Does not rehire any previous board level appointees
Story submitted by Eric Worrall
The Australian government has decided to not renew any of the management board of the Australian CSIRO. Naturally, outgoing board members are not very happy with the decision. According to Simon McKeon, outgoing chairman of the CSIRO;
“There appears to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term, the outgoing CSIRO chairman Simon McKeon has said.
“The reality is that, yes, there is a rule that no one on the board of a federal government agency has been reappointed,” McKeon said when asked about the Labor board appointees at an Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) function on Thursday. “It’s an issue that many people are finding worrying.”
McKeon, whose term as the CSIRO chairman ends in June, said it was not about him.
“The great majority of people who put up their hands to serve on a federal government agency are really doing it for the nation,” he said. “All I’m saying is we’re missing out on the corporate memory.
“It’s, I would argue, an unnecessary distraction to what’s already a very challenging bunch of organisations.”
Nobody is saying why the government appears to have taken a hard line on the non renewal of previous political appointments. In America it is normal for political appointments to be replaced by an incoming government. This is less common in Australia.
It is possible that McKeon’s outspoken views on climate change may have contributed to differences between the CSIRO board, and the more skeptical Australian government. According to his Wikipedia entry, Simon McKeon appears to be strongly in favour of more funding for climate research.
“On climate change, McKeon has expressed his desire to see the topic raised to the top of both the “political and public agenda”. He said “We may not have all the answers to what is occurring, … [b]ut the point is, why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_McKeon#Climate_change
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Message, play politics and suffer the consequences. A LOT of people made a LOT of money from the Green adventurism of the previous Government.
CSIRO. Who the hell is CSIRO?
Google is ur friend; its not short for Cicero.
Was explained earlier in comments.
Neat. Read comments to understand what the article is about. Neat.
The “insurance” line is a variation of the “precautionary principle” fallacy – it ignores the severe negative effects of the insuring action.
In this context we know the serious negative effects the anti-carbon crowd will have on poor people around the world (Alex Epstein’s book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels summarizes that).
Sometimes advocates don’t pay attention to the risk of their scheme, I often say “If you don’t know what you are doing don’t do anything.”
Way to go Australia ! The Swiss trashed the carbon tax even faster .
Countries with common sense and courage …got to love em .
Gillard really messed this one up, she forgot to give them all ‘lifetime contracts’ So how did this one get passed you Julia?”