$175k to cheer up Department of Energy and Climate Change staff

Hey, but this is alright when you are spending someone else’s money isn’t it?

Staff at the Australian Department of Climate  Change are so depressed, I can’t think why, that the government is spending $175,000 to cheer them up.

Could it be that the poor staff would enjoy their jobs more if they weren’t doing something which was a complete waste of time, and their programs weren’t a vacuous drain? Remember if we all abandon Australia, AND if the IPCC aren’t wildly overestimating the effects of extra CO2, then, and only then, will Australia cool the world by as much as — rounded to the nearest whole number —  zero degrees. (Pace Matt Ridley)

Things are so bad, people were ashamed to admit to people that they worked at the Dept of Climate Change. Worse, this study was done back in 2010 – before a round of endless-drought-breaking floods in 2011 and then another round of endless-drought-breaking floods in 2012. This was before the worst of the plummeting Labor polling, before FakeGate…  just how low do these people feel now?

 

175k to cheer up Department of Energy and Climate Change staff

Linda Silmalis : The Sunday Telegraph March 24, 2012

 THEY are responsible for some of the government’s most important policies – but staff at the Department of Energy and Climate Change are too ashamed to admit where they work.

Staff morale is so low the government has spent almost $175,000 on consultants to lift staff’s flagging spirits.

 A negative public image of the department, changing environmental policies and lack of internal support had left them feeling miserable and disengaged, an internal report has found.

 The report was conducted by consultants Right Management in July 2010 when the department was under the responsibility of Finance and Deregulation Minister Penny Wong.

 The portfolio has since been taken over by Greg Combet.

The report, which also includes a survey of 788 people, found the department to have “low levels” of employee engagement. Staff held a poor view of the department, felt a lack of purpose, were uninformed about changes to policies and procedures, and worried about their future employment.

 

“Many reported having to think about whether they would tell people where they worked because of the department’s negative image,” the report said.

 

It’s the politician’s fault for offering waste-of-time-work in the first place. I don’t blame the staff (not so much) but in the end, they are always free to leave. Except of course, they are trapped aren’t they? We know that many of them can’t find better paid work elsewhere, because the gravy train pays well, much better than private industry.

Pouring good money after bad. This is another case study in why Big-Government is a bad thing.

Hat tip:: Jim Simpson and Graeme G

9.9 out of 10 based on 67 ratings

70 comments to $175k to cheer up Department of Energy and Climate Change staff

  • #
    Treeman

    Jo

    Bureaucrats at the wailing wall are a sign of things to come. There are quite a few in Queen street Brisbane on the move today. To all accounts some of the more contentious portfolios had the shredders going all weekend!

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  • #
    KinkyKeith

    The sense of entitlement to spend our taxes is just incredible but is still being shielded from our scrutiny by the never ending Propaganda that flows from the media.

    People in Qld can see and understand when a Government decides to use a flood mitigation dam as a source of drinking water and then causes untold damage. That was easy to sort out.

    Press the OUT button in the electoral booth.

    Unfortunately sorting out Global Warming is not so easy. The propaganda is insidious and unchallengeable for the average voter but Julia has however made a Bligh type error: The Carbon Tax.

    It will hurt more than she claims and so it will sink her.

    The mass of the public is still not sure about Global Warming because they have been so cleverly conned.

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  • #
    Siliggy

    Why don’t they just get an honest job?

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    • #
      Mark D.

      See, it’s just this kind of insensitivity that has those poor blokes so down and out. Where is your sense of compassion?

      Did you spend it on carbon taxes?

      Sarc/On-off-on (damn sarc button is broken)

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      • #
        Siliggy

        Mark I have met some of these people and do feel sorry for the ones that did not know what they were getting into. For example one guy during a very normal “So what do you do for a living” type converation mumbled his answer away as he looked shamefully down at his shoes. Perhaps he hoped it would not be heard. His face fell after glancing up to to see mine was turning up and away with an expression much as same as if there had been dog do smeared on his clothes. He very quickly followed with some detail about a better job opportunity. So in order to help him escape this awkward situation brightening the expression I enthusiastically asked more about the better job.
        The down side of this is that he will no doubt be replaced in that position by some scum with no shame.

