Does not rehire any previous board level appointees
Story submitted by Eric Worrall
The Australian government has decided to not renew any of the management board of the Australian CSIRO. Naturally, outgoing board members are not very happy with the decision. According to Simon McKeon, outgoing chairman of the CSIRO;
“There appears to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term, the outgoing CSIRO chairman Simon McKeon has said.
“The reality is that, yes, there is a rule that no one on the board of a federal government agency has been reappointed,” McKeon said when asked about the Labor board appointees at an Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) function on Thursday. “It’s an issue that many people are finding worrying.”
McKeon, whose term as the CSIRO chairman ends in June, said it was not about him.
“The great majority of people who put up their hands to serve on a federal government agency are really doing it for the nation,” he said. “All I’m saying is we’re missing out on the corporate memory.
“It’s, I would argue, an unnecessary distraction to what’s already a very challenging bunch of organisations.”
Nobody is saying why the government appears to have taken a hard line on the non renewal of previous political appointments. In America it is normal for political appointments to be replaced by an incoming government. This is less common in Australia.
It is possible that McKeon’s outspoken views on climate change may have contributed to differences between the CSIRO board, and the more skeptical Australian government. According to his Wikipedia entry, Simon McKeon appears to be strongly in favour of more funding for climate research.
“On climate change, McKeon has expressed his desire to see the topic raised to the top of both the “political and public agenda”. He said “We may not have all the answers to what is occurring, … [b]ut the point is, why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_McKeon#Climate_change
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Amen
Not Amen, Alberte, Hallelujah!
It seems to me that when an elected government is replaced by another elected government; even if it is the same government, elected for a new term, that ALL NON-ELECTED government appointees aka beaurocrats should tender their resignations at the end of the outgoing government’s term.
Of course, the New Government should be entirely free to re-appoint any or none or all of those termed out beaurocrats should they choose to do so.
After all, they are mostly political appointments; and those positions should be held by persons that the incoming Government believes will better serve the country as they see it.
So if you consider yourself invaluable to your country; then prove it by tendering your resignation at the end of your appointing government’s term in office.
g
Exactly, george. McKeon whines:
“The great majority of people who put up their hands to serve on a federal government agency are really doing it for the nation,”
Plenty of others have ‘put up their hands to serve’. McKeon had his chance. Now he needs to go away.
He wasn’t “doing it for the nation” either. He was doing for his own self-aggrandizement. ‘The nation’ is better off without him.
This is one viewpoint: the other one, traditionally held in Britain, is that the role of non-elected officials is to provide dispassionate advice to politicians of any political colour in the interests of the country they serve.
The reality is that there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. When you have officials of the same political persuasion, the checks and balances tend to disappear in a smorgasbord of the mutual admiration and back-patting societies. In the British System, the tendency is for the non-elected officials to serve their own selfish interests more professionally than those of the country whose taxes pays for their lives of riley.
“The great majority of people who put up their hands to serve on a federal government agency are really doing it for the nation,”
More likely the great majority of government “climate scientists” are not “putting up their” hands to serve, but rather “putting out their hands” to receive a research grant. When the research starts considering both sides of a question the results may be worth the public tax revenues.
In Canada, the majority of the “public Service” institutions and ministries were created by the Liberal Party and are partisan. I hope the current Federal government will take not of the Australian example.
Great words George, lets see if that Twit Trigg would have the courage to resign, it is an act of political bastardry for one Government to put in place a person whose only job is to undermine the next Government, takes the ALP to do that. N
@hunter, I am not sure but is this bunch the same group that tried to unseat TA about 3 weeks ago? And if so (actually no matter what) nice move TA.. Between TA and Harper up in Canada those are two guys that show some guts!
Could it be that the untruthfulness of the assertion by CSIRO Chairman Simon McKeon-that no agency directors who were appointed by the previous government have been reappointed- indicates the reason McKeon has not been reappointed?
GISS could use a house cleaning too. History may look different without Gavin’s thumb on the scale.
Another reason to admire the Aussies! Well done, T.A.
Indeed!
I hope that Australians realize that their government has done them a great service.
I hope so too, they are certainly leading the way in trimming the global warming scam.
I think I might emigrate. Our UK Political Party Muppeteers of all ilks with the exception of UKIP, have all signed away their credibility this week in support of a”climate change” agenda.
Good on ya Auuussstraaalia! ya Beauties.
Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and is reported to have said “The die is cast” but not in Latin, but in Greek.
Does anyone one else take CSIRO’s logo to look like they have put the entire continent in jail?
Yes, good observation 😉
The simple explanation for such a logo is a so called “Freudian slip”.
The logo expresses the unconscious wishes of the now rightly sacked green CSIRO leaders. That is to say, they wanted the whole population of Oz to be inmates of their “ideal” would-be eco-dictatorship…
Do we know if Freud actually wore a slip?
Oh great, now I’ve got an image of Freud wearing a slip stuck in my head. Thanks a lot Alberts.
I thought it might be ‘divide and conquer’ symbology.
To me it appears like a nice steak, or skewers, on a grill?
(could be a biased view, my wife has us both on diets)
Paul, March 6, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Do go for the 5-2 diet.
Two days of serious restriction of your intake to 600 calories.
Five days of eat/drink whatever you were eating/drinking before.
Even steak and cheesey vegetables.
Don’t compensate, and you will lose weight – guaranteed.
Auto
My advice on the diet, do what you have been told since school. Eat a balanced diet and exercise a lot. This only fails when you are are not strictly following it.
If you’re going to be lazy, minimise processed foods with trans fats (eg. toasted muesli, biscuits), eat your three serves of fruit (with skin, not juice) and do some exercise first thing in the morning. Its not good enough to be a supermodel but you can enjoy your food and not big become a big fat bastard (if you already are, you might need to do more). Do not skip the steak. It makes the veggies taste good and if you eat some carbs with it, you’re less likely to get hungry later and snacking on processed foods is worse.
You need a little humor to help you:
From the amazing Steve Goodman “Chicken Cordon Blues”
Maybe just made for the future. Once the Antarctic ice starts to melt, they can keep adding “blue” to the logo showing Australia being submerged by Mann-made CO2 global warming causing sea level rise.
“Does anyone one else take CSIRO’s logo to look like they have put the entire continent in jail?”
Australia started as a penal conoly. This is the original Australian flag. (I suppose)
You mis- spelt Connolley
I was thinking it’s a tire track? Perhaps an offroader…
Australia was colonized by England as a strategic move against the expansion of other European Powers, particularly France.
This was discovered in Intelligence documents uncovered around a decade ago.
For the record USA got just as many convicts as Australia due to the ongoing famine in Europe in those days and that’s why over %90 of those transported were convicted of stealing food.
Not South Australia, We’re free settlers.
