"Public servants are drawing up plans to collapse 33 climate change schemes run by seven departments and eight agencies into just three bodies run by two departments under a substantial rewrite of the administration of carbon abatement schemes under the Coalition.
Under the simplification, the Department of the Environment and the Department of Resources and Energy will run all of the climate change programs under the Coalition's direct-action program.
The move is forecast to save the government tens of millions of dollars. The Coalition budgeted for savings of $7 million this financial year rising to $13m in each of the next three years for a saving of $45m across the budget period.
The changes will see all carbon abatement schemes run by three bodies: the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which will be overseen by the Department of Resources and Energy; and the Clean Energy Regulator and Low Carbon Australia, which will be run by the Department of the Environment.
Treasury has responsibility for Low Carbon Australia and the CEFC, while the Industry Department has control over a range of clean technology programs. The Department of Agriculture runs a series of carbon farming programs, while the Department of Families runs household assistance packages, home energy savings programs and the remote indigenous energy program.
Under the Coalition, Low Carbon Australia will be responsible for purchasing emissions reductions under the Coalition's direct action program.
"What we've said is we will commence the merger as soon as the process of appointing the ministry and swearing in the ministry has been complete," Mr Hunt told the 2GB radio station in Sydney yesterday. "To be frank, during the course of the pre-election period, when we were allowed to consult with departments, we laid out the fact that there would be a merger. "We were express and clear and absolute about that, and we indicated we would like it to begin right from the outset. I imagine that the public servants are preparing to do that. Our agenda was clear and open and that is an official process we'll go through as soon as possible."
The moves came as Tony Abbott continued briefings with senior public servants, including the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Ian Watt, as he continued his transition-to-government plans.
The CEFC confirmed yesterday it had stopped making loans for energy efficiency and clean energy programs. Staff at the $10 billion green bank are seeking a meeting with the incoming Abbott government as a top priority.
"The CEFC congratulates the new government upon its election and will welcome the opportunity to consult with the incoming responsible ministers," the bank's chief executive Oliver Yates said. "The CEFC has approached the Coalition to engage in consultations about the transition and looks forward to engaging with the new government concerning how its activities can best be supportive of their policy priorities under Direct Action."
The Coalition will need to legislate to abolish the CEFC, which has amassed a $560m investment portfolio and leveraged $1.6bn in private sector investment. But the bank is understood to be lobbying a Coalition government to utilise its staff and assets as part of its Direct Action scheme, and change its investment mandate so it could work within the framework of the Coalition's policy.
An Abbott government will need to legislate if it seeks to abolish the Climate Change Authority, which is proceeding with work on a draft report about emissions reductions targets that is due to be completed next month. In the wake of Labor and Greens declarations that they would oppose the abolition of carbon pricing, Mr Abbott said he expected the parliament to "respect the mandate that the new government has".
"It will obviously be an issue (for the Labor Party) . . . whether it learns from its mistakes and whether it's prepared to accept that it simply got it wrong when it came to these toxic new taxes," Mr Abbott said." via Climate Depot
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9/7/13, "Abbott’s Coalition Wins Australia Election as Labor’s Rudd Exits," Bloomberg, by Jason Scott & Michael Heath
"Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition won Australia’s election and was heading for the biggest parliamentary majority since 1996, ushering in a government pledging to abolish carbon pricing and a mining tax.
“I declare the government is under new management,” Abbott said in a speech in Sydney late yesterday, consigning Kevin Rudd’s Labor party to the shortest stint in power in almost 40 years. “Australia is once more open for business.” "...
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9/7/13, "Australia liberated from their long national green nightmare," Anthony Watts, WUWT
"Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward.
Tony Abbot has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election.
It is a huge blow to the Rudd-Gillard labor party and their green goals, which were built on a lie foisted on the Australian people.
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In 2010 when Gillard said “no carbon tax” in a videotaped speech that has been seen as the key moment Australians lost trust."...
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James Delingpole on his 2012 Australia trip:
"The tide against the Great Global Warming Scam – the biggest and most expensive outbreak of mass hysteria in history – is turning and...Australia is the best place in the world to go for a beachside view."...
4/12/12, "Australia here I come," UK Telegraph, James Delingpole
"God, I'm looking forward to my Australian tour. (It's to promote Killing The Earth To Save It (Connor Court). Jo Nova has posted up the tour dates, together with the kind of generous panegyric not even my closest friends would give me over here....
But most of all I'm looking forward to doing battle on the front line of the great climate wars. Just because the Aussies are robust and blunt and full of commonsense doesn't mean they're immune to global warming drivel and eco-alarmism. Au contraire, as they say in the sheep stations. Your Melbourne green and your Sydney enviro-loon is at least as committedly wrong and fanatical as any in Britain. ABC and CSIRO – the rough equivalents of the BBC and the Royal Society/Met Office/Hadley Centre axis of evil – are at least as parti-pris and lefty biased. So I don't expect I'm necessarily going to have flower petals strewn in my path everywhere I travel.
Those who are sceptical of AGW alarmism, though, are going to like me a lot. The first reason for this is that, in common with many Australians, I have a rare gift for tact and diplomacy. Not for one second in any of my speeches will I dream of being rude about Australia's much-loved $180,000 a year (for a three-day week) "Climate Commissioner" Tim Flannery, let alone about Australian's even better loved Prime Minister, the flame-haired, pert-rumped temptress Julia Gillard. And I'm sure my audiences will respect me for my polite restraint."....
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A good summary of the climate industry and UN involvement in it by an expert on coral reefs:
"Signing away our sovereignty to inept and unaccountable UN bureaucrats with a demonstrable track record of failure in their own countries is worse than just stupid or spineless. It is treasonous."...(near end of article)
6/22/12, "UNESCO, butt out!" Quadrant Online, Walter Starck (Dr. Starck is an expert on coral reefs and has a PhD in marine science)
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4/2/13, "Victorian hospitals hurting as carbon tax bites," Herald Sun (Australia), Lucie Van Den Berg
"VICTORIA'S cash-strapped hospitals have been hit with an extra $6.7 million in energy costs due to the carbon tax in just six months, new data reveals.
State government analysis of hospital bills shows carbon charges made up on average 15 per cent of hospital energy bills.
Health Minister David Davis has written to the Federal Government demanding compensation for the increased costs of caring for sick and injured Victorians."...
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