Lord Monckton

If you have ever heard or seen Lord Monckton speak, you will find he's very convincing. When he wants to, he has a powerful presence, a fantastic knowledge of his subject and the clever ability to get his point across. I heard him on the Alan Jones radio show (2GB) Sydney one morning last week and Alan couldn't get a word in, and everyone knows that Alan Jones has verbal diarrhea. He's come to Australia to prove that Kevin Rudd is wrong about climate change and that the Emission Trading Scheme is just a waste of money.


He's here after being invited by two retirees from Noosa in Queensland, Case Smit and John Smeed who have asked for donations to help pay for the $100,000 needed to pay for the Lord's stipend, accommodation and travel expenses.


When Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehard announced she would back the tour which will be made into a documetary by the BBC, they were amazed and delighted. They coudn't believe the BBC would do a documentary about climate change because they had been so anti the sceptic movement in the past.

Mr Smit wrote to Ms Rinehard saying that the original organiser of the Perth event wasn't available any more and could she suggest someone else to help. To date, Ms Rinehard has not returned calls from the media confirming her intentions regarding the Lord's visit.


Monckton played a role in a legal challenge in the UK High Court of Justice in October 2007 in a bid to stop "An Inconvenient Truth" being shown in English schools. It is also rumoured that he helped fund the documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which was also shown in Enlgish schools. I remember seeing this documentary and it had a huge impact on my thinking about climate change, suddenly I wasn't baffled or intimidated by the superior knowledge of scientists.


Considered to be 'eccentric' because in 1987 he said "There is only one way to stop AIDS and that is to screen the entire population regularly and quarantine all carriers of the disease for life". Hardly a feasible argument, but then it was a long time ago.


Lunches held in Sydney and Melbourne have sold out along with tickets to his lunchtime debate with the Brisbane Institute. After hearing him speak, I wish I could be there, it's said that he thrives on hecklers and loves fielding difficult questions. A very interesting man who hopefully will have an impact on Australians and leave them to think again about the costly tax which will need to be imposed to get the Emissions Trading Scheme off the ground.