CSIRO, does that stand for C ould S eriously I nsult R eal O bervers?
Well not really we just wouldn’t let them into New Zealand, because they all talk funny.
Like; ” A bisin is something you wash your ficein.”
But any way, I am on my way in just a day or two to go there to Melbin, and I will personally call the PM and tell him; Jolly good show mate. Excuse me I forgot they’re Oztralians; make that “Bloody good show Mate !”
g
[The mods point out that no Midwestern US cowboy would “wash his face under a bison before he goes into the office” … And any Ozzie recommending he do so would lose his place in line at the nearest Outback Steakhouse. .mod]
“If there’s no room to jail ya
They’d send you to Australia!”
that is one of the worst logos ever!!
Australians looking out through their prison bars….
When the current logo was introduced, the seven bars represented the (then) seven Divisions within the CSIRO. It’s over 10 years since I left, and I’ve no idea how many Divisions they have now. To me it always looked like a blue cricket ball with seven rows of stitching, one that’s going to seam all over the place.
A House Divided?
It is said that the vertical lines represent the 7 days of the week. The previous logo was similar and it was also said the size of the ‘white bit’ (now represented by the Australian continent) was how much work got done on the day.
Praise be that this once great organization can now maybe return to doing what it’s good at, and that’s research for a better and more productive world. The time and resources wasted on AGW can be used as they were meant to be used, for the good of mankind.
Woo Hoo! Go Tony!! Glad to see the broom put through the CSIRO – they had lost the way spouting nothing but CAGW diatribe – now, back to business!!
Don’t celebrate too soon. Abbott needs to put the same broom through the BOM and the universities too. The Oz global warming establishment is like a snake with many heads. While ever one head lives, the beast will survive. This is only the beginning of the beginning of the end.
You have to have some idea of what the future holds in order to do any sensible future-proofing. You can’t future proof against everything.
We probably can’t future proof against anything. Given humanity’s inability to learn from the mistakes of the past (Near and Far), there is little probability that people in the future will do better. It seems only death ends stupid.
Even death doesn’t end stupid. With the writings and organizations put in place by stupid, stupid can continue for generation after generation. This can be proven by the fact that there are still neo-Nazis.
Wish they would do the same to the ABC down here. Chuck the Managing Director out with them too …
This would be really an advisable thing to do for Tony Abbot in order to survive politically. Daily you can observe in the ABC news the subtle but very distinct propaganda-war of the ABC journalists against the Abbot Government. I guess, one of the biggest motives for these constant attacks is Abbots skeptical position about CAGW and the left’s quasi religious “crusade” against CO2 (a very valuable and beneficial gas by the way, which is essential for plants and a condition for a greener outback in Oz…).
this item made my day!!
and yes its bloody brilliant!
fully agree re aunty ABC getting a purge too
r williams as first OUT
todays science show featured whining mikey(podcast available radio national)
I had to leave the room before I damaged something
the budget cuts didnt work
they kept the old glued on biased has beens and dissed the programs the people want the most
only so many hrs of book reviews arts and greenspew one can take.
Yes it’s pretty hard for the Helmsman to steer the ship to port when all the crew are dragging their oars on the starboard.
The ABC pollygreens might have finally got the message..The sacking of the CSIRO is a big wake-up call for them..
Unfortunately the biased journalists and their management in the ABC firmly believe they are untouchable and have free reign to waste taxpayers’ money disseminating their own beliefs. Of course they will scream blue murder when the axe finally falls as it inevitably must. If they take sides politically they must bear the consequences.
These are concrete actions which I applaud. Now for a new board, that will conduct serious examination of past funding, the recipients, the stated deliverables, the actual results, and the review process of projects.
I guess I would like to see a witch hunt. YES I would. I would like to see all the witches and snake oil salesmen who have poisoned the science, the politics with ad hominem attacks held to account and prosecuted for fraud.
I do not know the level of influence the CSIRO may have with the crown attorney or the justice minister but it seems reasonable that we should start with an inquiry. We know where to look for fraud. Rhe so-called 97% of Australian climate scientists.
Let us see if their science can withstand real scrutiny!
‘missing corporate memory’? He wouldn’t be referring to the adjustments made to the temperature data, would he.
Somebody help me with Australian politics. I thought Tony Abbot was on the ropes? (I assume it is Abbot who would make this decision). What does this suggest about Abbot’s security as PM?
He is down in the opinion polls but is actually going up in popularity at the moment. Latest I heard he’s about 47 53 in two party preferred. I am not sure he is too worried about being elected again
Ah, The Abbott government look like they are turning the poles around.
They were loosing their base and also a lot of swinging voters because they were pandering to the far-left way too much.
Recent decisions and actions show that they may have realised that that is NOT what the people want, and the polls are swinging back 49-51 was the latest.
Last polls have been 47-53 and 49-51 which suggests he has at least recovered from 43-57.
A couple of weeks ago we saw a concerted attempt by sections of the media and ‘unnamed sources’ to get him rolled by left wing favorite Turnbull. That was when he got the 51-49 result.
If you look back through Australian political history, 47 to 53 mid term generally results in the incumbent party being returned to government. New governements generally make unpopular decisions early on, then vote buying sweeteners later on so they get another 3 years. It takes a long time for a real change in government.
Why haven’t I ever been asked by a pollster who I would vote for? Go Tony!
It is vital to secure your poles if you have a loose base.
Abbott is a fighter, make no mistake. Yes the sycophants and ratbags have been sniping away at him, but you don’t get a double blue from Oxford without being able to throw a good straight (at the) LEFT.
Left lead, right cross, hard left to the “mary carelli” then the big right uppercut – good night sunshine, sleep tight!
“ratbags…double blue from Oxford…throw a good straight…hard left to the “mary carelli” ”
Can someone translate this to Yankee, please?
Ratbag is a trouble maker or despicable person. In this case the climate worriers have been caught out tampering with data for political reasons.
Double Blue is an English term for representing Oxford or other universities in 2 sporting teams at the highest level. Abbot represented Oxford at Boxing twice. Once I believe was in beating the European Champion over 15 rounds. He was also a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.
Straight left is a boxing term for a straight punch thrown by the left hand.
So the Left have sniped at him for the way he walks and numerous other puerile things that have nothing to do with policy.
He was recorded as saying off record that climate change is crap, so the left have been on his case about that. He introduced his Direct Action with help from Dr Christine Jones about building up organic carbon in the soil which has the dual purpose of building soil fertility and recognizes farmers efforts and also reduces the warmist roar about emissions trading rorts (schemes) to a dull roar.
The warmists totally ignored farming as a source of absorbing CO2. When you deliberately ignore one of your most important assets in the carbon cycle, then it is a scam.