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      • #
        Bulldust

        I work for Government (State) and I can tell you there are a fair share of oxygen thieves in Government just as there are in large corporations (some people from big mining companies tell me their bureaucracy is worse than ours, and I am inclined to believe them based on a few annecdotal tales).

        There are certain types that gravitate towards agencies like the Dept. of Climate Change … the same types like the ones that tend to psych and management dgerees… Broad generalisation I know, but I once had the misfortune of sitting through a management class (was a required unit in my PhD studies). I think they are a bit like the first ark crew in the hitchhikers Guide series… you know, advertising execs, telephone sanitisers etc… That’s not to say they might not be a couple of useful operators in the DCC crew, but I am not holding my breath, and you know what that means… more CO2 😛

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      • #
        crakar24

        Mine is stuck in the on position

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  • #
    rukidding

    Could I suggest a song to cheer them up.

    He’s a real nowhere man.
    Living in his nowhere land.
    Making all his nowhere plans.
    For nobody.

    There you go do you feel better now.

    10

  • #
    AndyG55

    Being a puppet would make a person feel rather wooden..

    and with Gillard et al pulling the strings…

    I almost feel sorry for them……….. well.. not really.

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  • #

    THEY are responsible for some of the government’s most important policies

    There’s your problem right there folks. A disconnect between fantasy and reality. Say no more. A couple of pills everyday and Bob’s you’re uncle.

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    The whole idea of a Department of Energy and Climate Change was a bad idea from the start. The powers that be in Canberra were so advised at the time.

    The notion of mixing Energy (which everybody needs and wants), with Climate Change (which nobody needs or wants) just causes so many internal tensions within the department itself. It leads to a two tier informal hierarchy where some jobs are “more important” than others, even when the people are on the same pay grade. Also putting it in the name is bad karma. You can’t make it go away without it being obvious

    New Zealand opted to include Climate Change within the Ministry for the Environment, where it can be quietly ignored as it slowly sinks out of the public consciousness.

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    • #
      Manfred

      RW, I live in hope that the ‘climate change’ culture, the hypothesis of AGW – aka. humans are a blight, the whole sorry, prodigiously expensive mess, do all ‘slowly sink(s) out of public consciousness’. Whilst there may be evidence that this applies to the hoi polloi, as you suggest, it has I fear become an institutional culture and appears ingrained at this point – and Kiwi’s do seem to appear to be a compliant group.

      By way of example. I recently discovered many of the hotels have installed a Green Globe Policy with a ‘Green Globe Co-ordinator’ who is charged with ‘identifying environmental risks’ including ‘implementing environmental and social sustainability measures’. The policy is centered on creating an ‘environmentally safe working place’ and ‘encourages understanding and responsibility in the use of resources within its own community and society in general’.

      Green Globe policy is based on Agenda 21 principles for Sustainable Development (UN Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit 1992) and is another step toward global governance. Indoctrination in these principles (‘Sustainability Training’) covers all the usual suspects of the UN Green agenda including ‘climate change’.

      But as far as NZ is concerned, how does a nation re-trench from the position where the carbon tax has already been introduced and where it gleefully ran headlong to embrace and ratify the Kyoto Protocol? A ‘carbon charge’ is applied to gas I understand, and the cost of petrol bears a carbon tax in NZ of approx. 3 cents per litre, (a tax on a tax – truly amazing! – are Kiwi’s not a paradoxically compliant group?).

      I suspect that it may be sometime before it is considered politically ‘safe’ for corporations and governments to disengage from UN Agenda 21 policies including ‘climate change’. It may perforce take a long period of ‘sinking’ to reach unconsciousness.

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  • #
    Ian Hill

    Not surprising seeing as Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks has more credibility.

    It’s probably not well known outside the Public Service, but a position in Canberra is overrated by two to three levels compared to a position doing the same work in a State Office. In other words people in Canberra get paid much more for doing the same work as someone interstate. The “Central Office” also has many, many more staff than any State Office, so people just don’t get to “know” everyone else in the Department.

    Whenever consultants come in to raise morale even more useless activity is created in the name of “team building” and no doubt they will go off in groups somewhere “flash” to do lots of silly things.

    Seeing as they are ashamed to admit where they work, which surprises me as I had visions of the Department of Climate Change being full of greenies, I predict that one of the major outcomes will be a recommendation to change the Department’s name. After all, its current name is akin to being the Department for Stopping the Tide, or The Department for Earth’s Rotation Speed.

