Paul's Blog: Contemptuous and Bloated Government on Climate Change

I have been amazed by the response I have received to questions I asked in Parliament about how much money this government is spending on climate change.

Both questions were asked by me in response to concerns raised by my constituents.

The first question concerned Australia’s participation, and the activities of Government participants, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009.

I have had to ask this question twice before receiving an answer, and the response I have received is totally inadequate.

The response said it would be an unreasonable diversion of Government resources to provide information pertaining to the background and expertise of Government participants at the Conference, how they were selected, the roles they were assigned at the Conference, what they were expected to achieve, and what meetings they participated in.  The response also indicates that Department of Foreign Affairs participants did not write reports of their activities at the Conference.

I find it extraordinary that the Government has sent – at my count – 68 representatives to this Conference at clearly huge expense to the taxpayer, yet there is no public account of the activities of these public servants, the purpose of their being there, or their goals and outcomes.

It defies logic to cite resource constraints to prevent information being provided to my constituents – and more broadly the Australian public – when there were clearly no such limitations or constraints when allocating resources to Australia’s participation in this failed Conference.  

The second question concerns how staffing levels changed in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency following the Government’s abandonment of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in early 2010.

Despite the Department’s Emissions Trading Division –with 39 staff – being wound down, and then ceasing to exist, there was no staffing reduction in the Department overall, with staff being redeployed.  No retrenchments or redundancies occurred.

In my view, this demonstrates a Government that is bloated, with little financial or resource discipline (unless it come to resources allocated to providing information to the public). 

Copies of my questions, and the answers received, can be viewed by clicking here.