegates.
Climate change remains a vexed issue within the Coalition. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was deposed from his 2009 stint as Liberal leader due to his support for Labor's emissions trading scheme, and conservative elements both within and outside the Coalition remain hostile to climate action.
Last year, former prime minister Tony Abbott's chief business adviser Maurice Newmann memorably opined that climate change was a hoax led by the United Nations so that it could impose "a new world order".
443 comments
Comment are now closed