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    • #
      gnome

      It’s such a problem! There are senior people in Canberra, advising the Minister, who wouldn’t even know how many paper clips there are on their desks, and some don’t even spend time agonising over the leave rosters. All the real work is done in the regions.

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  • #
    mikemUK

    I imagine prophesy was a more satisfying occupation in ancient Rome.

    At least when your average Augur had ‘read the entrails’ dispatching the Legions off to war in all directions, he was left with an oven-ready bird or two to feast on.

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  • #
    observa

    Staff held a poor view of the department, felt a lack of purpose, were uninformed about changes to policies and procedures, and worried about their future employment

    After the Qld election outcome and those exit poll results, there will be an awful lot of them out on stress leave Monday morning because the climate sure has changed out there.

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  • #
    Robert of Ottawa

    Bloody right! They should feel ashamed. Even THEY know what a crock, scam and fraud it all is.

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  • #
    ThomasJ

    Ohh dear those ‘poor’ bureaucrats, or better; politocrats all over. We have somewhat the same ‘problem’ here in Europe, where these paper-turning no-gooders do everything the can to ‘stay in biz’ and even get consultancy assistance to do so.
    Here is a rather good explanation to the ever growing problems:

    http://mises.org/daily/5955/The-Seven-Rules-of-Bureaucracy

    Brgds from Sweden
    /TJ

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    • #
      MurrayA

      Exactly, ThomasJ. These oh-so-poor bureaucrats! My heart bleeds for them (sarc!). Let them get a proper job, instead of this addiction to OPM – Other People’s Money!
      “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” Thomas Jefferson
      “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When people fear the government, there is tyranny!” Thomas Jefferson

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  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    Having to deal with and interview 788 people; and not a happy one among them –

    Is that a misprint? 788! What did they learn additionally after the first 30? At the most, they should have stopped at 42. There is nothing more to be learned after 42. Those not familiar with the number should look it up.

    The consultants, Right Management, need a consultant – send them my name please, and for $175,000 (+expenses) I’ll give them some advice.

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  • #
    rukidding

    Consultants why do companies and government need to bring in consultants. Are not the company and government heads supposed to know how to run their businesses and departments.
    I remember long ago Qantas brought in a high powered mob of time in motion people to tell the company how it could improve its efficiency.The thing was that 6 months after they made their report they went broke.You just gotta laugh.:-)

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  • #
    Dave

    I suppose that’s the cost of prostitution. It’s not the act, it’s the indignity.

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  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Well if they can’t save humans from climate change, we need the CSIRO to go fully Jurassic Park on some ancient aussie mega fauna so that the Department will finally have some animals to save from climate change. (First law of bureaucracy: preserve the problem.)
    No, wait, they could not have saved the Mega Wombats because that wasn’t due to climate change either.

    It’s really a crappy day to be a warmist in the weathermongering department, eh?
    Hark… what’s that sound… why…it’s the sound of government résumés being shredded into fettucine carbonista.

    Mind, it could be low morale due to poor leadership. I heard it’s called combet fatigue.
    This Jack of All Trade Unions isn’t the ace of the DECC. 😉 (Nyuk nyuk!)

    But it’s not through lack of trying by the new chief climate shaman. Our dear Ivan inspired action in even the most wretched of the land when he said: “bad laws have to be broken.”
    With advice like that, government Carbon Tax propaganda being returned to his office unopened might be only the beginning of Dear Ivan’s issues. Perhaps a distinct shortfall in carbon tax revenue is only 3 months away?
    Our businesses must obey the words of our dear leader! 😀

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  • #
    Jimmy Haigh

    Right Management, eh? I worked for a company once who organised a day long course for all the employees – all the management went along too. We went and had a day with some motivational speakers. It was the singularly most excruciatingly toe-curlingly awful day of my life. I still cringe at the thought of it.

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  • #
    Peter Miller

    Of course, what is really going to cheer up these pointless bureaucrats is the fact the whole world now knows the Aussie government decided to waste $175,000 on them.

    They are going to be the laughing stock amongst all their friends – but perhaps that’s the way it should be, if you are employed to do something so obviously useless, you have to be either stupid to stay there or unemployable, so you are only worthy of contempt.

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    • #
      Winston

      Hand holding is a very expensive exercise isn’t it. The cheaper alternative, almost no cost to the taxpayer, is to just harden the f@#!* up!