The ‘left media’ undertook what we call a ‘verballing’ of Tony Abbott in an attempt to get him replaced with their own favorite, but has now backfired. They have always underestimated Tony Abbott, and it has hurt them when he replaced Turnbull a few years ago. Their ideological followers took it further on Facebook and Twitter, the shouting became quite obnoxious, so the ‘coup’ attempt was seen by the rest for what it was, a media beat-up.
I agree,Tom. The best way to sow the seeds of disunity is to have the party wonder just who were the blackballers in the secret ballot who wanted TA out. A clever and orchestrated beatup all the same that must have some members wondering who the dissenters are in their midst. .
All of these people below should suffer audits on very public penny they received. I want to know how much was spent on resort junkets, public relations and marketing, integration with the IPCC, dinners, pencils, parking fees. And how much on hardware, publications, & research.
Nathan Bindoff
Matthew England
Dave Griggs
Ann Henderson-Sellers
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
Lesley Hughes
Roger Jones
David Karoly
Tony McMichael
Neville Nicholls
Jean Palutikof
Andy Pitman
Will Steffen
Chris Turney
Why throw good money after bad?
You can have endless inquiries and reports etc. All that does is give these people a soapbox to stand on. Better to move on with damnatio memoriae of this lot than to continually dwell on them.
It will be good PR to make a show trial of the excesses. If only Joe McCarthy was still alive and in Oz. Since now we know that Joe McCarthy was right, I wasn’t at all being sarcastic.
Didn’t Chris Turney’s Ship of Fools adventure get its own audit in the millions? He got an award for it but I don’t recall what the citation verbiage was that went with it. It would have been up for the Darwin Award if he had gone down with his party. http://www.darwinawards.com/
Yes, I am pretty sure that he was the science faker who made the case that the ill-fated publicity stunt, costing millions, was scientifically meritorious. He should be in jail for that stunt. In jail and made to pay it all back. And who authorized it? Gad Zooks that was a debacle.
“He should be in jail for that stunt. In jail and made to pay it all back.”
No! He’s worked wonders for skeptics. We need MORE government scientists like him, the ridiculouser the better. Also, it was a riot.
appoint a good auditor – they will have it out in the open very quickly whilst the new board can get on with the real work of the CSIRO.
From the article:
I’d love to hear from our commenters from down under; what value have Australians received from the money already spent on climate research? Anything? Maybe a little? Owed all the money back plus a penalty?
What value have we received? We’ve had a lot of money wasted on garbage research, that could have been spent on any number of worthwhile projects. So absolutely no value whatsoever.
Considering that “climate research” has diverted money and attention away from actual environmental issues we need to deal with, there has been no value whatsoever.
Well, the CSIRO invented the now ubiquitous Wi-Fi.
I’d be much happier if they spent my tax money on something equally worthwhile.
“What have the Romans ever done for us?”
h/t Monty Python
Very true however, will never make up for the introduction of the cane toad in 1935 when the CSIRO was called CSRO.
Actually CSIRO didn’t “invent Wi-Fi”.
It just got lucky with a few of the many pieces of IP that has gone into the development of Wi-Fi.
You should never believe the CSIRO’s PR machine. The “big lie” is its standard mode of operation. It should patent it.
You might, however, believe some of its ex-scientists who say things like this in regard to CSIRO’s gagging of climate scientists:
” “The scientists, if they were allowed to speak freely, would be able to inform the Australian public fully. The
scientists are basically trustworthy. There is contested evidence and contested truths here, therefore you need open discussion and debate. The CSIRO is pretending there is one truth most of the time and that truth is being controlled by senior management.”
“CSIRO in bed with big coal”, Brisbane Times & Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Jul 2010
https://pitchinporkies.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/listing-of-public-information-on-csiro-3-bullying-and-intimidation-censorship-of-the-professional-views-of-scientists.pdf
Quite a bit of entertainment, the Turney Ship of Fools was comedy gold – but the ticket price for the live show is way too expensive.
‘Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world’s arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilisation, according to CSIRO research.’
http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Deserts-greening-from-rising-CO2.aspx
Thanks for the responses Nick, pete, Raven, Patrick, Sceptical Sam, Eric Worrall, and lee.
Sounds like they might owe ya’ll your money back, with interest.
Well done
And the gravy train starts to run dry…
Looking forward to what happens at the BOM next.
Ditto!
Yes, it will be very interesting to see what happens at the BOM. I think the Chief Scientists Office has got a lot to answer for also.
This is exactly the question which needs to be discussed. If the cost of insurance exceeds a reasonable estimate of the loss, you don’t buy insurance. The whole point of insurance (from the purchaser’s perspective) is to accept the certainty of an affordable expense to avoid the risk of an unaffordable one. Accepting the certainty of a very large expense to avoid an unproven and unquantified loss at some distant future time is not buying insurance; it’s appeasing superstition.
Overstating either the likelihood or the cost of some insurable risk is a tactic of the insurance seller.
Why shouldn’t one wear a tin foil helmet to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?
Eugene WR Gallun
Greenie Ozzie asks “why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance…”
Simple… because the premium is more than the worst case loss
So you’d be silly to buy the insurance 🙂
The best insurance is always to build solid, reliable infrastructure.
In the energy area….wind turbines, and solar… need not apply !
to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?
=================
the state cannot eliminate risk without eliminating freedom of choice. otherwise, ultimately the state would lock each of us away in a cage as insurance against doing future harm.
why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?
What if the future is a new ice age, hmmmm?
“… why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?”
That begs the question of how one knows the future, or if it can be known, short of witnessing it. It presumes a great deal.
CSIRO’s R&D work in mineral processing has been superb and the country is the better for it. The jump onto the AGW bandwagon was politically driven and the folks at the top had to go: good riddance to each and every one of these gormless sycophants.
Well said.
If CSIRO had stuck to agriculture and other technical processes, instead of jumping on the climate alarmist bandwagon, they would have put a whole heap back into Australian prosperity, …
instead, they became a drag on development and a waste of time and resources..
even the ag got shafted to big green! research into soils and standard plants not gmo needs be restored. why the no gm stance?
because ALL the tampered ones are based ON normal salt n dry tolerant species , be far saner to crossbreed them in standard mode. and no bloody patents to big agri
This.
I also suggested to the Education Minister that we shouldn’t be funding the Penguin Counters. I am sick of our taxes being wasted on people to do some ridiculous exercise and count penguins or measure starfish as proof of gerbil worming.
Good, I thought the Oz government was beginning to lighten up on their original resolve. Labor stuffed all these agencies with ideologues all around the world. It is a remarkable sight to see Europe still slanging away at curbing CO2 emissions with as halt in warming longer than the warming we were all so exercised over. Natural variability now would appear to have been responsible for half the apparent warming (more if you count climateers’ heavy thumbs on the scales. And of course any continuance of cooling will reduce what CO2s contribution could possibly be. Another 10 years and it will pretty much have all been natural variability.
