Climate Change to shrink like a polar ice cap

crackerpants said :

dungfungus said :

2620watcher said :

schmeah said :

Oh, and has anyone heard from Andrew Leigh or Gai Brodtman on this.. didn’t think so.

Gai was at DCCEE while they were still paying any contractor with a heartbeat to work there.

Andrew was on TV behind glorious leader yeasterday with his little head nodding as if he has early onset Parkinsons.
Gai’s Bulletin Edition Five arrived in my mail box today (must find that “no junk mail sign” again) and she has a front page declaration that she defends the public service in Canberra while the evil Mr Hockey threatens to sack 6,000 in the Dept. of Health and Ageing. Seems to me that Gai’s side of politics is doing all the sacking; after all they are the government (aren’t they?)

It would be very difficult to sack 6,000 from the Department of Health and Ageing.

The Department of Health and Ageing is a public service wasteland – literally. But Jan’s so psycho that you cannot go near it with the knife.

dungfungus said :

2620watcher said :

schmeah said :

Oh, and has anyone heard from Andrew Leigh or Gai Brodtman on this.. didn’t think so.

Gai was at DCCEE while they were still paying any contractor with a heartbeat to work there.

Andrew was on TV behind glorious leader yeasterday with his little head nodding as if he has early onset Parkinsons.
Gai’s Bulletin Edition Five arrived in my mail box today (must find that “no junk mail sign” again) and she has a front page declaration that she defends the public service in Canberra while the evil Mr Hockey threatens to sack 6,000 in the Dept. of Health and Ageing. Seems to me that Gai’s side of politics is doing all the sacking; after all they are the government (aren’t they?)

It would be very difficult to sack 6,000 from the Department of Health and Ageing.

2620watcher said :

schmeah said :

Oh, and has anyone heard from Andrew Leigh or Gai Brodtman on this.. didn’t think so.

Gai was at DCCEE while they were still paying any contractor with a heartbeat to work there.

Andrew was on TV behind glorious leader yeasterday with his little head nodding as if he has early onset Parkinsons.
Gai’s Bulletin Edition Five arrived in my mail box today (must find that “no junk mail sign” again) and she has a front page declaration that she defends the public service in Canberra while the evil Mr Hockey threatens to sack 6,000 in the Dept. of Health and Ageing. Seems to me that Gai’s side of politics is doing all the sacking; after all they are the government (aren’t they?)

schmeah said :

Oh, and has anyone heard from Andrew Leigh or Gai Brodtman on this.. didn’t think so.

Gai was at DCCEE while they were still paying any contractor with a heartbeat to work there.

WTF so for around 4 years the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has had nothing to do and were grossly over staffed like most government departments.

More Labour waste

kakosi said :

Every government is good at blaming government workers for it’s policy faults and getting votes by sacking people.

Happens every administration and you get the same “joy at watching people get sacked” in online chat rooms and in the media every time. Of course the hundreds of families to become affected by unemployment is not something people should be rejoicing.

+1

At least those families will now be eligible for the carbon tax compensation, which was partially funded by the slashing of their jobs.

And the tax they’re no longer paying/ money they’re no longer spending will make Mr Swan’s deficit dream even harder to achieve, resulting in even most spending cuts in the next 12 months.

It’s all one big vicious cycle and the losers are every single one of us.

Mysteryman said :

No, Labor is doing it now because they have screwed around the budget since 2007 and are realising that there is no way they can ever deliver their promised surplus until they stop spending – which they aren’t prepared to do – so they will cut jobs and cease some of the streams of GST funding to the states instead. At least it’s not another new tax, which they also seem fond of lately.

This.

Labor are finally realising that spending more than they have coming in is not a winning strategy in the longer term.

Yawn…what’s the fuss. In the private sector, redudancy is an occupational hazard. Yet for those who suckle on the public mammaries, it seems the end of the world is at hand. Get over yourselves. PS redundancies usually come with some re-training options. Use them wisely and find a real job!

Wow, they didn’t even wait for Tony Abbott before slashing away the climate change dept! They might get a round 2 with tony in a year or so.

