Australia’s Labor opposition has called on the conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott to order his top business adviser to withdraw ”ignorant comments” about climate change.
The adviser, Maurice Newman, asserted in a newspaper opinion article that climate change policy was destroying Australia’s manufacturing sector and competitiveness and referred to “climate change madness”.
The opposition’s acting environment spokesman Shayne Neumann said Mr Newman’s comments ”damage Australia’s relationships with its trading partners”.
In an opinion piece in the News Corporation national daily The Australian, Mr Newman, the Prime Minister’s pick as head of his Business Advisory Council, claimed high energy costs caused by the carbon price and the Renewable Energy Target (RET), introduced under a former Liberal-National government, had eroded Australia’s competitiveness.
Under Labor and the Australian Greens Party, Australia had been taken “hostage” by “climate change madness” he wrote.
Mr Neumann responded to the article, saying the claims it contained were ”ignorant”.
“These extraordinary comments from one of Tony Abbott’s closest advisers prove the Coalition is not serious about taking action on climate change and does not accept the overwhelming evidence of a changing climate,” Mr Neumann said.
“The worst part about Mr Newman’s ignorant comments is that he’s only voicing what we know Tony Abbott thinks about climate change.”
In the opinion piece, Mr Newman said Australia’s manufacturing sector and overall competitiveness have been destroyed by climate change policies driven by “scientific delusion”.
“Climate change madness has been a major factor in the decimation of our manufacturing industry,” he said.
“It is the unprecedented cost of energy, driven by the Renewable Energy Target and carbon tax, which, at the margin, has destroyed our competitiveness.”
Mr Newman added that he believed the green economy was killing Australian jobs.
“For all the propaganda about green employment, Australia seems to be living the European experience, where, for every green job created, two to three jobs are lost in the real economy,” Mr Newman said.
“The scientific delusion, the religion behind the climate crusade, is crumbling.”
Mr Newman wrote he believed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change resorted to “dishonesty and deceit” and were “intent on exploiting the masses and extracting more money”.
Head of the Climate Council think tank Professor Tim Flannery said he could make little of MR Newman’s opinion piece, which appeared “at best” to be a selective reading of the data.
He accused Mr Newman of being driven by a “denialist ideology” and of distorting the facts about global warming.
“Mr Newman’s gouty festive season ramblings might easily be forgiven as the product of an extra glass or two of port,” Professor Flannery said.
“But as they come from the Prime Minister’s chief business adviser they need to be taken seriously.
“As the government formulates its climate policies, we’ve got to be guided by facts. His contribution is entirely unhelpful.”
Mr Newman is a former chairman of the ABC and the Australian Stock Exchange.
Since being appointed as Mr Abbott’s chief business adviser, Mr Newman has provoked controversy with a number of similar public statements.
