What's your job about?
My current rotation is within the 2035 Targets and Net Zero Taskforce which provides advice to the Australian Government on its emissions reduction targets and net zero plan, including the oversight of the six decarbonisation sectoral plans.
My day-to-day does vary depending on the priorities of the time and you wear many different hats. Last week I was a writer and data analyst where I prepared a brief for the Minister which required coordinating input from other agencies and researching information. I also researched the emissions profile of the transport sector, including the abatement opportunities, barriers and key policies in this area. This week I have been an event planner, where I am arranging a cross-jurisdictional forum in Melbourne for senior officials to set the climate policy and stakeholder engagement direction for Australia to reach net zero.
The diversity of tasks and need to pivot to different tasks as they are reprioritised, is central to government. There is also diversity in opportunities, which differs greatly from my last rotation. Previously, I worked in the Secretary’s Office and had a bird-eye view of the organisation. I was coordinating briefs across the department, liaising with internal stakeholders daily, at Parliament for Senate Estimates, shadowing senior executives, assisting in organising diversity and inclusion events, writing communications materials and more. Being a graduate has been an opportunity to gain exposure to different areas and to understand my interests more.
What's your background?
Before I moved to Canberra to attend the ANU, I lived on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I was always outdoors in nature, either swimming or bushwalking, and I have always loved seeing new environments when I travel. So, growing up I always pictured myself in this space.
My path evolved a bit overtime being shaped by education and seeing the degradation in areas I travelled to. Key moments I can think of include driving into Los Angeles and seeing the pollution in the sky, snorkeling in different areas of the Great Barrier Reef that have been severely bleached or even seeing documentaries on sea level rise in the Pacific and Southeast Asia and the displacement it causes. This turned my interest in nature into a passion where I could see issues that I wanted to help address.
Studying this in high school and then university, I realised it was not just how sad it made me to see the environment degrading that drove me towards this career. I enjoy the complexity of environmental and climate science; how it is a web of different processes that are all be linked to, and feedback on, each other. Then how it adds in other dimensions like human rights, migration, impacts on the economy etc cemented a path into environmental policy and development.
So, I chose to work at DCCEEW because it is a place where I can work on a variety of projects and policies that can make a difference.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, of course! Climate policy is a field requiring multidisciplinary approaches that can only be informed by diverse backgrounds; both professionally and personally. This is because the scale of the impacts of these policies is so vast that you need input from backgrounds such as science, legal, economics, international relations and security and politics to name a few. These policies are also benefitted by people who have different personal background as well because you need policymakers to reflect the people they are impacting as well. It comes down to drive, problem solving skills and willingness to learn and be open to new ideas.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my role is trying to figure out how we will do deep engagement with communities on the net zero plan and 2035 targets, as well as the 6 decarbonisation sectoral plans. With these plans having a major impact on so many communities, setting up frameworks to minimise fatigue and ensure we access marginalised voices and the thought processes behind this, have been very eye-opening and align with my personal values. Our aim to transform the engagement process to something deeper has highlighted the complexity of engagement processes which is not fully captured at university.
What are the limitations of your job?
At times, a core limitation of my job is that it can be slower-paced where you experience limbo periods between tasks. This is not to say that people are not working hard at all and there are numerous decisions every day across the Department! Rather it is a symptom of government where the impacts of decisions can be so vast that it requires numerous levels of clearance and decisions must be fully defensible. So, while I enjoy fast-paced environments, this comes in waves and you find yourself lacking work at times.
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