Australia has just come through its hottest twelve months on record in time to sweep into power Tony Abbott's wonky coalition government. And, true to form, Tony's been busy doing a little sweeping of his own. After manfully wrestling with the issue of how he would find space for a woman in his 19-man cabinet, he decisively moved on to scrap Australia's independent Climate Commission.
The commission, which was established in 2011, has compiled 27 reports on various aspects of climate change. Its most recent major report, The Critical Decade, warned that the world must "virtually decarbonise in the next 30 to 35 years", with Australia keeping most of its fossil fuels in the ground in order to avoid serious consequences from climate change.The environment minister, Greg Hunt, called commission head, Tim Flannery on Thursday morning to inform him that the commission would be disbanded. The Coalition had promised to scrap the body when in opposition.
"I must say, I really wonder where the independent authority on climate change is now going to come from.
"People, rightly or wrongly, are often suspicious if the government provides information that it bases policy on. We had a winning formula of experts, economists and scientists that could provide that information away from the spin."
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