Encouring news from Australia: Government to shed half of Climate Change Department staff

Another encouraging piece of news from Down Under:

The federal Department of Climate Change will shed nearly half of its Canberra-based staff within the next three years as it struggles with further deep budget cuts.

Public service sources say the department will reduce its workforce by about 440 people, or 48 per cent, by 2014-15.

Staff were told in a meeting this week that the current workforce of nearly 920 full-time-equivalent workers would be cut to about 520 in 2013-2014 and to some 470 in 2014-15.

The remaining 470 could then be retrained to use their energy e.g. in shale gas exploration:

Santos Ltd. Australia’s third-largest oil producer, said the shale gas potential in the Cooper Basin in the center of the nation is “very large.”