Time to expose the money that funds Australia’s climate denialist think tanks
“The public should know who is funding climate denial so they can properly judge the information put out by organisations like the Global Warming Policy Foundation,”
“In Australia, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a leading source of climate disinformation, yet it retreats into secrecy whenever it is asked about the source of its funding. Environment groups are upfront about their funding, yet denialists claim privacy.”
The first available set of public accounts shows the foundation, which has declared Australia as one of its areas of operation to UK authorities, received £494,625 in donations in its first year.
Bid to out the money behind the voice against climate change, SMH Graham Readfearn January 27, 2012 – A British journalist’s court bid to unmask the financial backers of a group of climate change sceptics is being used to raise questions about how think-tanks are funded in Australia and whether they deserve tax exemptions.
The UK’s Charity Commission, which regulates charities in the UK, is being asked to release a document that would show the start-up funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, chaired by former UK chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson.
Launched in November 2009, the foundation has consistently challenged the mainstream scientific view that human emissions of greenhouse gases represent a significant risk to the planet and societies.
Later today, freelance journalist Brendan Montague will appeal to the UK’s Information Rights Tribunal for the release of a bank statement provided to the Charity Commission by Lord Lawson, which Mr Montague believes will identify the source of a $50,000 seed donation.
The case has raised the issue of how think-tanks engaged in public policy debates are funded and whether potential conflicts of interest should be declared. None are required by law to publicly disclose their funders. Continue reading
Secretive Victorian government sets up toothless freedom of information watchdog
Federal government figures say the calculations in the press release overestimate the expected costs [of Australia’s carbon tax] and ignore compensation to be offered to some.
Using freedom of information laws, the state [Labor] opposition asked Mr O’Brien’s Department of Primary Industries for all modelling and briefings behind the press release.
Four months later the department wrote back, denying access to all documents
The Baillieu government this year will put in place a freedom of information watchdog. It will not have powers over ministers or department heads, will be unable to review decisions relating to secret cabinet documents, and could ultimately result in longer delays.
Baillieu hides carbon tax documents, The Age, Clay Lucas, January 10, 2012 THE Baillieu government has been accused of using ”laughable” excuses to block the release of economic modelling it used to attack the Gillard government’s carbon tax.
The government cited public interest and privacy issues as reasons it will not hand over calculations behind a media release by state Energy Minister Michael O’Brien last July. The press release, titled Julia Gillard duds Victorians again, lashed the federal Labor government over its carbon tax plans. Continue reading
Ian Plimer and co. manufacturing doubt on Climate Change?
Could their real agenda be in manufacturing doubt rather than the search for scientific truth?
If so, it wouldn’t be a first, as Naomi Oreskes points out in her recent book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.
Cherry-picking contrarian geologists tend to obscure scientific truth, THE AUSTRALIAN, BY:MIKE SANDIFORD December 31, 2011 GINA Rinehart notoriously claims she has never met a geologist who believes “adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will have any significant effect on climate”.
To listen to prominent “contrarian” geologists such as Ian Plimer, you might imagine she never could. But, despite the bluster, our contrarian geologists are out of kilter with their own community and seem deeply confused about the way the greenhouse effect – by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere, for example – has shaped both the past and the present.
All geology students learn of the importance of the greenhouse effect. It’s simply impossible to understand the geological record without it……. Continue reading
Mr Fraser said. “The Cold War was still in progress. It was a different world. “We’ve gotten far too close to the Americans.”……
In 1985, the then PM Bob Hawke withdrew support for the missile tests after a meeting with US Secretary of State George Shultz.