I don’t know much about UKIP, but if they can present a face of reason (usually new parties virtually forced into existence by the extreme nuttiness and collaboration of the status quo parties will have their ‘over the top’ contingent) and restrain extremist members, they have an opportunity right now that shouldn’t be missed. Harper in Canada managed a split of Conservatives into pink Tories and hang-em-high fundamentalists from out west who wouldn’t be attractive to the majority. He cleaned up the party and made it presentable. He is also one of the few economist heads of state and is roundly hated at home and abroad by the left, UN (another left), etc for managing to keep Canada (almost alone in the world) safe from a deep durable recession.
We had UN Marxists coming over to Canada to make speeches against Harper policies; the UN rejected Canada’s bid to be on the Security Council; the EU was outraged by Harper’s lecturing to them on what they had to do vastly differently to rescue their economies (there still is a colonial bigotry that will never die). So we knew that Harper was on the right track. The big joke is the exchange rate on the Canadian dollar vs reeling Euro and GBP states. The ‘institutions’ and possibly Soros must be paying heavily to keep the CDN$ down. But, hey, the low buck suits us fine. When the XL pipeline is okayed by the next administration, we will be getting 25% premium for our oil and reviving our competitive industries.
.
When australians stop smiling, start running.
And we have all lost our sense of humour about the climate change gravy train.
What climate change?? According to the data, the temperature is the same as 417 years ago. It’s also the same, actually a little under 1934. But the same as 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and what do you know, also the same as 2014.
So where is that climate change? Where?
The only changes is in the adjusted data, thanks to NOAA and MoB etc. The only way they can make it look like it is changing, is by cheating. That is called fraud, cost a lot of money and kills a lot of people. Those frauds should, and hopefully will, go to jail!
Now to make sure they don’t get hired into other government positions in lieu of the scientists and skeptics that were removed from their positions due their views. The egregiously nasty ones need to be vilified openly and brought to light. Turnabout is fair play and examples should go a long way to restoring the credibility of science. Yes I’m bitter at how people lost their lively hood and reputation based on lies, innuendos, and politics.
Enter your comment here…”lively hood” should be “livelihood”
sorry about that. I hope that that helps.
Would that that be a redundancy I wonder? If one loses one’s livelihood would that also count as a redundancy? And, if people were to loose their livelihoods? What would that be?
Wonderful isn’t it; the English language.
Well done, Tony Abbott!!
Australia is leading the world in the right direction!
The only one of the CSIRO board I know is Chris Turney, the great polar explorer.
I’m not a fan.
But even so, I don’t approve of this action. Throwing out the lot is unacceptable.
If they were thrown out with a justification of “this leadership are all useless because…” then fair enough.
But this just looks like partisan bias. Science doesn’t need more politicisation.
Science indeed doesn’t need more politicization. Therefore throw out all the politicians and fake scientists on the board, which is ALL of them.
Had they acted objectively in the past, which they didn’t, which is a matter of record, they could stay. They are unscientific activists who have hurt science.
Those who have done their job properly should stay.
Those who have adopted a BLATANT political stance, should go.
This is why no-one on the CSIRO board was re-appointed.
If the board is already politicized then leaving it in place to claim to avoid politicization of science would merely be submitting to what Labor had already done. It sounds like they needed a thorough house-cleaning. The only problem is that it won’t go far and deep enough below the Board.
Yes, if they are already politicised then sack them. But if tey are not then listen to them.
Justify it. Do the debate.
The true-believer warmists don’t explain the reason for their position because they dare not debate.
We are right (I think). We should be wiling to prove that in the clash of debate.
Well, MC, the Liebor governments through our country, State and Federal, make determined action to sack every conservative member of any government board as soon as they come to power … they then go on to ensure that their appointees are entrenched for as long as is possible.
No, you are WRONG, cleaning out this rent seeking detritus is for the benefit of our Country … not for the perpetuation of socialist doctrines.
I see further down that this is specific to CSIRO and not a blanket application of political decisions to a science board.
Misleading article.
But the truth is, in my opinion, more flattering to Abbott.
(By which I mean “closer to what I would have done”).
MCourtney March 6, 2015 at 12:42 pm
But even so, I don’t approve of this action. Throwing out the lot is unacceptable.
Although I always respect your comments, this is one of the few times I disagree. New Zealand has a symbol of an unfurling fern which represents a new beginning. It is time for a new beginning.
CSIRO was politicized nearly 2 decades ago by a socialist group calling themselves The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. They had a plan on how Australia should be run and proceeded to dictate to the Liberal Government on what it should be doing. The government told them to stand for election if they were so clever. Along comes CAGW and they grasped it for all it was worth. Their domination dreams were allowed out as they advised the appalling Labor government ( turned an economy in surplus into the biggest ever deficit with nothing to show for it).
CSIRO has done some wonderful work over decades. but when their own scientists politicized it, then it took charge of what was released and the direction of research. CSIRO has had some epic battles over intellectual property and copyright. So much so that they intimidate their own people.
That is how the warmists got control.
I have no idea how things work in Australia, but here in the US, it is standard practice for all political appointees who are not either appointed to a specific term of service (judges, Fed Reserve board) or are part of a board that is required to have a certain number of members from each of the two major parties to be replaced wholesale by a new administration.
In Australia the tradition has been that previous placements are often left in place to serve the new government. My understanding (and I might be wrong) is this tradition is based on theory is public servants serve the Queen – so their first loyalty is to the sovereign and state, rather than to the current leader of the parliament. This has been enforced by a strong tradition of bureaucratic memory and royal honours tradition, which has (in theory at least) provided an avenue of reward for civil servants who provide long, unbiased service.
This theory seems to have broken down a little – some issues such as climate change have become extremely polarised, politicians desperate for traction on issues they care about have sometimes appointed people with strong views which align with their policy positions. So incoming governments maybe now feel it necessary to put their own people in place, to make sure people do what they are told.
I’m not suggesting that the tradition of loyalty to the Queen rather than the government is better than the American tradition. A hilarious British political sitcom, “Yes Minister”, pokes fun at the concept, and strongly suggests that the reason senior civil servants are “apolitical” is that their first loyalty is to themselves – they spend most of their effort avoiding doing what their political masters want.
Thanks for the explanation. I had no idea why there would be a fuss over it at all.
MattS, To a point. When Clinton appointed Janet Reno and she was approved by the Senate one of the first things she did was fire all of the Federal District Attorneys. That was unusual.
Many of them were rehired but not the one who was investigating a case that may have been embarrassing.
