Antinuclear

Maurice Newman’s anti-science ravings are government policy

 Newman is no outlier – he is meeting Abbott at least once a week, and the CEDA speech was drafted in close consultation with the PM and his office:

In other words, this is Abbott by proxy. He still thinks climate change is crap, he’s just using a ventriloquist

This is not just dog-whistling to climate skeptics, this is part of policy formulation. Abbott is already dismantling climate change policies and institutions and seeking to replace it with Direct Action, a program that is dismissed in both the scientific and investment worlds

Australia, ‘hostage to climate change madness’? To say so is madness indeed Tony Abbott still thinks climate change is ‘crap’, he’s just using his controversial business adviser Maurice Newman as a ventriloquist to say so  Giles Parkinson theguardian.com, Wednesday 1 January 2014  When the Russian scientific vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy gotstuck in ice earlier this week while hosting a mission to retrace the steps of Sir Douglas Mawson and to conduct research on climate science, the blogosphere and talk-back radio were quick to gloat. What would the scientists say now, the deniers demanded to know, as if the presence of sea ice was enough to disprove the entire theory of climate change.

When expedition leader Chris Turney was informed of the comments in an ABC radio interview on Tuesday morning, he was dumbstruck and mildly amused. There were all sorts of explanations for the proliferation of ice at this location, such as thecalving of the large B09B iceberg and its spectacular collision with the extended tongue of the Mertz Glacier. But none that would ever satisfy such people, Turney suggested.

• Disconcertingly, these claims are no longer the province of bloggers, right wing media and talk-back radio. They now have currency in the highest corridors of power in Australia. Indeed, they are forming the basis of critical decisions being made on economic and infrastructure development in this country.Earlier this week Maurice Newman, the head of Tony Abbott‘s hand-picked business advisory council, declared the science of anthropogenic climate change to be the world’s greatest ever popular delusion, and accused the UN climate body of fudging data. Australia, he wrote in a column published in The Australian, had “become hostage to climate change madness.”
• He didn’t stop there. He railed against “Himalyagate” and “Amazongate”, accused state governments of a “cover up” over Australia’s renewable energy policies, and even complained about a $60,000 grant given to help community groups pursue renewable energy installations. Many of his comments were repeated and given more prominence in a separate interview with the paper’s environment editor.This is not the first time that Newman has courted controversy. In September, he attacked the “myth of climate change” in an opinion piece for the Australian Financial Review. In November, he used a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) to attack climate change, renewable energy and labour costs……
•  Newman is no outlier – he is meeting Abbott at least once a week, and the CEDA speech was drafted in close consultation with the PM and his office: “It would seem the best way to view Newman’s speech is as an exposition of what Abbott might have said had he been freed of the political constraints that go with being in government.”In other words, this is Abbott by proxy. He still thinks climate change is crap, he’s just using a ventriloquist……
• This is not just dog-whistling to climate skeptics, this is part of policy formulation. Abbott is already dismantling climate change policies and institutions and seeking to replace it with Direct Action, a program that is dismissed in both the scientific and investment worlds……..http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/01/maurice-newman-carbon-tony-abbott

January 2, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming