Going (the Clean Energy Finance Corporation) … going (the Climate Change Authority) … gone (the Climate Commission).

Tony Abbott’s in charge now, and everything must go. At least in terms of the bodies the former government set up to deal with climate change.

Bureaucratic consolidation makes sense; it was Labor that scrapped the Climate Change Department earlier this year. And the Coalition believes in the science of climate change and has agreed to do its fair share to reduce emissions … right?

But if the Climate Change Authority goes, who will give Tony Abbott frank and fearless expert advice on how much Australia should reduce its emissions by? And the Climate Commission had its flaws, but at least it was interested in the scientific evidence on climate change. Who will keep tabs on that now the Commission has been shut down?

“I must say,” chief Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery said after being sacked yesterday, “I really wonder where the independent authority on climate change is now going to come from … As global action on climate change deepens, propaganda aimed at misinforming the public about climate change, and so blunting any action, increases.”

Propaganda from the likes of the federal government, which is promoting an outrageously expensive and fundamentally flawed “Direct Action” plan on climate change. With nobody left in government to set the record straight.

Crikey Calling is independent media for independent minds – in handy podcast form! Join the Crikey crew for a lively (if somewhat wonky) look behind the scenes of politics and power in Australia.

The axe is out in the public service. But are Tony Abbott’s secretarial sacrifices fair game or a spiteful act of a new government? Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane joins editor Jason Whittaker to look at the first days of a Coalition government: the departmental shake-up and the policy challenges ahead. Stream it or download here.