Maurice Newman isn’t a climate scientist. He’s not a meteorologist either. In fact, he’s not a scientist at all. Of any sort. He’s a stockbroker and investment banker. He was Managing Director of the Deutsche Bank Group in Australia and Chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

He’s also Tony Abbott’s chief business adviser, and he said this in The Australian today:

The climate change movement is rooted in power, money and emotion — not science… In fact, it’s the people behind this movement who pose the greatest threat to humanity, not the climate.”

Pot calling the kettle black

Newman’s quote reminds me of this insightful meme:

Here’s why…

In addition to being a celebrated climate scientist, stockbroker and investment banker, Newman is a lifetime member of a club of rich climate-science deniers and mining magnates. The Mont Pelerin Society. (Although he doesn’t publicise it, it’s public domain information. He’s listed as a member on Mont Pelerin’s own website.)

So what is the Mont Pelerin Society? It’s a club of just over 500 economic libertarians. People who want a free market, unfettered by pesky government regulations. Because, you know, big corporations will always do the right thing if the government would just give them the chance to prove themselves. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more. <cough Enron cough sub-prime-mortgage-crisis-coverup>.

Oil billionaire and renowned climate-science denier, Charles Koch, is a member too. He’s a key financier (and member) of the Heartland Institute, which says carbon dioxide isn’t a pollutant, and climate change is good for us! Australia’s own Institute of Public Affairs is another member. They’re sponsored by big mining and other corporations with a direct stake in the climate change debate, and they’ve been lobbying the government for years to repeal the carbon tax, abolish the Department of Climate Change and the Clean Energy Fund, repeal the renewable energy target and withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

That tells you the sort of people he hangs out with.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the Mont Pelerin Society is one of more than 100 groups that together received $118 million in secret payments from anonymous conservative billionaires to try to discredit climate science. According to The Guardian investigation:

The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising “wedge issue” for hardcore conservatives.”

So… tell me again who’s motivated by power and money?

Given Newman’s resume, associations and (one would assume) wealth, it’s deliciously ironic that he would accuse climate scientists of being driven by power and money.

What’s not so delicious is the mainstream media’s determination to turn a blind eye to his hypocrisy and agenda. Worse, their eagerness to allow him to broadcast his misinformation in newspapers that millions of Australians still view as credible.

Perhaps worst of all, the fact that Abbott and the Australian government are directly influenced by him.