MAURICE Newman must resign as business advisor to the Australian Government, the Climate Council said today.
In a bizarre column in today’s Australian, Mr Newman said climate change was a hoax being led by the United Nations to end democracy and impose authoritarian rule.
“Mr Newman appears to have gone totally rogue. His fringe anti-science views are indistinguishable from those made by angry internet trolls on conspiracy theory forums and are not befitting of someone with a position of such influence,” the Climate Council’s Will Steffen, a world-renowned climate scientist, said.
“He’s not only out of step with the scientific community and the vast majority of Australians who understand the risks of climate change but he’s also damaging Australia’s credibility by getting his information from the tin foil hat brigade rather than the world’s most respected scientific institutions.
“Conducting a war on science is a sign of a country headed off the rails.”
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said Mr Newman had already thumbed his nose at an offer of a briefing from the nation’s top climate scientists.
“While major financial institutions like the World Bank, HSBC and the IMF are taking a sober look at the science and warning the business risks, Australian business’s top representative to the government is in another orbit,” she said.
“For the business sector to be represented by him is nothing short of embarrassing.
“He is either intentionally misleading the public or he is incapable of understanding scientific consensus, in which case he has no business advising the government.
“His position is no longer tenable and he should resign.”
The Climate Council is an independent, crowd-funded organisation providing quality information to climate change to the Australian public.
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