FLANNERY SUPPORTS ANTI-ABBOTT CANDIDATE. AND GETS JOB

Uh oh: "Former world champion skiier Zali Steggall will place climate change at the centre of her campaign to seize the seat of Warringah from... Tony Abbott, naming... Professor Tim Flannery as a key supporter." Suspicious timing: the Australian Museum also gives Flannery a job. But didn't this alarmist predict the rains would never fill our dams?  

Yet another warming alarmist says she'll run against Tony Abbott, but with the support of a man with an astonishing record of dud predictions: 

 Former world champion skiier Zali Steggall will place climate change at the centre of her campaign to seize the seat of Warringah from former prime minister Tony Abbott, naming environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery as a key supporter. 

Flannery's support should be a deal breaker. Rational people should be ashamed to boast of it, given his record:

FLANNERY in 2007 said global warming was so baking our Earth that “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”.

Instead, dams for Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney later filled to overflowing.

FLANNERY in 2015 said we’d see severe cyclones “more frequently in the future”. But the very next year, Australia for the first time recorded not one severe cyclone, continuing a pattern over four decades of fewer cyclones...

FLANNERY in 2005 predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years, leaving the city “facing extreme difficulties”. In 2008, he said: “Adelaide … may run out of water by early 2009.” In 2007, he claimed: “In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.”

All three cities — and Melbourne, too — then built hugely expensive desalination plants, convinced by the likes of Flannery that the rain would not return. All four plants have essentially been mothballed since.

FLANNERY in 2007 urged us to invest in “green” geothermal power — pumping water on to hot rocks underground.

He claimed ... “the technology to extract that energy … is relatively straightforward”.

The Rudd government gave $90 million for a test plant in SA’s Cooper Basin, but a well collapsed, the site flooded and the project was abandoned.

But what suspicious timing - and what a curious appointment for a museum supposedly promoting good science: 

The Australian Museum  today announced the appointment of ...  Professor Tim Flannery as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow focussed on researching the impacts of climate change and raising awareness of the issues

Anyone in particular?

The Distinguished Visiting Fellow role is funded by the AM’s private donors.

And who might have had some influence in this?

The Museum is principally funded by the New South Wales Government... Under the Act the Museum is governed by an 11 member Trust, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Minister. 

And the minister is:

The Governor of NSW, in consultation with the Minister for the Arts Don Harwin, appoints our Trustees.  Presumably, the Minister for the Arts would have consulted with Cabinet or at least the Premier in the selection of a Museum Director.

Alan Moran:

Last week, NSW’s Photios-aligned Arts Minister Don Harwin appointed Tim Flannery to the board of the Australian Museum. Days later, Olympics skier Zali Steggall announced the climate careerist would be aiding her independent bid to oust Tony Abbott from Warringah. With friends like this, just what sort of a party have the Liberals become?

Could this be a coincidence? 

Hmm. Harwin? Who is also the minister for energy?

Harwin yesterday called the Morrison Government “out of touch on energy and climate policy” and urged it to aim for an incredible net zero carbon emissions by 2050... 

He boasts that NSW has $26 billion in potential investment in clean energy, plus interest in a big pumped hydro scheme that must not be “spooked by poor policy”. 

But what difference will all these subsidised projects make to the temperature? Zero. So why would Harwin promote more such schemes? Who is in his ear?

The website of a lobbying firm, Clean Energy Strategies, boasts it is “proud” to have advised clients involved in renewable energy. One was energy company AGL and another our “most successful private pumped hydro consortium” which needed “multi-million financial support from the federal government”.

Clean Energy Strategies is the company of Liberal faction boss Michael Photios and his wife, whose 2011 wedding in Phuket was attended by Harwin. And Harwin’s energy adviser until recently had worked for Photios’s main lobbying firm, Premier State.

Photios is very influential in preselections for NSW Liberal seats...

Photios is now moving against former PM Tony Abbott, another sceptic and critic of AGL’s plans. For instance, he spoke to the North Shore Environmental Stewards, a global warmist group which wants recruits to join the Liberal branch in Abbott’s seat.

No doubt Flannery's appointment was the work of the Australian Museum. But I sure as hell doubt they'd have had any resistance at all from their minister about appointing such a politically connected alarmist at just this time.