{"id":13193,"date":"2026-05-18T02:09:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13193\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T02:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:09:30","slug":"chris-bowen-establishes-presidency-office-for-cop-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13193\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Bowen establishes presidency office for COP role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen<\/a> has quietly set up an \u201coffice of the presidency\u201d in his department, a move the opposition says shows Mr Bowen\u2019s \u201cego is completely and utterly out of control\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Bowen is the president of negotiations for the next Conference of the Parties<\/a> \u2013 the world\u2019s top climate change summit under the United Nations framework \u2013 in a compromise deal struck with Turkey in ceding the bid to host the conference in Adelaide. <\/p>\n

A Department of Climate Change and Energy organisational chart, published this month, showed the government had created a new \u201coffice of the presidency\u201d under the \u201cInternational and Climate Negotiations\u201d division. <\/p>\n

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan demanded information about how many people were employed under this new office of the presidency in the Climate Change and Energy Department. <\/p>\n

Mr Bowen hit back at the criticism, saying it showed the Coalition was \u201cembarrassingly out of touch, and not fit to govern\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Tehan also lashed an admission in the budget papers, released last week, where the government acknowledged it could not report the total government expenditure on net zero because it \u201ccuts across many portfolios\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

\u201cExisting budget systems do not readily facilitate reporting on established programs,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

Mr Tehan said the admission showed \u201cthe government has no clue about how much they are spending on net zero\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo during a cost-of-living crisis, when Australians are doing it tough, the government is happy to have no idea about how much they\u2019re spending on net zero,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an absolute disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen was unveiled as the global COP president of negotiations for the coming year after the last installation of the summit in Brazil in November. The Coalition at the time lashed the \u201cpart-time Energy Minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this shows is that Chris Bowen\u2019s ego is completely and utterly out of control,\u201d Mr Tehan said on Sunday of the new COP office. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has no comprehension about what his policies are doing to the Australian people \u2026 All he wants to do is strut around the world, calling himself a president. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe serious question is: How many people are actually working in this office of presidency? And Chris Bowen needs to answer that immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen did not say how many people were employed by that office but hit back at Mr Tehan\u2019s criticism. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt beggars belief that during an international energy crisis, the opposition doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s important to engage with the rest of the world,\u201d Mr Bowen said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re embarrassingly out of touch, and not fit to govern. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to Dan Tehan to explain why he\u2019s backing an energy plan that would leave the economy $2 trillion worse off by 2050 and electricity prices 50 per cent higher by the 2040s. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows how out of touch with reality the modern Liberal Party is that they think the Australian government shouldn\u2019t take up a chance to lead international negotiations when given the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen has previously rejected the characterisation of \u201cpart-time minister\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is entirely in keeping with my responsibilities as Australia\u2019s Climate Minister,\u201d he said earlier this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re involved in discussion internationally. The difference now will be \u2013 I\u2019ll go to the same meetings, but the difference now will be Australia will be regarded with greater weight and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Climate Change<\/a>\"Noah<\/a><\/p>\n

Noah Yim is a reporter at The Australian’s Canberra press gallery bureau. He previously worked out of the newspaper’s Sydney newsroom. He joined The Australian following News Corp’s 2022 cadetship program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has quietly set up an \u201coffice of the presidency\u201d in his department, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[395,594,124,22,23,133,978,13864,13855,21,13863,3708,13866,13862,13872,4705,13856,8625,13869,13867,8112,13859,13870,13868,13860,3965,355,120,13861,13865,13858,13871,13873,7016,121,13857],"class_list":["post-13193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adelaide","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-government","tag-australian-government-source","tag-australian-pavilion","tag-austrlia","tag-beggars-belief","tag-brazil","tag-budget-papers","tag-budget-systems","tag-bureaucratic-shuffle","tag-chris-bowen","tag-climate-counterpart","tag-cost-of-living-crisis","tag-dan-tehan","tag-department-of-climate-change-and-energy","tag-electricity-prices","tag-energy-minister","tag-energy-plan","tag-government-expenditure","tag-international-energy-crisis","tag-liberal-party","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-office-of-the-presidency","tag-opposition-energy-spokesman","tag-organisational-chart","tag-para","tag-senior-australian-government","tag-south-america","tag-south-australia","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}