Report reheats legislative debate

Australia had the second warmest year on record last year, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government has seized on that finding as fresh evidence of climate change, as the Labor party continues to press for a climate bill.

The Bureau of Meteorolgy told The Australian newspaper that 2009 "will be remembered for extreme bushfires, dust-storms, lingering rainfall deficiencies, areas of flooding and record-breaking heatwaves".

Extreme heatwaves across southern Australia during late January/early February set a new Melbourne maximum temperature record of 46.4C.