Hell poor old brodburgers. The only ones who could wait 90 minutes for a lunch feed were pubes.

PantsMan said :

Treasury is hunting for 200 VRs.

Actual result approx 80.

pink little birdie said :

The last round of VR’s we had a few weeks later quite a few were back or at other departments as contract staff.

While I have no doubt this happens, it’s as a result of a (arguably deliberate) misapplication of the policy, rather than a failing in the policy itself.

VRs can and should be given out to positions that are genuinely redundant. But like most systems its open to rorting.

People who take VR’s can’t take a ongoing job in the APS for a period specified in their package contract bases on how long they have worked in the APS. (I have heard of one which was 2 weeks and others that were 12 months)

However they may take up non ongoing positions in an APS departments.

The last round of VR’s we had a few weeks later quite a few were back or at other departments as contract staff.

dpm said :

They will be hoping they can lure people to take a VR and ‘retire’. Of course, most of those people get jobs back in the PS, after getting their big payout… (Therefore, when you add in the payout costs and the fact that they get a job again sometime later, money is not always being saved – it just looks like that from a certain angle.

Not strictly true. Once you take a VR, you can’t (afaik) get a APS job for 12 months. Also, when they come back in, a lot of these older people are competing against younger and better qualified applicants. They actually have to make it through a merit process, as opposed to years gone by when anyone with a pulse could get promoted through the ranks by sheer longevity.

There is no guarantee that they will get a job at the same level, if at all. I know of more than a few oxygen theives that were apparently SES when they took their packages and upon re-entry took up APS-level jobs, which they have been stuck in for many years, just running out the clock until they can re-retire.

Treasury is hunting for 200 VRs.

dpm said :

loosebrown said :

How can all departments simultaneously trim down staff through natural attrition?

They will be hoping they can lure people to take a VR and ‘retire’. Of course, most of those people get jobs back in the PS, after getting their big payout… (Therefore, when you add in the payout costs and the fact that they get a job again sometime later, money is not always being saved – it just looks like that from a certain angle. Kind of like when they hire lots of contractors to replace permanent staff, so they can say their permanent PS staff budget is smaller, as contractors get paid from a different pool of $).
.

loosebrown said :

And don’t forget – if your colleagues are looking to take VRs – their position number will simply disappear so that means MORE WORK FOR YOU.

Yep, I guess that’s what happens when you ‘trim down’ staff…

Overall, maybe Labor is doing it now so that when the Monk gets in he won’t be able to make any further cuts to fund his election promises, as he has already planned!

No, Labor is doing it now because they have screwed around the budget since 2007 and are realising that there is no way they can ever deliver their promised surplus until they stop spending – which they aren’t prepared to do – so they will cut jobs and cease some of the streams of GST funding to the states instead. At least it’s not another new tax, which they also seem fond of lately.

loosebrown said :

How can all departments simultaneously trim down staff through natural attrition?

They will be hoping they can lure people to take a VR and ‘retire’. Of course, most of those people get jobs back in the PS, after getting their big payout… (Therefore, when you add in the payout costs and the fact that they get a job again sometime later, money is not always being saved – it just looks like that from a certain angle. Kind of like when they hire lots of contractors to replace permanent staff, so they can say their permanent PS staff budget is smaller, as contractors get paid from a different pool of $).
.

loosebrown said :

And don’t forget – if your colleagues are looking to take VRs – their position number will simply disappear so that means MORE WORK FOR YOU.

Yep, I guess that’s what happens when you ‘trim down’ staff…

Overall, maybe Labor is doing it now so that when the Monk gets in he won’t be able to make any further cuts to fund his election promises, as he has already planned!

Ian said :

What is the alternative? Have the policy wonks hanging around to think up policies to keep them occupied?

How’s this for a list of things to be getting on with?

1. Implementation of current policy.
2. Thinking about future steps to reduce emissions.
3. Thinking about policy implications of climate adaptation or mitigation requirements.

The picture used in the article says it all.

Public servants are underworked, constipated, and as confused as a dike on a pushbike.