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  • #
    Jim Stewart

    These people obviously get one hell of a fright when they leave the warming movements ‘base camp’ in Canberra and venture into the real world.
    No matter, I read in the news that GE Vice Chairman, John Rice, has thrown them a lifeline overnight (pitty that the lifeboat they will end up in is sinking anyway). He reckons that Australia and Gillard are “courageous” for moving on Carbon (Dioxide) Tax before the rest of the world.
    A – He obviously operates on Gillards ‘Power at any Cost’ philosophy. After lying to us on the tax, she could only be described as having courage IF she went back to the electorate BEFORE she introduced the tax.
    B – His company manufactures non CO2 producing devices for generating very high cost electricity and, in windmill case, health risk and visual pollution that is unacceptable for the 21st century. You would think his ‘conflict of interest’ issues in this matter would caution his comments, but like many in the IPCC club,he does not give a stuff.
    C – He should ask his Australian employees about their view of the CO2 tax and would find, that they would sing a different tune to that of their ‘leader’ as reflected by the weekend Queensland voting result.

    00

    • #
      brc

      Courageous is just management-speak for ‘suicidal’ and ‘idiotic’. It also denotes that the speaker hasn’t got the ‘courage’ that the spoken-about has. In other words ‘you’re on your own, there’.

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  • #
    Tom

    Not long to go now, folks. But don’t fall the for the idea that the alarmists will just give up their empire. It will have to be figuratively bludgeoned to death, over and over, until there is no pulse. With real science, not political science, as “climate change” is actually a political doctrine (it’s no accident that not one leader of the climate science establishment has ever attempted to distance him/herself from the Greens political movement). Steffen, Karoly etc keep banging the drum that produces the research money (and, in Australia and Europe, the government taxes that pay for the gravy train), but can’t find a causal link between CO2 and temperature that justifies their endless world-is-ending speaking tour. That’s because there isn’t one. CO2 would love to control global temperature and be king of the playground, but it’s just too much of a puny weakling. The anti-intuitive IPCC hypothesis doesn’t work. Who’d have guessed? I’m sure Team physicists like John Brookes will bring us news of the scientific breakthrough needed to justify another decade of the people-are-evil-and-stupid movement.

    00

    • #
      brc

      The NSW department of climate change is dissolving like tissue paper in water – almost no trace left now.

      I expect the QLD department of climate change won’t live to see Easter – the boss (Bligh’s husband) decamped a week ago, from some reports.

      I expect the Federal Dept Climate Change to decimate itself before the next election. You’d have to be blindingly stupid to put your family’s future on the line and stick with it until the next election. Who’d want to be stuck with a Dept Climate Change job, a mortgage and a car repayment on the morning after the next Federal election?

      The problem for all these legions of ex-Labor MPs, staffers and hangers-on is that ‘the promised land’ is fast disappearing. Used to be that you could always turn up in a another state and attach yourself to a public teat somewhere. But with an entire phalanx of Mps, beuracrats, hangers-on and luvvies turfed out in Qld, Vic, NSW, there’s just not enough teats left to attach to.

      Sucks to be them. But if you produce something that the public genuinely wants or needs, then you don’t usually have to worry about unemployment. But if your livelihood depends on political favors, you can only blame yourself.

      00

    • #
      Manfred

      Tom,
      It has to go well beyond ‘no pulse’ I think. Dismemberment is the only answer. Disentanglement from the severed tentacles of UN Agenda 21 principles is imperative. ‘Climate change’ is but one of the numerous intervention platforms used by primivitising ecoGreen-warriors with a one thousand year vision.

      As you can see the ‘Sustainability Training’ is an all embracing doctrine that includes: Corporate Social Responsibility, Climate Change, Sustainability Concepts including Energy & Carbon Emissions, Water, Waste, Chemicals, Social and Community Support, Health and Safety, Human Rights and Ethics, Sustainability Planning and Implementation, Industry Certification (Green Globe Policy).

      The outcomes are predetermined, the means remain fluid. Individual ‘sustainability goals’ can function independently of each other until such time as ‘collective cohesion’ is either coerced or reaches its own critical mass. At the present moment I believe that the ballot box is sufficiently powerful to wreak serious dismemberment. I also think that social coercion is becoming increasingly ‘acceptable’ – in the guise of the ‘Ministry of We Know Best’ and ‘Health and Safety’ whose cost/benefit ratio has become ironically ‘unsustainable’. There is yet much to do!

