Annual reports show the Rudd Government spent more than $8 million last financial year on a five-month media campaign to put climate change ''on the radar of the Australian public''.
The Department of Climate Change spent $2.8 million on television advertisements promoting its Think Climate, Think Change campaign, and almost $10 million on 220 consultancies in its first full year of operation in 2008-09.
It ended the financial year with an 18 per cent staff turnover and a $5.1million deficit, ''due to higher than forecast expenses ... in particular the department's extensive international engagement.''
In plain English, that's overseas travel.
The department initially received $14 million for the media campaign through the additional estimates process, but cancelled the second stage of the campaign. Meanwhile, the annual report issued by the director of National Parks reveals only three out of 33 national parks managed by the Federal Government Kakadu in the Northern Territory, Booderee on the NSW South Coast and the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra have climate change strategies written into their management plans.
The 2008-09 annual reports for the climate change and environment departments also suggest both are struggling to curb energy use, office waste and greenhouse emissions.
The Department of Environment tossed out 158,379kg of waste (79kg for each employee), including 118,858kg of paper.
Air travel accounted for 68 per cent of greenhouse emissions, with electricity use in the department's Canberra offices generating 842 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Greenhouse emissions increased by 4 per cent last year, while office waste was up by 8per cent. In Canberra, more than 80 per cent of departmental office waste was recycled, including 63kg of mobile phones, 105kg of batteries, 195kg of broken fluorescent lamps, and 29kg of corks.
The Department of Climate Change expects a 50 per cent drop in electricity use by replacing all desktop computers with laptops. Its report lacks a comprehensive analysis of environmental performance, claiming the department has ''yet to engage with the building owner over reliable data for waste recycling''. But it flags that it will dispose of old computers ''in an environmentally sensitive manner'' by offering them to other agencies or selling them ''to the general public at auction''.
The Environment Department's annual report also uses climate change to justify helicopter culls of feral buffaloes in the Northern Territory. It argues ''an average buffalo burps 45kg of methane each year'' and although helicopters produce greenhouse emissions, ''a buffalo will produce the same amount of greenhouse gas in a year that a helicopter will produce in 10 hours of flying time''.
The average cull rate in Kakadu National Park during 2008-09 was 7.7 buffaloes per 10 hours of flying time.
The report argues, ''if a buffalo's lifespan was 10 years, the greenhouse benefits of culling would be an order of magnitude greater'' and other ferals ''such as horses, donkeys and pigs'' could be culled ''within the same flying time, which potentially increases the carbon benefit''.
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