Go apply for a job at Brodburger, I hear there waiting times are too short and only the APS could possibly make it slower.

How can all departments simultaneously trim down staff through natural attrition?

Secretaries want their staff to ‘work across the portfolio’ and ‘coordinate and innovate’ when they are all independently coming up with exactly the same strategy to reduce staffing levels. Where are these people going to go?

If I was a non-ongoing contractor I’d be looking for a job outside of Canberra quick smart. There will be a ‘coordinated’ panic in June when Secrataries realise they have not lost the required staff and they will decree no contracts will be renewed.

And don’t forget – if your colleagues are looking to take VRs – their position number will simply disappear so that means MORE WORK FOR YOU.

SnapperJack said :

Best news I’ve heard all day. The next step should be abolishing the department altogether and scrapping all the green schemes. The carbon tax should also be abolished and it should be written into the Constitution that no government money can be spent on climate change or anything to do with environmentalism.

Piers? Is that you?

Congratulations to all those posters who are rejoicing in the fact that people will lose their jobs, you all just won the A-hole of the month award.

And, frankly Departments don’t shed 30% of their workforce through natural attrition, they’ll be lucky to hit 10%.

Oh, and has anyone heard from Andrew Leigh or Gai Brodtman on this.. didn’t think so.

I can’t think of a department more deserving of job cuts.

I used to work there for many years – and it really is the most inefficient, inept agency of them all. I still have nightmares about some of the things they did over the years, and the colossal amounts of public money that pretty much went down the drain over the years, including on overseas trips and overpaid consultants who told people what they wanted to hear.

The sad part is the people they’ll let go are the ordinary worker bees they need most, and the people they’ll retain are the SES executives who created / contributed to the problems, which will no doubt continue. And no doubt they’ll continue throwing money at consultants – in fact with less staff even more money will be sent their way. And still they won’t be able to sell the carbon tax, because what they really need are car salesmen not policy wonks trained in the dark arts deep within dungeons of The Treasury

The other key point is that DCCEE is one of the most top-heavy agencies around, lots more SES and EL2 level than anywhere else proportionally. Also, staff salaries are among the highest in the APS. So plenty of fat to cut. It’s just that they’re unlikely to cut in the right places

The carbon tax will actually be administered by a new regulator that’s been set up, so cutbacks to DCCEE won’t affect its implementation.

I’m more worried by the overall cuts across all agencies will have on Canberra’s economy. Australia wide, they need to make something like 2% cuts in spending, which if it happens would send Australia into recession. All to make a political point and save Wayne Swan’s pride!!

devils_advocate said :

FioBla said :

I may be misunderstanding, but, one of the advertised advantages of the carbon tax was

>It encourages businesses across all industries
>to find the cheapest and most effective way of
>reducing carbon pollution, rather than relying on
>more costly approaches such as government
>regulation and direct action.

I guess if the tax comes into effect in July, that’s one reason the department doesn’t need to be that big any more.

http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/clean-energy-future/carbon-price/

And anyway, Kevin Rudd was elected promising “razor gangs” in the public sector. Or did that already happen? I wasn’t in Canberra at the time.

^This. Once the policy is determined and implemented, there should be a skeleton staff only to progress any tweaks that need to be made post-implementation. The other area of course is actual market policing (ala ASIC or the ACCC) but the policy department has little raison detre at this point.

Exactly. The dept has gotten over the big hump of devising the policy, so naturally you’d expect them to be running smaller. What is the alternative? Have the policy wonks hanging around to think up policies to keep them occupied?

The Department of Resources, Energy & Tourism announced staff cuts about a month ago… 100 jobs are expected to go next financial year… roughly 1/5 of the workforce.

From ABC News ACT:
“……But ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries says he doubts the numbers will remain the same.
He says once the cuts are tallied, the figure could be as high as 12,000 job losses……”

If Gary Humphries thinks up to 12,000 jobs may be lost next financial year, where are we all meant to work ??

dungfungus said :

PantsMan said :

housebound said :

Best RA headline this week.