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  • #

    So conscience is bothering at least some public service parasites? Finally. I wonder how is the morale in the Department of Immigration?

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  • #
    lucas4england

    The words of Singer/Songwriter Fran Healey from the band Travis, in the late 1990’s couldn’t be any more appropriate for these clowns:
    I can’t sleep tonight
    Everybody RIGHT MANAGEMENT saying everything’s alright
    Still I can’t close my eyes
    I’m seeing a tunnel at the end of all these lights
    Sunny days
    Where have you gone?
    I get the strangest feeling you’ll be long.
    Why does it always rain on me?
    Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
    Why does it always rain on me?
    Even when the sun is shining
    I can’t avoid the lightning
    I can’t stand myself
    I’m being held up by invisible men
    (IPCC et al)

    I would like to suggest (utilising my many years of armchair psychology expertise) that the clinical diagnosis that these muppets are suffering is CAD (Climate Affective Disorder), very similar to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), but it lasts much longer. Symptoms include, Hyperventilation Syndrome caused by low levels of CO2. How is that for irony.

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  • #
    mike

    There are many cheaper options.

    Can the Australian government not get some ex white collar crims to harden these buggers up or replace them with some staff from Bernie Madoff’s office?

    Or Give Al Gore a ring, he may have some rapid response climate masseuses available to relieve their guilt.

    Or if all else fails they could contact Rajendra Pachauri, I’m sure he could provide some guilt relief with a few copies of “A road to Almora” and a box of red silk handkerchiefs.

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  • #

    What a enormous self serving waste of public money.

    If they want to improve moral – take a leaf out of the private sector and sack a few of them – those left will suddenly be a lot happier. Works every time…

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  • #
    Speedy

    Maybe they reckon their jobs aren’t sustainable???

    Cheers,

    Speedy

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  • #
    Sonny

    They are a bunch of morally empty, corrupted maggots!

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  • #

    From Climate Spectator:

    Natural weather patterns like El Nino or La Nina can also cause highs in global temperature or increased precipitation which leads to floods.

    “Single weather extremes are often related to regional processes, like a blocking high pressure system or natural phenomena like El Nino,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, co-author of the study and chair of the institute’s earth system analysis department.

    “These are complex processes that we are investigating further. But now these processes unfold against the background of climatic warming. That can turn an extreme event into a record-breaking event.”

    Recent years have seen an exceptionally large number of record-breaking and destructive heatwaves in many parts of the world and research suggests that many or even most of these would not have happened without global warming.
    Currently, nearly twice as many record hot days as record cold days are being observed both in the United States and Australia, the length of summer heatwaves in western Europe has almost doubled and the frequency of hot days has almost tripled over the period from 1880 to 2005.

    Extremely hot summers are now observed in about 10 percent of the global land area, compared with only about 0.1-0.2 percent for the period 1951 to 1980, the study said.

    The link between storms and hurricanes and global warming is less conclusive but at least some of recent rainfall extremes can be attributed to human influences on the climate, it added.

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    • #
      memoryvault

      .
      I hate to rain on your parade Maxine, but like most of the “evidence” offered by the high priests of your religion, “record hot days and heatwaves” here in Australia are the result of statistical manipulation rather than any actual change in climate.

      Prior to the adoption of the Celsius scale in 1972, the official definition of a heatwave was X consecutive days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The X factor was determined by local humidity; in high-humid areas X was three days, and in low-humid areas X was five days.

      Sometime after 1972 (I have not been able to ascertain when), the official definition was changed to three days over 35 degrees Celsius, regardless of local humidity. 35 degrees Celsius is nearly three Celsius degrees cooler than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that with the stroke of a pen a lot of days that previously wouldn’t have cracked a mention, were suddenly promoted to possible “heatwave” status.

      Furthermore, in low-humidity places where it can get really hot, like Perth and Adelaide, a “heatwave” suddenly got reduced from five days to three, meaning that consecutive three and four day periods over 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), that would not have raised an eyebrow in earlier times, were now counted as “heatwaves”.

      As for the final claim:

      The link between storms and hurricanes and global warming is less conclusive but at least some of recent rainfall extremes can be attributed to human influences on the climate, it added.