US planned to fire missile at Australia, secret Cabinet papers from 1980s reveal By 
Samantha Maiden The Sunday Telegraph January 01, 2012
- Fraser agreed for US missiles to be fired at Australia
- Were to be fired into Tasman Sea off Cape Pillar
A SECRET US plan to test MX missiles by firing them from California to the coast of Australia was signed off on by then prime minister Malcolm Fraser. And it can be revealed that the federal Cabinet agreed to keep the intercontinental ballistic missile tests secret because it was “preferable for the matter not to become an election issue”. Continue reading
Secret plans by Australian government to set up international nuclear waste dump
a five-square-kilometer space would be built on the ground and a 20-square-kilometer space would be created 500 meters below the ground to store 75,000 metric tons of radioactive waste……The candidate area spread from Western Australia to South Australia
A plan to build a final disposal facility surfaced again in 2006 …The government that was then led by Prime Minister John HowardNuclear countries came close to solving problem of radioactive waste Mainichi Daily News. (By Haruyuki Aikawa, Japan December 13, 2011 LONDON — “…The Pangea group of experts funded by nuclear energy-related companies and general contractors from many countries had been secretly planning to build an international disposal site for spent nuclear fuel in Australia. However, the plan fell through after an Australian news organization exposed it.
Secret nuclear weapons plans for Australia – but files now mysteriously missing from National Archives
Treasures of Australia’s past lost from the National Archives by:Herald Sun Patrick Lion From:The Daily Telegraph December 13, 2011 HUNDREDS of rare files – including secret plans for nuclear weapons and personal files of prime ministers – have gone missing from the library responsible for preserving Australia’s history.
Over the past two decades the National Archives has lost at least 748 historic items, some dating back more than 150 years, from its official collection of documents, government files, letters, recordings and photographs.
Among the missing files on nuclear weapons and uranium from the middle of last century is a 1956 report, The Clandestine Introduction Of Nuclear Weapons In Australia…… http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/treasures-of-australias-past-lost-rare-items-missing-from-the-national-archives/story-fn7x8me2-1226220439496
Nuclear lobby’s power to prevent Australia debating uranium to India, and to promote arms race
ALP downplay arms control considerations, Crikey, December 5, 2011 , by NAJ Taylor “…….The power of lobbyists There are numerous lessons to be learned from the US experience, particularly since the similarities in the way the matter was debated there.
There as in here, well-funded and resourced lobby groups successfully denied Australian’s of a debate, and a complacent and shameful standard of media proliferated falsehoods and empty rhetoric as if reasoned evidence such that even Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd – who as recently as last month strongly opposed any deal with India – begrudgingly toed the line of the party leader given the announcement was made whilst he was in Dehli.
For instance, following the vote, Nitin Pai, editor of Pragati – The Indian National Interest Review, and Fellow at The Takshashila Institution tweeted that:
” Rory_Medcalf And let me say that the consistent policy advocacy by a certain Sydney based think tank surely played an important role…..
What is clear to me is that Australia’s prospects of being awarded a seat on the UN Security Council next year are bound to have suffered already. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/this-blog-harms/2011/12/05/alp-downplay-arms-control-considerations/
Lawyers press for revealing secrets of Maralinga’s baby deaths after nuclear bomb testing
the medical records of those 23 stillborn babies remain sealed and held by the National Archives of Australia.
Now, as British lawyers search for others to join the class action against the British Ministry of Defence, they will also push for the secrets of the Woomera baby graves to be revealed.
Secrecy surrounding the disturbing rate of baby deaths and research suggesting fallout from tests blanketed the town despite being more than 600km from the Maralinga testing sites, warrants those families investigating claims as part of the class act
The Children’s Graveyard at Woomera South Australia. Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 1 Dec 11 What was known and when?. SECRET records detailing the fate of dozens of babies born in the shadow of Maralinga’s nuclear testing hold the key to a case building as the state’s largest class action. More than 100 South Australians have joined a class action against the British Ministry of Defence over deaths and disabilities they believe were caused by nuclear testing at Maralinga more than 50 years ago.
