The conspiracy theorist I'm talking about is called Maurice Newman. I've written about his wacky notions before - here and here and here. Maurice gets some of his "science" from Donna "into the dustbin" Laframboise, and some from David "funny sunny" Archibald, so I guess he thinks we're heading for an ice age any day now.
It's been reported Maurice gets other of his wacky notions from kooks and cranks who started writing to him when he first confessed to anyone interested that he rejects science in favour of conspiracy nuttery.
Maurice, despite his tendency to paranoid conspiracies of the One World Guvmint/New World Order/ Agenda21 kind, was once a man of stature in the business world or, more accurately, a man who has wielded power and money. I don't know if he was a gold bug like his fellow conspiracy theorists Jo Nova and David Evans, but he did chair the Australian Stock Exchange for a bit. Anyway, these days, in between what must be very weird and tense meetings of the Prime Minister's business advisory council, he writes his wacky opinions and the Australian publishes them. Or perhaps he has someone them write for him, like Jesse Ventura or David Icke.
There was a scathing article about Maurice Newman in the Sydney Morning Herald, written in July last year. The article details some of the antics he got up to as Chair of the ASX and Chair of the ABC, plus more. You barely have to read between the lines to figure out what sort of a person he really is. Oily, suave and polite on the outside and not so nice underneath. Stephen Mayne, the consumer/financial watcher, doesn't think highly of his behaviour.
An anti-semitic Jew who values self-interest over principle
Towards the end of the SMH article it describes how he emerged as a conspiracy theorist of the climate/New World Order/One World Guvmint kind. Which is a bit strange, because that conspiracy theory has links with anti-semitism and Maurice Newman's father was reportedly Jewish. Another example of how self-interest trumps principle.
Mocked by one and all
This latest article by Maurice hit the press and was picked up by various major news companies. The BBC mocked his wackiness, as did the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald. I don't think it made it in the USA. Even the paper that published his conspiracy nuttery, the Australian, is humiliating the poor chap. Maybe its tolerance for utter nuttery is declining. Here's the promo for his article. The headline says it all. The photo they chose just adds to the image - a foolish grin of man off his rocker:
An embarrassment to Australia
With his questionable past and his insane fantasies of the present, Maurice Newman is an embarrassment to Australia. I expect Tony Abbott or one of his mates owed him, otherwise why on earth would our PM have appointed him as Chair of his business advisory group. Maurice should be left out to pasture, muttering in his proverbial beard about the dreaded environmentalists who want to ruin the world for the world's ruiners.
David Karoly - a flat-earther as chair of an airline
The BBC article I linked to earlier, refers to Australian climate scientist, Professor David Karoly:
"It is clear he has deliberately tried to mislead the Australian public," said Professor Karoly, who is considering making a complaint to the Australian Press Council about the article.
He said the government's decision to appoint Mr Newman to its business advisory council was akin to Qantas having a chairman that believed the earth was flat.
References and further reading
From HotWhopper:
- Maurice Newman: A Self-Portrait of an Utter Nutter Science Denier January 2014
- Is Maurice Newman telling Tony Abbott he should fire him? April 2014
- Sack Australia's biggest laughing stock, Maurice Newman! His denier wackiness is resurrected at WUWT August 2014
From around the world:
- Maurice Newman, the million-dollar smiler - a character sketch from the Sydney Morning Herald, July 2014
- Australia PM's adviser says climate change a UN hoax - BBC News May 2015
- Little support for PM's top business adviser over UN climate conspiracy theory - ABC, PM May 2015
- Climate change a UN-led ruse, says Tony Abbott's business adviser Maurice Newman - Sydney Morning Herald May 2015
Based on the detailed biographical profile of Newman in the 2014 SMH article, he comes across as a well-mannered, well-dressed, charming, relentlessly self-promoting networker and salesman.
ReplyDeleteConspicuously absent from his bio are any hard, independent achievements. That he lacks any authority to speak on climate issues (perhaps he has stood outdoors in the sunshine and sweated) goes without saying.
Newman should write WUWT posts.
ReplyDeleteHe's too busy cutting and pasting them. His stupidity is lifted straight from their pages.
DeleteI noticed he has monogrammed shirts, according to the SMH interview...what a self-obsessed wanker!
It's a revealing read:
"I learned to be sceptical," Newman says. "I realised that just because people are in authority, it doesn't mean you should believe what they say."
Indeed, Maurice. Good observation.
Nick, I got the impression he's put on a veneer of how he thinks a peer of the realm behaves. A self-taught Eliza Doolittle. He'd love to be a "Sir", but as that quote you got showed, he's no more than one of Bob Altemeyer's right wing authoritarian followers, who got himself a lot of money along the way.
Delete(Reposted using my normal, current log in. Sou)
Maurice Newman's article was published four days after Monckton's comment about world government.
ReplyDeleteGiven the rest of Newman's article reads like a Monckton screed, are they email buddies or, as noted above, does he copy and paste from WUWT?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
I wonder if that pair are aware that not taking a collaborative approach now will make it more likely, not less, that there'll be a need for much stronger global action in the future. They are pushing the world towards, not away from, a One World Government.
DeleteNot that I see much wrong with nations agreeing on stuff, if that's what they are afraid of. A world federation of nations could be a great thing, and might work much better than the way the UN operates now. Much of industry has globalised, why shouldn't governments around the world agree to work more closely together? Perhaps they prefer a world where nations are constantly at war with each other.
This is from the world bank - on cities most vulnerable to sea level rise:
In terms of the overall cost of damage, the cities at the greatest risk are: 1) Guangzhou, 2) Miami, 3) New York, 4) New Orleans, 5) Mumbai, 6) Nagoya, 7) Tampa, 8) Boston, 9) Shenzen, and 10) Osaka. The top four cities alone account for 43% of the forecast total global losses.
However, developing-country cities move up the list when flood costs are measured as a percentage of city gross domestic product (GDP). Many of them are growing rapidly, have large populations, are poor, and are exposed to tropical storms and sinking land.
The study lists the 10 most vulnerable cities when measured as percentage of GDP as: 1) Guangzhou; 2) New Orleans; 3) Guayaquil, Ecuador; 4) Ho Chi Minh City; 5) Abidjan; 6) Zhanjing; 7) Mumbai; 8) Khulna, Bangladesh; 9) Palembang, Indonesia; and 10) Shenzen.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/08/19/coastal-cities-at-highest-risk-floods
I wonder how Christopher and Maurice propose to deal with the flood of climate refugees? The SMH article gives a clue. Maurice would let them drown, unless they've got lots of lucre.
If anyone thinks the world has too many refugees now, just wait a few decades.
When they use "one world government" they mean global redistribution of wealth. What they say makes much more sense if you translate the word government with redistribution to the poor.
DeleteThey have nothing against a one world government, as long as it is a dictatorship of white man. That is why they work on redistribution to the white rich upper class. That protects the power of the whites when they are no longer the majority in the USA, which is what they fear most, in the light of how they (would like to) treat minorities.
Quango careerists and turf builders on the loose in Turtle Bay?
ReplyDeleteThe World Court overruling national constitutions ?
WHO asserting it knows what's good for you ?
The man must be mad.