      This is patently and demonstrably false. There are several published, peer-reviewed papers confirming a decline in storms and hurricanes over the last fifty years, and other similarly reviewed studies showing an overall DECLINE in global precipitation in the last thirty years.

      By all means feel free to come and discuss science with us Maxine, but please spare us your faith-based religious dogma.

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      • #
        crakar24

        MV,

        Please dont feed the trolls they have been placed on a strict diet so hopefully they will go elsewhere for their much needed dose of vanity.

        In other news http://iceagenow.info/2012/03/ecord-breaking-cold-tasmania/ another sign of AGW?

        00

      • #
        Ian Hill

        To add to the confusion:

        I recently found a document titled “Heatwaves in Adelaide” 1895-1993, released by the BOM in 1994.

        It says:

        SELECTION CRITERIA FOR “HEATWAVES”

        A minimum of five consecutive days at or above 35C or three consecutive days over 40C.

        It lists 24 heatwaves which met this criteria, 13 of them before 1950.

        The document is very amateurish, looking like it could have been made by a temporary researcher or work experience person, but the BOM have claimed copyright on it.

        The recent fuss in the WA press about Perth’s “record number of heatwaves” this summer is more to do with “hot spells” which could look like consecutive days of 30, 32, 38, 35, 32C and there were up to eight of those. “Is that all?” I’d ask. Did only eight highs pass over WA during the summer?

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      • #
        Robert of Ottawa

        As a Canadian, I would suggest the definition of a heatwave in Australia is simply “Australia”.

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    • #
      Sonny

      Sorry Maxine, but without global warming evidenced by actual global warming (temperatures going up around the globe on average) it will be very difficult to continue to convince people that global warming is a problem.

      As for your claim that heat waves are more numerous than cold spells as observed in America and Auatralia… What about the record cold in Europe that has killed 1000’s?

      Oh I forgot, that regional cooling is also the fault of global warming due to arctic melt changing the wind direction….

      You global warming groupies would be hilarious I you weren’t compromising our collective future in defense of a FALSE REALITY.

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    • #
      Winston

      One word for you, Maxine…”statistical manipulation”.

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    • #
      Bob Massey

      But wait Maxine there is more !! …This is what you and the carbonistas in the Dept of Energy and Climate Change have in common you hang on to any flimsy piece of so called evidence that you can get your grubby little claws onto.

      So the proof that this theory has to do with AGW is where ?

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    • #
      Bob Massey

      One other thing Maxine did you catch the drift of the first sentence ?

      Natural weather patterns like El Nino or La Nina can also cause highs in global temperature or increased precipitation which leads to floods.

      How does something natural somehow suddenly become an AGW meme ?

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  • #
    crakar24

    This really pisses me off.

    That idiot Krudd told the dept of defence we needed to save 20 billion dollars and we could then spend that 20 billion on nice new shiny bombs but now we dont get 20 billion because they took it to plug a hole on the budget!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh lets not forget the 12 month long pay dispute because the tight bastards wont even give us CPI, no wonder after giving themselves a luxurious pay rise they now have to pay these poor bastards money to make them feel happy about themselves. When my boss senses moral is down we have Friday arvos off for a barby and a piss up why cant they just do that?

    Congrats to QLD for showing the rest of us the way

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  • #
    Brett_McS

    There, there. There, there.

    OK, where’s my 175 large?

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    pat

    following the Qld election, we need a FEDERAL ELECTION NOW CAMPAIGN. this is now on ABC as well, with emphasis that CAGW scepticism is LOW:

    26 March: SmartCompany: SMEs will be hit with carbon tax reporting requirements: Survey
    The survey of 963 business leaders and management personnel revealed 58% of participants believed “major polluters will require their SME suppliers to limit their carbon emissions”.
    Of those surveyed, 60% of chief executives and board members and 51% of senior managers surveyed believe the carbon tax will have a negative impact on their organisations.
    “Increased costs” and “reduced profitability” were the two main negative factors of the tax according to survey participants…
    Less than a quarter of those surveyed said their organisations were prepared for the ramifications of the carbon tax.
    Those least prepared were SMEs employing 51-100 people as only 14% said their organisations were ready.
    Susan Heron, chief executive of AIM, says the research confirms that a lot of SMEs are in for a shock.
    “I think it has been pitched that the carbon tax would impact on the 500 top polluters and the message is there is no impact to others, but the reality is that there is an impact.
    “SMEs can expect a growing number of the major organisations they supply to will require them to have systems and plans in place to measure and reduce their carbon emissions.
    “SMEs need to be ready to meet that requirement.
    “We have already seen larger companies like ANZ and Westpac putting together supplier codes of practice and requiring SMEs to meet those codes.”
    Heron said corporations had realised that in order to measure the real carbon footprint of their business operations they needed to know the carbon emission levels of the products and services delivered to them by their SME suppliers.
    “Although this is not a formal reporting requirement of the tax to be introduced on July 1, it is emerging as a flow on consequence as major corporations seek to demonstrate their sustainability credentials to the general community.”

    ***The AIM survey revealed little support for scepticism about climate change with just 12% of respondents, including only 3% of chief executives and board members, saying they did not believe in global warming or carbon reduction measures…

    Steven Wojtkiw, policy head and chief economist at the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Vecci), said the AIM results were no surprise.
    “While SMEs are not direct emitters, they will be caught up in supply chains and many will be required to take steps to reduce and report their own carbon footprint,” he says…
    “If there is pressure to substantially change their processes that is likely to increase costs for small businesses and place greater pressure on their resources at a time when the existing environment is fragile and very competitive.”
    http://www.smartcompany.com.au/climate-change/048904-smes-will-be-hit-with-carbon-tax-reporting-requirements-survey.html

    ***including Govt? how come? btw, where are the survey questions?

    26 March: AIM Vic: CARBON TAX SHOCK FOR SMEs MAJOR SURVEY REVEALS
    ***The survey, ‘Australia’s Carbon Tax’ attracted 936 participants across all industry sectors (including govt.***

    Only 38 per cent of those surveyed said the introduction of the carbon tax was ‘justified’. Twenty two per cent of respondents were unsure on this point…
    Just 24 per cent of respondents consider the tax will benefit the economy. A further 27 per cent were undecided…
    A surprise finding was that only three per cent of survey participants said they ‘trust’ political parties as ‘sources of information on carbon reduction mechanisms’.
    http://www.aimvic.com.au/News-Item/163/Content/145

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    pat

    continuing to make it up as they go along…

    26 March: BBC: Richard Black: UK carbon measuring centre ‘to improve climate future’
    The Centre for Carbon Measurement will be based at the National Physical Laboratory in south west London.
    It will raise accuracy of climate data, support better emissions monitoring to ensure a fair carbon market, and verify claims made about low-carbon products.
    It will be formally launched at the Planet Under Pressure event in London.
    The four-day conference will see thousands of delegates discuss various aspects of social and environmental sustainability in the run-up to the Rio+20 summit in June…
    “Data from ground based stations and satellites is fed into climate models, and they spit out conclusions on things like sea level rise and other climate impacts,” said Jane Burston, the CCM’s (Centre for Carbon Measurement)head.
    “So the better data we have, the better we can make the models,” she told BBC News…
    Scientists have previously shown that there can be wide disparities between emission levels reported by companies – which are usually based on calculations involving, for example, how much fuel they burn and the efficiency of their plant – and what is measured in the atmosphere…
    “We need to make sure that our measurement infrastructure matches our level of ambition,” said Ms Burston.
    “As the carbon market takes off and carbon becomes more expensive, we’re going to want to measure things better.”…
    The centre will help manufacturers develop their products and measure their performance, in order to make sure that companies’ claims for “climate-friendliness” are based in reality…
    David Willets, Minister for Universities and Science, whose government department manages the UK’s various national measurement programmes, said the science of measurement was essential in underpinning the transition to a low carbon economy.
    “As the UK is a world leader in both measurement science and the centre of the global carbon market it is only right that we develop the right infrastructure to support this transition,” he said…
    Richard will be at the Planet Under Pressure conference on Monday and Tuesday…
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17488932

    enough.

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    crakar24

    This is where your money is going………no wonder these poor bastards need cheering up here is the latest crap from Brown

    http://greensmps.org.au/content/news-stories/bob-brown-delivers-3rd-annual-green-oration

    I strongly suggest everyone read this shit as he bounces between global government and aliens on other planets. To think he is in charge of the country.

    My God what is to become of us.