Other possible headines could have included:
* Climate Change staff first to feel the low carbon economy.
* 300 Climate Change staff to try and find a ‘clean job of the future’
* ALP adopts Abbott’s climate change policy

Having had to deal with these people over the years, I cannot see what possible excuse they have for existing. They are like a prothletising religion; every critique is a rejection of their value system, so they become more paranoid, insular and deranged.

Finally and for good measure, am I going to have to fund their golden handshakes? Taxpayers have already paid $175,000 to provide them with counseling because everyone hates them.

I phoned them recently and asked them to explain what “a one-off 0.7% increase in the CPI” in practical application meant. I was told this will be the one and only price increase caused by introduction of the carbon tax in the quarter 1.7.12 – 30.9.12. For example, if the “normal” CPI is 2.8% on 30.9.12 it will become 3.5% with the carbon tax impact; thereafter it will reduce back to normal. (Note that this represents a 25% overnight increase in the cost of living) I then suggested that rather than “one -off” the increase would be constant; but I was assured it would only be “one-off”.
When I suggested that it would take at least a year for the “trickle down” effect to be taken into account I was dismissed. I then asked the person if he was aware that the CPI was an important benchmark in determining commercial lease rental increases and was this taken into account I was told that the Department of Climate Change didn’t have any input into commercial leases.
The discussion then went to the claim that the carbon tax will be “GST free” when in fact the increases in taxable supply prices to the end user will have GST added. It may be GST free when the tax is paid by the (yet unamed) 500 biggest polluters but after then it is not.
This went someway to explaining why Labor is going to deliver us a $40 billion deficit this year.

I can’t believe of all the rubbish in this stream I’m addressing this, but an increase of 0.7% isn’t a 25% overnight increase in the cost of living, it’s a 25% gain on the increase to prices, which you quote as 3.5%.

Incidentally you’ll find that the wage for a job you had 5 years ago will also be numerically higher today.

If you’re going to be a hack, at least bear a flag.

dungfungus said :

EvanJames said :

So, is CC still going to build itself a new building on DFAT’s carpark?

This increased efficiency dividend is really cutting into the APS, look at the gov’t job ads in Saturday’s paper, they are shrivelling away to nothing. The two new entities being set up by Health to monitor and fun the new health system are recruiting on temporary contracts (and I’m told that most of those being taken are secondments from Health).

By the time Abbott’s mob get in, there’ll be precious little to cut into, but they have promised repeatedly that they’ll do exactly that. Hockey on QandA named DoHA as one area of particular attention. Sounds like he wants to privatise/outsource more of what they do. And I can’t see Climate Change surviving.

Rudd subjected the APS to a de-facto recruitment freeze, now in a short space of time they’re undergoing another such exercise. I guess Howard set the gold standard for using the APS as a general kick-dog.

Labor are already stealing the coalition’s policies 18 months out from an election. This is a new record.

It’s Defence that needs the chop: we’re starting to resemble the Burmese Military in our distribution of ranks.

Erg0 said :

EvanJames said :

So, is CC still going to build itself a new building on DFAT’s carpark?

Last I heard (a couple of months ago), that car park will be staying put for the foreseeable future.

What happened to the Nishi building? Or is that SEWPAC moving there?

I know a few people who were employed by th DCC to work in assisting those with problems with the Pink Bats problems, I assume this is wrapping up and those contracts may not be renewed.

davo101 said :

dungfungus said :

Note that this represents a 25% overnight increase in the cost of living

So I can assume numeracy is not your strong suit? More likely a 25% increase in the rate of change of the CPI.

You are the only Rioter that has spotted the deliberate mistake !

dungfungus said :

Note that this represents a 25% overnight increase in the cost of living

So I can assume numeracy is not your strong suit? More likely a 25% increase in the rate of change of the CPI.

SnapperJack said :

no government money can be spent on climate change or anything to do with environmentalism.

No more sewers. Dubai-style.

c_c said :

Every department is trimming staff, almost no point listing them.
Certainly Vet Affairs and Health are both trimming it was announced a couple of months back.

