Disbanded climate change department defends cutting staff at the same time it was hiring

LABOR'S former climate change department didn't know whether it was hiring or firing before the agency itself was sacked.

Confused climate of hiring, firing

LABOR'S former climate change department didn't know whether it was hiring or firing before the agency itself was sacked.

The abandoned stand-alone climate change bureaucracy spent $2.2 million sacking 49 public servants in the months before it was swallowed by another government department in March.

But figures show the agency also hired 62 people in the same period before the merger, with the new salaries estimated to cost up to $5 million annually - based on average public sector wages.

After the merger, the department changed tack again and embarked on another savings drive and made 12 staff as redundant at cost of $555,000.

The new Department of Innovation, Industry, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education yesterday said the merger decision was made on the March 25, the date it was implemented, and that the staff changes were reprioriting resources from program and corporate to policy roles.

In a week when Labor has unveiled controversial savings to fund its carbon tax switch, Liberal shadow environment parliamentary secretary Simon Birmingham yesterday attacked the government for inconsistency.

"Just as Labor keeps changing the nature of its carbon tax policies, it equally hasn't known whether it's Arthur or Martha, or Kevin or Julia, in regards to the status of the climate change department,'' Mr Birmingham said.

"The only consistency in Labor's carbon tax or climate change policies is that taxpayers always end up footing the bill in the end."

Forty-five of the new staff hired were deemed ongoing while another 17 were temporary.

Ten of the new ongoing staff were employed on executive level positions worth more than $100,000.

In responses to the Senate, the government said 58 employees who were declared excess in the old department were also redeployed into other areas of it and another 14 excess staff were transferred to other agencies.

The savings would have been $2.078 million if the department ran to the full financial year.

The new merged department's deputy secretary Steven Kenny said the staffing changes occurred because it was reducing staff associated with program and corporate responsibilities.

However, this did not include staff with "what you might call strong policy capabilities, and it was needing to maintain its capabilities in those areas".

``So where possible, of course, where staff with some assistance could move between positions, it was seeking to do that through a redeployment pool,'' he said.

``But really it reflects just a different mixture of abilities and requirements of the department.''

The former climate change department has already come under fire over leasing the 6 green star energy efficient Nishi building in Canbera for 740 staff for $158 million over 15 years.

The Opposition has previously vowed to abolish the department if it wins the election.

But it emerged in May that there were almost 100 free work stations at the building.

Follow national political reporter Patrick Lion on Twitter at @patricklion or contact him at [e-mail]