(Sorry, I don’t remember the details.)
google clinton body count
CSIRO? Not in the “Glossary”
Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation
Acronyms should be defined the first time they are used. Not having such a rule or policy is like saying that you would rather force thousands of readers to have to look it up than to simply ask the author to type a few extra words. Surely the author must know that not every reader is from Australia or is familiar with the acronym for their national science agency. Strive to be “reader friendly” when writing an article for a world-wide audience.
The CSIRO used to be a highly respected organisation, then got overrun with political appointees. McKeon was made Australian if the year (Tim Flannery got one, so it’s not as prestigious as it sounds) by the Carbon Tax Government and appointed to the board of the CSIRO.That organisation has since disgraced itself with non-Science. the current Government recently slashed funding to the CSIRO because A/ we need to balance the budget and B/ there was an effort to get them to divest themselves of the climate garbage and focus on science, just as they were historically respected for doing. The board didn’t get the message, so they are out on their ears. Just for the record, a family member of mine was locked in minor court proceedings regarding planning permits with McKeon recently. Residents V Inappropriate local development type story (Arthur’s Seat Chairlift if you are interested). McKeon attended many VCAT hearings and was visibly smug, audibly guffawing and outright disrespectful when elderly local residents & others not familiar with legal hearings were less articulate. We are better off with him away from the levers of power and money.
The CSIRO has become shabby and corrupt: http://pindanpost.com/2013/04/14/shocking-corruption-in-csiro-doesnt-surprise/
CSIRO and Gramsci’s long march through the institutions is relevant here.
We need to remember that the politicisation of CSIRO was started by that good old Labor leftist Bob Hawke when he was Prime Minister of Australia in the 1980s. And, who did he make Chairman of the CSIRO? Well, none other than his good old Labor left-wing mate Neville Wran – the ex Labor Premier of NSW. The socialist left was on the march. Infiltration and subversion. Straight out of the Gramsci operations manual.
It’s easy to do. You just get a politically aligned Chairman, then a politically aligned Board, then a politically aligned senior executive who proceeds to appoint and/or promote politically aligned activists into critical positions. Over 20-30 years: easy peasy. Oh yes, and then freeze out or bully out those scientists of integrity who continue to hold to the principles of true science. The left can’t abide having these people disagreeing with them Think: Lysenko.
That’s where CSIRO’s climate research is today. Hence, why would anybody be surprised to see politically correct “science” oozing out of the organisation under the guise of true science? It’s the left-wing way; straight out of Gramsci’s manual.
At long last something is being done about it. May it long continue.
Find the book ” And not a shot fired” by Jan Kozak, (early 1950’s behind the Iron Curtain bureaucrat that describes exactly what you are talking about. It is the blueprint for what you said, except it has been going on since WWII. If not longer (WiKI has an excerpt on it just enter Jan Kozak, Czechoslovakia.)
C’mon you Auzies. Go the extra mile and throw the lot of out aftre they have been investigated for corruption and thrown in jail. That way you won’t have to pay their pensions either. Yippee
Cry me a river. now he and the rent seekers will have to find another cow to milk in the EU or maybe Mr. Obama will love this crew. Obama still has 18 months left on his contract plenty of time to milk dry the USA.
should have been done 5 years ago and don’t stop with the board . the next on the list is the ABC
All gloaters should head to “The Conversation.”
oh yeah? the labor abc support base?
I live rural
I hear enough sheep bleating:-)
I sure wish the Aussie anti-warmunist attitude would catch on in the US govt.
Things will change overnight if you get the right President, IMO. We Aussies were in despair as well, under the previous government – it seemed like every green folly, no matter how daft, got a budget and the unswerving support of politicians.
This all changed very quickly when we voted Abbott in. We now worry about what will happen if he loses the next election.
I suspect the Aussie example is having a strong impact worldwide. The more you mock that which must not be mocked, the more you diminish its aura of authority.
I hope you are right, but in the US we are under the boot of the obama junta and their EPA shadow-govt. Mocking does not diminish their dark aura; Roger Pielke Jr is being keel-hauled for merely disagreeing with the “celebrate diversity”, “freedom-of-speech” left.
His actions reinforce Harper’s in Canada and vice versa.
You kick America in the ass and Australia gets a nosebleed . Australia got sold out around the time of Harold Holts death . We shook the monkey of our back ( The commonwealth pound ) and replaced it with a gorilla called the American dollar . I brought a motorcycle a few years back when the Australian dollar was about the same as the American dollar . In Australia the bike cost $13,500.00 on road but in America the same bike cost only $7,000.00 ,and another, I fixed a young blokes Yamaha TTR , some how he broke the needle in half, I priced it from Yamaha America and it cost about $20 with shipping , from a bike shop here it costs $140.00 picked up . I could buy direct from Yamaha America but not Yamaha Australia . Australian governments are tared with the same brush and preach from the same book called money & economics before people & human rights.
Those who have done their job properly should stay.
Those who have adopted a blatant political stance, should go.
This is why no-one on the CSIRO board was re-appointed.
Under this rule, most other Labor appointees should also be dismissed.
Good. I agree, that is exactly what should be done if they are frauds.
Once CSIRO used to sponsor and do real useful scientific research. Now all it does is spout Global Warming/Climate change nonsense. A clean sweep of the Board will go a long way to fixing this and CSIRO can get back to business.
The observations on the Freudian slips in the CSIRO logo are spot on. Perhaps they need a new logo for the new Board.
The western world is full of top heavy bureaucracies ‘run’ by overpaid fat cat bureaucrats.
Whether it be the EPA, BBC, or CSIRO, they all need severe culling to bring back reality.
Eric’s Guardian article is by Australian Associated Press, and Guardian published it Friday 6 March 2015 08.46 AEDT. it begins:
“There APPEARS to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term”
the following article is by The Guardian’s Daniel Hurst and is dated Friday 6 March 2015 15.07 AEDT
Malcolm Turnbull (more on him below) attempts to make Abbott ALONE responsible for a policy that doesn’t exist – an ongoing Turnbull tactic:
6 March: Guardian: Daniel Hurst: Malcolm Turnbull says ‘refreshing’ government boards PM’s ‘preference’
Communications minister says it has been Tony Abbott’s preference not to reappoint board members selected by former Labor government
***A government spokesman said on Friday that there was “no such policy” and that “a quick check would reveal over 50 government agencies which have reappointed board members who were originally appointed under the former government”…
“I think it’s fair to say that the government has had a policy or a practice of, by and large, not reappointing people, with a view to refreshing government boards,” Turnbull told the ABC. “That has certainly been the preference.”…
When asked whether the directive was issued by Abbott or the prime minister’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, Turnbull said: “The prime minister has had the view that we should refresh the membership of government boards and, generally, that is what we have done.”…
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/06/malcolm-turnbull-says-refreshing-government-boards-pms-preference
(Treasurer) Joe Hockey denies sacking Labor appointees is government policy
The Australian – 18 hours ago
Axe for ALP directors ‘gossip’
The Australian – 8 hours ago
THERE WAS AN ATTEMPT ON FEB 9 TO OUST PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT & REPLACE HIM WITH MALCOLM TURNBULL. IT FAILED. TURNBULL WAS GIVEN THE MONIKER ‘THE MINISTER FOR GOLDMAN SACHS’ BY FORMER LEFTWING PM, KEVIN RUDD. TURNBULL LOST THE LEADERSHIP OF THE RIGHTWING LIBERAL PARTY TO TONY ABBOTT FOLLOWING AN ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE A (CO2) EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME.