Among them are families of the Woomera babies – more than 60 lives lost, many without explanation, during the decade of nuclear testing, up to 600km away. Lawyers running the case say it is “just the tip of the iceberg”. They have heard only from people who are “very confident” they have a case for compensation. Already, families of some of the stillborn children, hours-old babies and toddlers who account for more than half the plots in Woomera Cemetery for the 1950s and 1960s, have come forward….. Continue reading
UK govt lied about the extent of the atomic bomb tests in Maralinga
A spokesman for Rosenblatt solicitors, which is representing veterans from the UK, New Zealand and Fiji since taking up the case six years ago, said: “This is potentially very significant information for the progress of the case.”…
RAF veteran says government covered up scale of nuclear tests, Ex-airman’s evidence could prove crucial in court case against Ministry of Defence, THE INDEPENDENT, OMAR OAKES, PAUL CAHALAN 14 NOVEMBER 2011 A former RAF navigator has claimed the size of a nuclear bomb detonated during tests in the 1950s could have been three times bigger than the Government officially stated, in evidence which could that prove crucial for more than 1,000 service veterans suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for upwards of £100m. Continue reading
Effect of nuclear plants on marine life – are animal activists aware?
Indeed nuclear lobbyists in Australia operate by stealth – not least in Adelaide. ( Comment from a readerof this page) One prolific blogger comes to mind who’s a member of an animal activist group. Impressive one thinks but hopping over to Barry Brook’s website and there he is lobbying for nuclear. This duplicitous gentleman (an animal activist no less) believes it’s quite acceptable for one nuclear plant to suck up a billion marine organisms and marine life every year in the US – the Indian Point nuclear plant.
Adding insult to injury he evaded responding to the fact that “since the advent of the nuclear age in the mid-1940s, the mass of radioactive 129I (t1/2 = 15.7 Myr) circulating in the Earth’s hydrosphere has increased nearly forty fold from its natural background level of 140 kg.
“Nuclear fuel reprocessing has been by far the major contributor, responsible for releasing 5400 kg of 129I (half-life 15.7 million years) primarily into the North Atlantic Ocean. Regional and global trends in the distribution of the 129I inventory are elucidated from an examination of more than 600 determinations of 129I in environmental samples from around the world. Because the major point sources are located in Europe and the United States, more than 99% of the present 129I reservoir is distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, where both 129I concentrations and 129I/I ratios in rivers, lakes, and shallow seawater are several orders of magnitude above the preanthropogenic background.
” …………………. We model the effect of a collapse in thermohaline circulation and project a concentration increase of more than 3 orders of magnitude in shallow oceans over the 10,000 years that follow if nuclear reprocessing is to continue at the present rate. ” “Filthy water cannot be washed.” http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2009GC002910.shtml#citation#citation
Soouth Australia’s Mike Rann gives freehold to BHP over Olympic Dam uranium mining lease
“They have a code of silence at that mining lease that’s stronger than any code in downtown
Calabria,” “They even have the government tied up because when BHP says jump, the government says how high.”
Yesterday, Rann again signed off on BHP’s powerful proprietary interests over the site. BHP gets freehold over the extended Olympic Dam mining lease. Few mining companies have this ultimate level of control.
The estimated mining royalties for South Australia ($350 million) from the “world’s biggest mine in human history” are around one tenth of what Western Australia pulls every year from iron ore.
Mike Rann delivers Kloppers’ Kingdom in Melbourne, Crikey, by Kevin Naughton of InDaily, 13 Oct 11,
“…….Rann was in Melbourne at BHP Billiton’s headquarters to sign the indenture agreement that specifies several of the terms under which BHP can expand its mine at Olympic Dam. Marius Kloppers, the busy global boss of the company with more than $72 billion turnover, held the whip hand on the Premier of a state with annual turnover of about $13 billion.
The indenture agreement goes before Parliament next week where there will be some token debate, but little in the way of exhaustive analysis of the terms of a deal that gives BHP 45 years of certainty, control and exclusive access rights that make this mine site look more like Kloppers’ Kingdom than a part of South Australia. Continue reading
Australia’s Lynas corporation accused of fraud – secrecy over radioactive waste disposal
Malaysian MP accuses Australian company of fraud, 702 ABC Sydney , 29 Sept 11, South East Asia correspondent A Malaysian MP has accused an Australian company of corporate fraud in relation to the building of an ore processing plant in Malaysia.
