“AN OFFICE set up to advise the Premier on climate change policy has had its staff cut nearly in half since Ted Baillieu’s election.” — that’s two States in under a week:
The climate change branch within the Department of Premier and Cabinet – responsible for dealing with Canberra over carbon pricing and overseeing the state’s climate policies – has had its staff reduced from 14 before the 2010 election to eight, documents show.
Andrew Herington, a former director of policy development under Labor premier John Brumby, who received the documents under freedom-of-information laws, said the cut to climate policy staff undermined the government’s claim it believed the carbon tax would damage the state’s economy.
Advertisement: Story continues below”The government has made quite a fuss that the carbon price has terrible consequences for Victoria and yet the people who actually do the work on the scheme appear to have, one by one, gone off to other places, and the size of the unit has been reduced dramatically,” he said.
