Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard has defended the merging of the climate change and industry departments, saying it doesn’t mean Labor is watering down its pledge to tackle global warming.
The minority federal government announced that with the carbon price legislation in place, there was no longer a need for a dedicated Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
AAP Newsagency reports as part of the prime minister’s cabinet reshuffle today, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was handed the industry portfolio vacated by Kim Carr, who resigned following last week’s failed leadership spill.
Under the changes, Mr Combet will now oversee a new Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.
Ms Gillard told AAP any suggestion the merger meant Labor was softening its commitment to climate change was “irrational”.
As the carbon pricing mechanism was in full swing and was ultimately linked to innovation and job creation, the merger made sense.
“It is inevitable, natural, logical that the number of people you need for the task has reduced,” Ms Gillard said in the national capital, Canberra, today.
Mr Combet said the merged department’s energy efficiency functions would also be merged into the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
Linking these policies with the wider reform of the energy market would improve energy efficiency in industry, the chief way Australia plans to cut its carbon emissions.
The government also has created Climate Commission, Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Regulator to oversee various aspects of the carbon price.
A significant number of staff from the climate change department moved across to the regulator last year.
Mr Combet said funding for climate change would not be changed under the new arrangements, and the public service infrastructure and resources for this policy work would be maintained.
Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Yvette D’Ath will retain her position but also assume a revised title.
The conservative Liberal-National opposition spokesman on climate change Greg Hunt said the government may be getting rid of the department but what really needed to go was the carbon price.
“The prime minister might try to hide the department, but there is no hiding from the hurt the carbon tax is causing,” he said in a statement.
The Australian Greens Party said the government was “retreating” from its commitment to climate change and was now a step closer to abolishing the department entirely, as the coalition wanted.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the decision risked a backward step on climate action.
“A single strong department is the best way to ensure climate change science and knowledge are harnessed to achieve the best public policy outcomes,” chief executive Don Henry said.
