In the wake of the 2022 Lismore, Northern Rivers and South-East Queensland floods constituents raised their concerns with Senator Roberts that they believed cloud seeding or weather manipulation was involved.
It is important to note that while huge amounts of damage was done and families are still in the heart-breaking process of recovering from these floods, the flood levels were not unprecedented as media outlets and climate catastrophists falsely claimed.
Larger floods have happened before and it is likely they will happen again. We know that development of new housing estates on floodplains, higher density housing and urban sprawl means the same floods can cause more damage because there are simply more houses to damage in flood areas.
Senator Roberts is aware this is no consolation to the people who have lost everything in the floods, and has been critical of the government response to helping those affected. However, it is important to keep this in mind in the context of some claims that these floods could have only been the result of weather manipulation because they were so “unprecedented”.
In response to the concerns of constituents around cloud seeding, Senator Roberts set up a dedicated page on his website for people to submit evidence with the intention of raising solid evidence in Parliament.
Evidence submitted to the page https://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/evidence-on-cloud-seeding-required-to-be-investigated/ so far has not met the criteria outlined on that page for the Senator to be able to raise it in Parliament.
The most common deficiencies include:
- The stories relate to overseas examples – we are unable to raise this with the Australian Government.
- Photos or videos are provided without a corresponding flight number which can be captured on https://www.flightradar24.com/ and other sources, so we are unable to verify the what the flight was or seek any further documentary evidence in regards to it.
- Photos or videos are provided of simply a plane with a vapour trail behind it and this is offered as proof that cloudseeding is happening, we cannot use this as evidence in Parliament.
- The evidence is related to previous limited trials of cloud seeding activity in Australia. We have been provided with news reports about some trials in the late 2000’s and as late as 2016. As stated on the website, modern evidence is required and no one has been able to provide us with similar stories in relation to trials or other cloud seeding operations in Australia in recent years.
- People have pointed us towards the Rain Making Control Act 1967 (Vic) which applies to Victoria but with no further information. As evident in the title this is a very old piece of legislation. In that legislation, section 13 outlines that if any rain-making activities are conducted a report must be prepared and given to the Minister. Such a report would be published somewhere or at least retrievable under Freedom of Information laws. No one has been able to supply us with a report under the Act relating to any rain-making activity in Victoria.
- The page requests any evidence of chemicals being loaded onto planes with the intention of cloud-seeding activities, no one has provided evidence like this to date.
- The page requests any evidence of permits or government approvals for cloud-seeding operations, no one has provided evidence like this to date.
We have also asked the responsible government body, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) about whether any operations have occurred in the last five years, their answer was no. We would need good evidence that this is untrue to be able to contradict them. A Freedom of Information request has also been lodged and returned no documents
Our team has expended a significant amount of time and resources trawling through the troves of information that many constituents have sent us and have learnt many new things. We thank you for the information passed on and the many important conversations we have had, even if we haven’t been able to find the smoking gun we need for Parliament.
Senator Roberts admits he does not know everything, and remains open to the possibility that cloud seeding operations could occur, but without any evidence that meets the criteria it is impossible for him to raise it in Parliament and claim it is happening.
If you believe you have evidence that fits the criteria and doesn’t have any of the problems outlined above, you are encouraged to submit it to the web page if we have overlooked it. Senator Roberts will continue to monitor any emerging evidence but will not be able to pursue this issue in Parliament given the quality of evidence he has currently been provided.
We hope this information is of assistance and please contact us if there is any other assistance we can offer.