DVA’s cut is about 100 positions nationally, which is roughly 5%.

c_c said :

You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

One novel way to address this is to document what folks do, both the formal and informal procedures. Unfortunately, that makes in roads into the little empires/dukedoms/baronies that we all know and love…

devils_advocate said :

It might also rebalance what I consider to be a very top-heavy APS, especially in the central agencies.

I recall reading in the Public Sector Informant that the 50% percentile for public servant employees had shifted from the APS6 level to an EL1. It has been steadily moving upwards for some time now, and we are ending up with more chiefs and less braves.

dungfungus said :

c_c said :

Every department is trimming staff, almost no point listing them.
Certainly Vet Affairs and Health are both trimming it was announced a couple of months back. The curious thing is the Departments are all keeping graduate intakes quite high and instead seem to be trimming middle to top tier people. To me, this could spell trouble. You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

Centrelink must have already trimmed their staff. I waited on the phone for an hour this morning then gave up.

Sounds about right, I recall ringing them a year or so ago, was on hold for so long the battery on the cordless phone gave out before I spoke to anyone.

EvanJames said :

So, is CC still going to build itself a new building on DFAT’s carpark?

This increased efficiency dividend is really cutting into the APS, look at the gov’t job ads in Saturday’s paper, they are shrivelling away to nothing. The two new entities being set up by Health to monitor and fun the new health system are recruiting on temporary contracts (and I’m told that most of those being taken are secondments from Health).

By the time Abbott’s mob get in, there’ll be precious little to cut into, but they have promised repeatedly that they’ll do exactly that. Hockey on QandA named DoHA as one area of particular attention. Sounds like he wants to privatise/outsource more of what they do. And I can’t see Climate Change surviving.

Rudd subjected the APS to a de-facto recruitment freeze, now in a short space of time they’re undergoing another such exercise. I guess Howard set the gold standard for using the APS as a general kick-dog.

Labor are already stealing the coalition’s policies 18 months out from an election. This is a new record.

EvanJames said :

So, is CC still going to build itself a new building on DFAT’s carpark?

Last I heard (a couple of months ago), that car park will be staying put for the foreseeable future.

Best news I’ve heard all day. The next step should be abolishing the department altogether and scrapping all the green schemes. The carbon tax should also be abolished and it should be written into the Constitution that no government money can be spent on climate change or anything to do with environmentalism.

You guys realise all the CC job cuts are through VRs and attrition, right…?

So, is CC still going to build itself a new building on DFAT’s carpark?

This increased efficiency dividend is really cutting into the APS, look at the gov’t job ads in Saturday’s paper, they are shrivelling away to nothing. The two new entities being set up by Health to monitor and fun the new health system are recruiting on temporary contracts (and I’m told that most of those being taken are secondments from Health).

By the time Abbott’s mob get in, there’ll be precious little to cut into, but they have promised repeatedly that they’ll do exactly that. Hockey on QandA named DoHA as one area of particular attention. Sounds like he wants to privatise/outsource more of what they do. And I can’t see Climate Change surviving.

Rudd subjected the APS to a de-facto recruitment freeze, now in a short space of time they’re undergoing another such exercise. I guess Howard set the gold standard for using the APS as a general kick-dog.

Every government is good at blaming government workers for it’s policy faults and getting votes by sacking people.

Happens every administration and you get the same “joy at watching people get sacked” in online chat rooms and in the media every time. Of course the hundreds of families to become affected by unemployment is not something people should be rejoicing.

c_c said :

Every department is trimming staff, almost no point listing them.
Certainly Vet Affairs and Health are both trimming it was announced a couple of months back. The curious thing is the Departments are all keeping graduate intakes quite high and instead seem to be trimming middle to top tier people. To me, this could spell trouble. You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

Centrelink must have already trimmed their staff. I waited on the phone for an hour this morning then gave up.

c_c said :

Every department is trimming staff, almost no point listing them.
Certainly Vet Affairs and Health are both trimming it was announced a couple of months back. The curious thing is the Departments are all keeping graduate intakes quite high and instead seem to be trimming middle to top tier people. To me, this could spell trouble. You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

Agreed. They see Grads as being cheap and being value for money. What they dont see is the number of Grads hitting the gazette as soon as they start a job, looking to move onto the next one…

The reality is as you rightly said – a heap of corporate knowledge is walking out the door. A smart approach would be a planned mentoring program to reduce the impact of these staff leaving. It wont replace the experience, but may help soften the blow on the public sector industry. More often than not when people get tapped on the shoulder, they leave pretty quickly, without doing any skills transfer of their knowledge.