The Lynas Corp plant will process ore from Western Australia in Malaysia, extracting rare earth minerals for hi-tech manufacturing. The ore contains low levels of radiation, but the Australian company says its plant will be safe.
But Malaysian MP Fuziah Salleh has lodged an official complaint with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). In a letter to ASIC, she says the company promised the International Atomic Energy Agency it would intensify consultation.
She says the company’s failure to publicly release a waste disposal plan amounts to corporate fraud…..The plant is expected to be complete by the end of the year..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-29/malaysian-mp-accuses-australian-company-of-fraud/3034900/?site=sydney
Call to sack Australia’s Resources Minister, over his deceitful handling of nuclear waste issue
Dr Jim Green said: “Mr Ferguson’s handling of this dump issue has been misleading,
undemocratic, secretive and in violation of binding Labor Party platform policy. He is treating South Australians with contempt. Prime Minister Gillard should sort out this mess by replacing Mr Ferguson with someone better suited to the task of managing a difficult and contentious issue.”
MARTIN FERGUSON MISLEADS SA ON NUCLEAR DUMP, 28 September 2011, Federal resources minister Martin Ferguson’s mishandling of the contentious plan to truck nuclear waste through SA to a dump site in the NT reached a new low with his misleading comments on ABC Riverland radio this morning.
Mr Ferguson claimed that no decision had been made on a dump site. However he is pushing the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) through Parliament. The Bill targets Muckaty in the NT as the only site under active consideration for a dump site despite the fact that MuckatyTraditional Owners are challenging the nomination in the Federal Court, and despite NT legislation banning the imposition of a nuclear dump. Continue reading
South Australian government secrecy on expansion of BHP’s Olympic Damn
Release ‘secret’ Roxby report, 22 Sept 11, The Greens have called for the immediate release of a hidden report that captures the views of State Government agencies on the Olympic Dam
Mega-expansion.
Called the ‘Assessment Report’, it is a compulsory step in the approval process for a major development. It summarises the responses by various government agencies to the proponent’s Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and is supposed to be released before the Government announces its approval of a project. However, for recent controversial projects the Rann Government has chosen to only release the Report after they have announced their decision. “The only reason the Government is choosing not to release the Assessment Report now is to avoid scrutiny,” said SA Greens Parliamentary leader Mark
Parnell.
“The Government is holding back the Report’s release for political reasons – keeping the SA community in the dark. This means that the public doesn’t get a chance to respond. It also allows the Government to dodge tricky questions as the media and others tend to focus on the approval decision, rather than what Government agencies actually think.
“The Rann Government has form in releasing the Assessment Report only after they announce their decision on a project. They did it for Buckland Park and they did it for the Port Stanvac desal plant. “For a project as important as the Olympic Dam expansion, the Government should be giving the SA community more opportunities to be involved in the
final decision, not less. “For example, the Assessment Report will be able to tell us what
Government agencies like SARDI really think about the proposed desalination plant at Pt Lowly.
“The Greens call on the State Government to immediately release the Assessment Report, well before they announce their decision on the OlympicDam Expansion.
South Australia: Labor and Liberal keep uranium mine information from the public
Last night, Labor and Liberal combined to defeat a Greens motion calling on the release of more information from the world’s richest resource company to justify BHPB’s preferred option to send Roxby ore to China for processing.
Labor & Liberal roll over on Roxby ‘China Option’, 15 Sept 11, South Australian Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell has accused the SA Labor Government and Liberal Opposition of abandoning domestic processing for the Olympic Dam expansion. Continue reading
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
15 April – Zoom –Nuclear Power is Not the Solution
Apr 15, 2026 01:00 AM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) on Tuesday, April 14th for a timely webinar exploring the risks associated with nuclear power and challenging the myth that it offers a simple, safe, carbon-free solution to the climate crisis
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 