Why has the new Palaszczuk Government created a hydrogen department?

It didn’t take long for the jokes to start.

Why a Department for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen — what, not Helium or Mercury?

And why don’t the rare earths ever get a mention?

The curious title in the Palaszczuk Government’s new list of portfolios is more a statement of intent rather than a significant administrative restructure.

And it has been done before. In 2004, then-premier Peter Beattie appointed Australia’s first ever minister for wine industry development — nice work if you can get it.

The idea didn’t catch on and the portfolio title was dropped several years later, although since that time Queensland has…