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      KeithH

      crakar24 @ 33

      “I strongly suggest everyone read this shit as he bounces between global government and aliens on other planets. To think he is in charge of the country.”

      I really tried crakar but alas, my stomach wasn’t strong enough! However, I did glean this gem from amongst the dross. Coming as it does from such an outstanding climate scientist as Bob B how can we not believe we’re all going to fry if we don’t change our wicked ways! Is this the empirical scientific evidence of AGW for which we sceptics have been clamouring?

      “the last decade was the hottest in the last 1300 years (if not the last 9000 years)”

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      Speedy

      Bloody awful! Thanks to you and Bob’s effort at oratory, I’ve just wasted a perfectly good dinner!

      The man needs a mirror with a sign marked “Hypocrite” at the bottom.

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      Kevin Moore

      Bob Brown says,

      So far,It seems like we are the lone thinkers in this vast,expanding universe

      .

      Monty python “Galaxy Song”

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

      …and pray that there is intelligent life somewhere up in space because there is bugger all down here on Earth.

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    KeithH

    ThomasJ @ 12. Thanks for that Seven Rules of Bureaucracy link Thomas. They also apply to Governments, the Gillard shambles in particular, the IPCC and its UN gravy-train “scientists” and many other organisations involve in the AGW scam.

    They’re so apt and I consider them so worthwhile, I’ve taken the liberty of listing them for those that that don’t always access the links posters provide.

    Rules of Bureaucracy

    Rule #1: Maintain the problem at all costs! The problem is the basis of power, perks, privileges, and security.

    Rule #2: Use crisis and perceived crisis to increase your power and control.

    Rule 2a. Force 11th-hour decisions, threaten the loss of options and opportunities, and limit the opposition’s opportunity to review and critique.

    Rule #3: If there are not enough crises, manufacture them, even from nature, where none exist.

    Rule #4: Control the flow and release of information while feigning openness.

    Rule 4a: Deny, delay, obfuscate, spin, and lie.

    Rule #5: Maximize public-relations exposure by creating a cover story that appeals to the universal need to help people.

    Rule #6: Create vested support groups by distributing concentrated benefits and/or entitlements to these special interests, while distributing the costs broadly to one’s political opponents.

    Rule #7: Demonize the truth tellers who have the temerity to say, “The emperor has no clothes.”

    Rule 7a: Accuse the truth teller of one’s own defects, deficiencies, crimes, and misdemeanors.

    http://mises.org/daily/5955/The-Seven-Rules-of-Bureaucracy

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    David

    Simple solution – drop the ‘and Climate Change’ off the title of the Department…

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      Wrong. Add “Happiness”

      Department of Energy, Climate Change and Happiness

      Those who remember Yes, Minister, may recall that ministries and departments are named accroding to the things which they can’t manage; employment, industry, resources, energy, climate …

      Only the Department of Health is true to its name. It looks after the healthy people very well.

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    DougS

    It must give you a warm feeling to know that your tax dollars are being put to good use.

    In the UK, West Sussex Council just spent £100 000 on a video that explained how to carry out challenging tasks like ‘how to use a telephone. and ‘how to wash your hands’.

    Look out for the new James Cameron epic film: ‘How to switch on your TV’.

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    Llew Jones

    Here’s a bit more to bring a tear to the eyes of Climate Change Department employees:

    http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/carbon-target-scrapped-20120326-1vust.html

    Who said the Coalition is just the same as the ALP on this issue?

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      Mark

      I see Baillieu is still playing “footsie” with the whole notion though, Llew. Better than nothing I suppose.

      When do we get someone like the Canadian PM who is willing to call a dog turd a dog turd?

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        Kevin Moore

        According to the Age report Campbell Newman will be, like Canada, un deturd.

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        Llew Jones

        I noticed someone recently said it is not what a politician says but what he does that matters.

        I was thinking of Newman’s affect in Qld really. Which of course may embolden the nominally conservative governments in Vic and NSW to say and do more intelligent things with respect to developing more energy sources of the non-green variety.

        I’ll accept Baillieu is a conservative when he shuts down the desal plant at Wonthaggi and builds a super dam or two.

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      Juliar

      Baillieu is still quite green and use silly catchphrases such as “low carbon economy”.

      Do our politicians actually realise we are not taxing Carbon but Carbon Dioxide?

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