THE MSM, ACROSS THE BOARD, ATTEMPTED TO OUST TONY ABBOTT AND INSTALL MALCOLM TURNBULL AGAIN LAST WEEK, BUT FAILED, BUT MSM IS ALREADY CLAIMING ABBOTT ONLY HAS UNTIL JUNE OR SO BEFORE HE’LL BE CHALLENGED AGAIN. (ANY SUGGESTION OF TURNBULL BECOMING PM HAS BEEN MET WITH MASSIVE BACKLASH FROM HIS OWN PARTY’S VOTERS.)
CHRISTOPHER MONCKTON WARNED LAST YEAR THAT ALL THIS WOULD TRANSPIRE PRIOR TO THE IPCC’S DECEMBER PARIS MEETING:
3.33 Youtube: Christopher Monckton: Behind the left’s push to remove Abbott
David King (UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change)
was asked whether all the nations of the world were now, in principle, ready to sign their people’s rights away in such a treaty. Yes, but there are two standouts. One is Canada. But don’t worry about Canada. They’ve got an election in the Spring of 2015 and we and the UN will make sure the present government is removed. He was quite blunt about it.
The other hold out is Australia. And Australia we can’t do anything about because Tony Abbott is in office until after the December 2015 conference. So that means you all have to guard Tony Abbott’s back. Because the Turnbull faction, in conjunction with the UN, will be doing their absolute level best to remove your elected Prime Minister from office before the end of his term and , in particular, before the end of 2015
(Wikipedia: The European Climate Exchange (ECX) manages the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. It is no longer a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange but rather a sister company…ECX / ICE Futures is the most liquid, pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading.
More than 100 leading businesses, including global companies such as Barclays, BP, Newedge, E.ON UK, Endesa, Fortis, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Shell have signed up for membership to trade ECX products)
We’re doing what we can to help Abbott – don’t worry, we fully appreciate how valuable he is to Australia.
And how long before the above mentioned control the board and decision making. From the Rockefeller hand book. The best type of control is not to own the business or institution , rather it’s best to sit on the board of directors and control the decision making .
If evil always triumphed, we would not have the freedom to speak out against evil.
That video and the implications of it should be heralded high and wide all over the net… This is not, imho, just a lucky guess or a psychic display of prescience on the part of Christopher Monckton, but rather a prescience based on a well informed understanding of the conspiracy to impose a climate change regime on the peoples of the planet. This is an evil of biblical proportions…heaven help us (and you lot of course), .
So it is perfectly ok when Labor does it, matter of fact, Daniel Andrews is doing it as we write this but when Liberals do it….It’s SO bad !!!!
Callmedan isn’t doing the same Bernard. He’s not waiting for contract renewals. Just came in firing people nominated by the CFMEU hitlist. And the Chook is doing the same in Qld.
My memory of CSIRO Boards was that they are only part-time positions (like a company board) not full-time appointments (in contrast with the heads of US government agencies). Appointments are for specified time periods with the usual staggering of terms so that there are only a certain percentage of the Board is up for renewal each year. Thus, the “loss of corporate memory” line is just a scare tactic as this cannot happen and in reality it seems as though this is maybe just a general shaking up of Board membership as opposed to anything else, by dropping some long-term appointees.
When science “experts” stand around on Rv trying to claim that the recent spate of bushfires were caused by climate change although they were obviously deliberately lit and the police are now prosecuting the arsonists, they can expect to lose their jobs. This was not CSIRO, but such is the climate in Australia.
My mistake – the “research” was undertaken under the auspices of the CSIRO
TV – stoopid autocorrect
Of course McKeon wants more funding to ‘study’ climate change. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?
The headline is totally untrue. The Government has not ditched the board of CSIRO. It has apparently decided not to renew the term of the Chairman. There is speculation that the government has a policy of not renewing the terms of labor appointees. That is speculation. The existing board members continue in place.
The speculation is denied.
The new QLD Labor Govt are doing the same thing. Telling Dept Heads appointed by the former LNP Govt they no longer have jobs if they cannot help Labor in QLD achieve its goals.
Abbott and his cabinet have been a disaster. The few good things they have been doing, such as sacking climate bureaucrats is lost in the noise of the general defunding of anything and everything.
The main problem is just about everything this government has done has been done by stealth. No declaration of any plans before the election and no attempt to sell the merits of them after the election. Just wake up and there’s another cut announced.
So tie this in to the article. No one in the Australian cabinet has come out and said they are skeptical of the threat of global warming. No one! There are “direct action plans” proudly touted. Carbon reduction targets, still adhered to. No, don’t take too much hart from the Australian government. Bunch of cowards and sneaks that are only clinging to power because the opposition Labour Party are led by a wet noodle too!
I think that assessment is a little harsh, Abbott made it a priority to abolish the hated carbon tax, and kept other promises, such as his promise to stop the refugee boats – Australia’s burden of illegal immigrant arrivals dropped to essentially zero within months of his government assuming power.
Yes he has kept the Direct Action fig leaf, I wish he would do away with the entire shambles – but maybe he has gone as far as he can. The problem with dismantling green industries is an awful lot of politicians, on all sides of politics, get very friendly with green entrepreneurs, who completely understand that their industry only exists because of political support.
There are lots of things I wish Abbott would do, which he hasn’t done, but he has delivered mostly competent government – a rarity in recent Australian history.
What does he mean, “We may not have all the answers to what is occurring…” ? This is ”settled Science” he’s talking about.
Eamon.
Stacking the public service hierarchy and the judiciary with individuals sharing their ideological views has long been the standard practice of Labor governments both state and federal. But conservative (Liberal/National) governments have been less inclined to do so, perhaps to the detriment of the country? Whether there is any substantive policy change on board reappointments or whether this latest brouhaha is just more of the baseless tirade of anti Abbott media slagging we’ve witnessed here recently is hard to say. But it is being denied by the Government:
An example of the previous Governments appointments that probably need to go, even if Labor were still in power. http://www.csiro.au/Portals/About-CSIRO/Who-we-are/Board/ShirleyIntVeld.aspx
“There appears to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term, the outgoing CSIRO chairman Simon McKeon has said. “The reality is that, yes, there is a rule that no one on the board of a federal government agency has been reappointed“
If Simon McKeon, outgoing chairman of Australia’s premier science organisation, made a statement which does not on closer examination appear to be the truth – what a shocker.
