THESE TWO GRIFTERS SHOULD RESIGN OR BE SACKED!

By Cliff Reece

Climate Change & Energy Minister Chris Bowen has assembled an army of over 100 bureaucrats to support his role as president of negotiations for the COP31 climate summit.

This workforce, together with associated COP commitments, are projected to cost Australian taxpayers nearly $150 million.

Taxpayers have already been billed almost $500,000 in travel costs alone in just four months as Bowen builds a sprawling workforce for his new role.

He was handed this dubious role after his failure to win the conference location for Australia – Türkiye being chosen instead.

Departmental staff were then authorised by the Albanese government to spend $485,602 on trips to countries including Türkiye, Fiji, Germany, and South Korea in January and February.

About $345,934 was spent on 25 business-class return flights and a further $13,883 on accommodation under the larger umbrella of spending on Conference of the Parties (COP) activities.

The recent federal budget identified that Bowen’s role as ­COP president of negotiations and other COP-­related activities will cost taxpayers $147 million.

Expenses for trips in March and April have not been fully resolved, meaning final costs could soar higher.

In addition, Bowen has reportedly amassed the equivalent of 105 full-time staff to help fulfil his role, claimed to be a “realignment” of existing workers.

Included in the figure are 28 full-time equivalent office of the presidency staff, with the department established to assist Bowen’s COP obligations.

The reported 100-strong team is larger than several major government agencies including the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Office of Parliamentary Counsel, and Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.

Opposition Energy spokesman Dan Tehan said “no business class lounge” was safe from Bowen’s “roving squad of climate conference bureaucrats”.

“It’s extraordinary that during a cost-of-living crisis, Chris Bowen has allowed his own bureaucrats to rack up huge travel bills at taxpayers’ expense.”

Tehan also labelled Bowen’s COP presidency mission a “pet project”.

Fiji and Tuvalu will play host to pre-COP meetings before Türkiye hosts the world COP31 and World Leaders Summit.

Meanwhile, the Albanese government’s climate chief, Matt Kean, is facing calls to resign over a scandal involving his taxpayer-billed travel expenses.

The LNP Coalition says Climate Change Authority (CCA) chairman Matt Kean should be fired if he does not resign for billing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars to speak at a major international conference sponsored by his private employer - green energy investment firm Wollemi Capital.

Opposition Energy spokesman Dan Tehan said the Albanese government “has some serious questions to answer”.

“How has (Chris Bowen) allowed Matt Kean, his climate tsar, to fly to COP in Brazil and then promote the company he works for,” he said, adding that Mr Kean “has not been able to properly address the huge conflict of interest he has between the private company he works for and his role as climate change tsar”.

“You have to remember that he ultimately makes the decisions that sets the targets for the government when it comes to emissions reduction.”

Dan Tehan said it was totally unacceptable because the company that employs Matt Kean “benefits from the decisions that the (Australian) government makes”.

He said Kean should either quit his role as CCA chair or leave Wollemi Capital “or potentially, he should do both!”

Bowen, Kean and the Albanese government as a whole pose a serious threat to our energy future.

Their obsession with expensive, unreliable renewables and opposition to cheap and readily available fossil fuels and emissions-free nuclear energy will:

• Increase our cost-of-living;

• Destroy local manufacturing - and the jobs that go with it;

• Adversely impact on regional/rural communities;

• Create unnecessary blackouts - as occurred recently in Spain and Portugal.

They must be stopped.

Thanks to Max Melzer and Max Aldred at Sky News together with News.com.au, Sydney Morning Herald, Facebook and Johannes Leak for his cartoon