Im pretty sure I read somewhere last year that in the next 10 years theres going to be a big rise in departures since a huge chunk of the public sector are reaching retirement age?

All that being said – I was uinder the impression that there was alot of project work that was being undertaken, and now that its done these people are no longer needed?

Do I have this right? Carbon tax coming in in two months … government spruiking the NEED for the carbon tax and a clean energy future because of “climate change”… and the govt snots the department that is concerned with climate change, and its green & solar programs, and crushes a couple of hundred APS skulls. Is this a Labor government we’re talkin’?

PantsMan said :

housebound said :

Best RA headline this week.

Other possible headines could have included:
* Climate Change staff first to feel the low carbon economy.
* 300 Climate Change staff to try and find a ‘clean job of the future’
* ALP adopts Abbott’s climate change policy

Having had to deal with these people over the years, I cannot see what possible excuse they have for existing. They are like a prothletising religion; every critique is a rejection of their value system, so they become more paranoid, insular and deranged.

Finally and for good measure, am I going to have to fund their golden handshakes? Taxpayers have already paid $175,000 to provide them with counseling because everyone hates them.

I phoned them recently and asked them to explain what “a one-off 0.7% increase in the CPI” in practical application meant. I was told this will be the one and only price increase caused by introduction of the carbon tax in the quarter 1.7.12 – 30.9.12. For example, if the “normal” CPI is 2.8% on 30.9.12 it will become 3.5% with the carbon tax impact; thereafter it will reduce back to normal. (Note that this represents a 25% overnight increase in the cost of living) I then suggested that rather than “one -off” the increase would be constant; but I was assured it would only be “one-off”.
When I suggested that it would take at least a year for the “trickle down” effect to be taken into account I was dismissed. I then asked the person if he was aware that the CPI was an important benchmark in determining commercial lease rental increases and was this taken into account I was told that the Department of Climate Change didn’t have any input into commercial leases.
The discussion then went to the claim that the carbon tax will be “GST free” when in fact the increases in taxable supply prices to the end user will have GST added. It may be GST free when the tax is paid by the (yet unamed) 500 biggest polluters but after then it is not.
This went someway to explaining why Labor is going to deliver us a $40 billion deficit this year.

FioBla said :

I may be misunderstanding, but, one of the advertised advantages of the carbon tax was

>It encourages businesses across all industries
>to find the cheapest and most effective way of
>reducing carbon pollution, rather than relying on
>more costly approaches such as government
>regulation and direct action.

I guess if the tax comes into effect in July, that’s one reason the department doesn’t need to be that big any more.

http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/clean-energy-future/carbon-price/

And anyway, Kevin Rudd was elected promising “razor gangs” in the public sector. Or did that already happen? I wasn’t in Canberra at the time.

^This. Once the policy is determined and implemented, there should be a skeleton staff only to progress any tweaks that need to be made post-implementation. The other area of course is actual market policing (ala ASIC or the ACCC) but the policy department has little raison detre at this point.

c_c said :

To me, this could spell trouble. You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

Corporate knowledge in the public sector is overrated, and is often is only relevant for as long as the current government lasts. It also often comes at a very high price, in terms of resistance to change and an unwavering commitment to repeated past mistakes.

