It hasn’t taken long for the new Coalition Government to fulfill its election promise to disband the Climate Commission and sack its commissioners:
The Coalition is delivering on an election promise to dispense with the commission, saving taxpayers $580,000 this financial year and $1.6 million in following years…
“The Coalition believes it is the role of the Department of Environment to provide independent advice and analysis on climate change,” said Mr Hunt, “and that the role of the Climate Commission was duplicating the work of the department”…
Professor Flannery’s part-time role as chief commissioner attracted an annual salary of $180,000…
While Houses & Holes would probably disagree, I believe this is a good move by the Coalition.
From my experience working at both the Australian and Victorian treasuries, there’s already too much waste in the bureacracy, whether it be duplication between federal and state government departments or, in this case, duplication within the federal government itself. Irrespective of whether you support the Climate Commission’s work agenda, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be undertaken from within the Department of Environment.