Just one of many that emanate from the CSIRO.
If only someone could replace the Australian Media.
The ABC is a disgrace.
I agree, the ABC is a disgrace. As a former friend of the ABC and frequent viewer I am disgusted with the blatant propaganda being broadcast. I have since discarded my TV set and resolved to be uninformed rather than misinformed.
As people have pointed Anthony, this is a lie. To say no one has been reappointed was quickly falsified by a list of dozens.
I think Lord Malcolm, the 1st Viscount Goldmansachs, had an element of truth in his comment blaming Abbott666 as expressing a “preference” for renewal. Every government has a “preference” for their own appointees as opposed to the political lackeys of their opponents. This is not news, it does not extend to a policy. Let alone a universal law as the outgoing bloke claimed.
However, there would’ve been quite a few caveats and conditions on that. A preference to not renew where there has been blatant political bias (Triggs, CSIRO being two of the most egregious), manifest incompetence, or grotesque waste of public money in the position previously.
“There appears to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term, the outgoing CSIRO chairman Simon McKeon has said. “The reality is that, yes, there is a rule that no one on the board of a federal government agency has been reappointed
Shame on McKeon for, lets say miscommunicating the issue, if this isn’t actually the truth.
It isn’t the truth.
But when did truth mean anything to those aligned to the green/socialist left?
It’s self evidently a lie but he knows his only hope is to tell a lie knowing that the Regressive meeja and the Opposition will now declare him a sainted martyr of the Abbott666 Regime. See the disgusting Gillian Triggs, for example. She should have been escorted out be security and told her stuff will be sent home in a box.
Nothing like low commodity prices to knock some sense into a resource-rich government that exports coal and yet wants higher taxes on its own industry.
Not working so far. The country is broke and we’re still opposing the tiniest savings or even the PRINCIPLE of savings! The next PM (himself the subject of some, um, conjecture) is on a Keynesian anti private sector anti development anti mining anti wealth platform. Spend for Growth!!
You know that the UN is working on this. They have two opponents in the Paris Climate Conference, Australia and Canada. They have already stated that Canada’s PM will be replaced before the conference. They are trying to have Tony taken out also but it is not working. At this point, the conspiracy idea looks true. And I am not a conspiracy believer.
Not exclusively.
They also have India, China, Indonesia and a host of developing economies opposed to a universal mandate on CO2 emissions, surely.
The Australian media really missed out when Peter Costello stepped down as the liberal treasurer when Howard got the boot. We could have had the appropriately named Abbott and Costello show .
The same thing that happened to the CSIRO board should happen at the governing level as well. After say 20 years all the top government positions are up for grabs
Here’s Andrew Bolt’s take on the issue today on his blog…….
Another anti-Abbott rumor treated as fact
Andrew Bolt March 07 2015 (8:20am)
Another anti-Abbott scare based on a dud rumour. This time it’s pushed by Alan Kohler:
There is one barnacle that the Abbott Government needs to get rid of immediately: the rule that any director on a government board who was appointed by the previous Labor government will not be re-appointed.
The decree, apparently issued by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and/or his chief of staff Peta Credlin and binding on all cabinet ministers, was publicly confirmed yesterday by the chairman of CSIRO, Simon McKeon…
That chairman had told me he had attempted to get three members of his board re-appointed this year, telling his minister that in each case they were good directors who contributed much to the organisation.
The minister apparently apologised, but said his hands were tied: they could not be re-appointed because they were Labor appointees…
If Tony Abbott doesn’t drop this rule soon, relations between his government and the director community will break down irretrievably.
The facts:
JOE Hockey has flatly rejected suggestions the Abbott government has a policy of not reappointing government board directors hired by the previous Labor administration.
And a spokesman for Tony Abbott told The Weekend Australian there were more than 50 government agencies with boards where a person was appointed by Labor and reappointed by the current government…
… in dismissing suggestions that the government had a policy of not renewing Labor appointees, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said Kim Beazley had been reappointed as ambassador in Washington.
Other re-appointments included Elizabeth Broderick as the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Ian Chubb as Chief Scientist. Mr Turnbull forced almost all the NBN Co directors to quit in September 2013, except for Kerry Schott and Alison Lansley, who he asked to stay on.
And let’s face it – Labor has been masterly at promoting its own through the bureaucracy. The Liberals must do the same to promote cultural change. Witness only how the Labor-appointed Gillian Triggs has used the Human Rights Commission.
“There appears to be a “brutal” rule that directors of federal government agencies appointed under Labor will not get another term, the outgoing CSIRO chairman Simon McKeon has said. “The reality is that, yes, there is a rule that no one on the board of a federal government agency has been reappointed”
Lets say its a shocker for the outgoing head of Australia’s most prestigious science organisation to make such a miscommunication – the evidence appears to be piling up that what he said is incorrect.
Eric. Two things:
1. What McKeon said is incorrect. It is not true. He’s telling porkies. The evidence is in. He’s lost his credibility and his honour.
2. The CSIRO is no longer “Australia’s most prestigious science organisation”. It lost that credit a long time ago; around when Bob Hawke started to politically infiltrate and subvert it with left leaning political activists.
“The great majority of people who put up their hands to serve on a federal government agency are really doing it for the nation,” he said.
.
Ahhh…bless the altruism….
Yup. That’s the claim that riles me the most.
The concerning thing here is that the current LNP government in Australia is struggling and may well lose the next election whenever it is called. Should this happen and Labour return to power, CSIRO and all of the other agencies concerned with climate change that have been downsized will be expanded again by the new left government and we’ll all be back to square one.
So although I view the CSIRO situation as good news, I do fear the this trend will be short lived.
The conservative Australian governmnet is caught in a bit of a dilemna,as it believes in sceince, its just that it thinks that many science agencies have been captured by green politics.
One way to balance this would be to throw money into funding a more balanced approach, except this runs the risk of those funds just being diverted by the hoplesslessly and unashamedly unbalanced status quo.
The other way is to reform these agencies by replacement, and greater crutiny of appointments.
But the deeper problem to me, seems to be based in the very political structure of Australia itself. Unlike the US, we have never broken away from mother England. What this creates in practice, is a system of patronage run on a semi-colonial model, science appointees usually need to conform to an agenda that suits a semi-ruling ruling class, rather than coming from the people. The very structure of government itself needs reform. The echoes of the ruling class that remain within science benefits more from green ideology than a free market.