On balance (and it’s VERY rare I get to say this) getting rid of some of the cobwebs and getting some fresh young minds in is probably the right thing to do. It might also rebalance what I consider to be a very top-heavy APS, especially in the central agencies. There are only so many strategic directions we can have before we need to start getting in worker ants to do the actual work. A lot of low value work is being pushed ever higher for no reason other than risk aversion.

arescarti42 said :

Damn, I really want to apply for a graduate position there, and this doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

I doubt they’ll cut graduate intakes in any department – they value new recruits more than current workers in government departments.

I may be misunderstanding, but, one of the advertised advantages of the carbon tax was

>It encourages businesses across all industries
>to find the cheapest and most effective way of
>reducing carbon pollution, rather than relying on
>more costly approaches such as government
>regulation and direct action.

I guess if the tax comes into effect in July, that’s one reason the department doesn’t need to be that big any more.

http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/clean-energy-future/carbon-price/

And anyway, Kevin Rudd was elected promising “razor gangs” in the public sector. Or did that already happen? I wasn’t in Canberra at the time.

Every department is trimming staff, almost no point listing them.
Certainly Vet Affairs and Health are both trimming it was announced a couple of months back. The curious thing is the Departments are all keeping graduate intakes quite high and instead seem to be trimming middle to top tier people. To me, this could spell trouble. You’re trimming away a lot of corporate knowledge and experience.

Damn, I really want to apply for a graduate position there, and this doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

HenryBG said :

Heh, that photo looks like it’s come from inside the DCC….Level4, maybe? Haven’t been in there for years.

According to the tag on flickr it’s in London so you’re only about 20000km out.

housebound said :

Best RA headline this week.

Other possible headines could have included:
* Climate Change staff first to feel the low carbon economy.
* 300 Climate Change staff to try and find a ‘clean job of the future’
* ALP adopts Abbott’s climate change policy

Having had to deal with these people over the years, I cannot see what possible excuse they have for existing. They are like a prothletising religion; every critique is a rejection of their value system, so they become more paranoid, insular and deranged.

Finally and for good measure, am I going to have to fund their golden handshakes? Taxpayers have already paid $175,000 to provide them with counseling because everyone hates them.

Stevian said :

Rollersk8r said :

It’s happening everwhere. All very easy to say public servants are lazy and should be shot in front of their families but some perspective and understanding of what it means for Canberra would be nice.

You know this isn’t the place for perspective or understanding.

+1

Heh, that photo looks like it’s come from inside the DCC….Level4, maybe? Haven’t been in there for years.

I rang the department once to find out about the website for environmentally friendly building/renovating which I was aware existed and to find out if there were any other sources of technical information because I wanted to get some impartial advice about something before speaking to any salespeople about it. I got the typical ‘not my section I’ll put you through to somebody’ runaround before ending up with a booking service for some kind of green advisory home visit service, and nobody I spoke to was aware of their own website which I ended up finding via google. So I reckon the department could easily discard a few people.

Rollersk8r said :

It’s happening everwhere. All very easy to say public servants are lazy and should be shot in front of their families but some perspective and understanding of what it means for Canberra would be nice.

You know this isn’t the place for perspective or understanding.

Rollersk8r said :

It’s happening everwhere. All very easy to say public servants are lazy and should be shot in front of their families but some perspective and understanding of what it means for Canberra would be nice.

That Canberra will need to be more then a latte economy?

It’s happening everwhere. All very easy to say public servants are lazy and should be shot in front of their families but some perspective and understanding of what it means for Canberra would be nice.

Best RA headline this week.

Long overdue if you ask me, especially the Climate Change one- huge waste of money and most of people there got their jobs through “friend of a friend”.Bring on more cuts!!!

In all the bloated useless messes run by the Federal Government, that one really stands out.

33% is far less than they deserve.

A Climate Change policy unit should use SEWPAC infrastructure and should be run by about 12 staff, plus another 6 staff per project, if any.
That’s all you need.
The research is done elsewhere (where it’s not being impeded by cranks inundating scientists with malicious FoI requests, hacking email servers, dead rats and death threats), you just have to analyse it, package it, and integrate it with policy, a process that does not require anything near 900 staff jetting about the country.

Not only Climate Change… apparently Regional Australia need to loose quite a few as well…