There is some benefit in remaining attachments to a government structure based on the UK model, but one weakness is potential capture by class agendas and interests. The US doesnt have this probem to nearly the same degree (alhough they have other problems such as an ‘honour code’ within the south especially -which the British never adopted), and I suspect this is because of their different history and much greater independance from the British.
The story is from the left leaning Guardian.
Here are some alternative notions, quaintly described as facts:
JOE Hockey has flatly rejected suggestions the Abbott government has a policy of not reappointing government board directors hired by the previous Labor administration.
And a spokesman for Tony Abbott told The Weekend Australian there were more than 50 government agencies with boards where a person was appointed by Labor and reappointed by the current government…
… in dismissing suggestions that the government had a policy of not renewing Labor appointees, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said Kim Beazley had been reappointed as ambassador in Washington.
Other re-appointments included Elizabeth Broderick as the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Ian Chubb as Chief Scientist. Mr Turnbull forced almost all the NBN Co directors to quit in September 2013, except for Kerry Schott and Alison Lansley, whom he asked to stay on.
Chubb? Chubb?
Amazing.
This is a man who admitted in front of a Senate Committee that he didn’t know what a cyclone was called in the Northern Hemisphere.
And he’s advising government on science matters?
Jesus wept!
Mum, mum !! I have been rejected by CentreLink for Dole payments.
No job, no dole, just a degree in Climate Science. What am I going to do??
” get online son and join the CSIRO Climate Sciences division. they’ll hire you for sure”
Why would they hire me??
“because you’re like your father, full of BS”
regards
ps, this conversation is a total fib, just like Mann’s Stick.
The leadership spat isn’t over. Regardless of the polls, Turnbull can still oust Abbott, and that would be a disaster for Australia IMO. Turncoat, using his nickname, is a leftie, he may as well join the Labor or Green parties. He is a strong supporter of a “proice ohn cahbon”, not to “save the planet”, but simply because he is an ex-banker and likes to look after his mates at the big end of town in the banking sector. Sadly however, I do not see Abbott leading the LNP in the 2016 general election.
Hilarious. Cheered me up no end to read about this left wing policy twonk trying to justify his existence. Just shows that if government shut off funding for climate change research, they’d soon stop pontificating.
why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?”
So is he interested in my £500 a year policy to protect any aircraft he flies on from stampeding elephants at altitudes about 40,000 feet?
That is the cost of renewable energy policies and an event of equal probability to climate science being right, given the direction of the temperature accuracy graph for the last fifty years even after “adjustment”.
This makes me so happy.
“All I’m saying is we’re missing out on the corporate memory.”
What he really means is that they no longer have the ability to perpetuate the massive scam of BS pseudo science on the Australian people. Good riddance and good luck in the real world of science.
Reblogged this on austparagus and commented:
Some context to the stories in the news today about public servants not being re-appointed to federal government boards.
As far as the headline to this article
It could be McKeon making an excuse for his his non-renewal by falsely claiming everyone is being told to leave OR it may be reasonable speculation that since McKeon is being outed the board will be reformed under a new chair.
In any case the headline “government ditches the entire Board” is expressing facts not in evidence.
As far as the CSIRO, it looks like it is being re-tooled into some semblance of rationality and usefulness. In addition to the wack-a-doodle McKeon being booted, note these news events as well.
~ New CSIRO boss Larry Marshall says scientists must think like entrepreneurs
~ CSIRO scientists will bear the brunt of funding cuts, analysis shows
~ CSIRO: one in three staff ‘seriously considering’ quitting, survey shows
Hopefully no more free lunch, meaningless research and harmful directives.
CSIRO: one in three staff ‘seriously considering’ quitting, survey shows
__________
An honorable person would have done it already but 1/3rd sounds a bit lowish. Do we have a higher bid somewhere? You sir, in the back, was that a bid? … oh! … Ladies and Gentlemen we are at 3/5ths! … are there any further bids?
“… [b]ut the point is, why wouldn’t one take out very strong insurance to at least do what we can to future-proof our well-being?”
Seems to me that getting rid of that entire lot accomplishes EXACTLY that objective.
It appears the times are changing down under. Now it’s our turn in the US, but I think it will be 2017 before we can make major changes.
I read the article here and the one at the Guardian. Neither told me what the letters CSIRO stands for. As a teacher I was taught to tell my pupils to give the title of an organisation in full before using initials.
Wow … a teacher that can’t google on line …. you must have been a dandy 😉
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
The global warming gravy train is not the only reason to toss out the CSIRO board, rather, allegations of widespread fraud and corruption:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/science-second-in-toxic-csiro-work-culture-20130412-2hqv0.html
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/csiro-accused-of-more-shabby-tactics-20130413-2hs51.html
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/how-the-csiro-cheated-a-global-drugs-giant-20130410-2hluf.html
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/call-for-inquiry-as-csiro-comes-under-the-microscope-20130411-2hojm.html
For anyone that doubts the nexus between CSIRO and BOM in ramping up the climate change global warming prognostications you really need to read this joint report published 25 January 2015 http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/New-climate-change-projections-for-Australia.aspx
Sorry couldn’t get link to work so maybe someone else can do this for me?
That’s one way to separate politics from science.
Or is it? Is this just tit-for-tat now?
But it did have to be cleaned up, we’ll see if it gets back to actual observations.
BOM next please Canberra, and thank you in advance.
Let these CSIRO management board members work without pay–it’s the least they can do to undo the mess they’ve left behind.
Of course, that presumes they’d be able to set things straight, which would be impossible.
The entities pushing all of this is organized and will try to get this done on the sly.
The CSIRO has been linked with the BoM in the temperature fiddling (homogenisation) issue. Both are warmist organisations costing Australia $millions in a futile attempt to change the climate. To be able to clear out the board from CSIRO is a step in the right direction.
It’s a bit rich of them to complain, they accepted the well paid position with the full knowledge that it was temporary.
Message, play politics and suffer the consequences. A LOT of people made a LOT of money from the Green adventurism of the previous Government.
CSIRO. Who the hell is CSIRO?
Google is ur friend; its not short for Cicero.
Was explained earlier in comments.
Neat. Read comments to understand what the article is about. Neat.
The “insurance” line is a variation of the “precautionary principle” fallacy – it ignores the severe negative effects of the insuring action.
In this context we know the serious negative effects the anti-carbon crowd will have on poor people around the world (Alex Epstein’s book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels summarizes that).
Sometimes advocates don’t pay attention to the risk of their scheme, I often say “If you don’t know what you are doing don’t do anything.”
Way to go Australia ! The Swiss trashed the carbon tax even faster .
Countries with common sense and courage …got to love em .
Gillard really messed this one up, she forgot to give them all ‘lifetime contracts’ So how did this one get passed you Julia?”