Quit Paris now, mining chiefs’ lobby demands

A new lobby group started by Hugh Morgan and other former mining chiefs rejects consensus on man-made global warming.

Former Western Mining Corporation chief Hugh Morgan. Picture: Aaron Francis

Hugh Morgan, one of Australia’s most outspoken and influential conservative voices, has joined former BHP chairman Jerry Ellis to lead a new lobby group calling for Australia to leave the Paris Agreement and stop funding ­global climate-change efforts.

Mr Morgan, a Liberal Party member and former chief executive of Western Mining Corporation, said Western millennials had embraced alarmism over climat­e change as a new secular religion after being indoctrinated by the education system.

The new lobby, the Saltbush Group, rejects the idea of a consens­us on man-made global warming.

It says it wants both sides of Australian politics to put aside party interests to focus on what’s best for Australian business, workers, consumers and the ­environment.

The Saltbush Group is chaired by Mr Ellis, who has argued the balance has been lost between ­environmental and economic outcomes.

The group has been created by long-time climate sceptic and forme­r coalmining executive Viv Forbes, and claims to have been created “from a country farmhouse in Queensland with no landline, no NBN and less than $3000 in financial support”.

A statement issued by the group said members included scienti­sts, knights, senators and MPs including a former premier, cabinet ministers, mayors, compan­y directors, corporate executiv­es, international negotiators, and senior state and federa­l public ­servants.

A list published by the group included former Queensland premier Campbell Newman and former CRA chairman Roderick Carnegie.

The group said many members did not want their names made public because they feared that exposure would harm their prospects for employment, promo­tion or business.

Mr Morgan, who has been a leading conservative voice for indust­rial relations reforms, said the climate-change movement had a much broader agenda.

“People think the Paris Accord is just about commitments to lower CO2,” Mr Morgan said in a statement.

“It is really about transferring wealth via the UN to the so-called less-developed countries.

“It’s about advancing centralised control of people’s lives on a global scale.”

Mr Morgan said the “climate alarm movement has got so far because of backing by Western millennials who have been indoctrinated during their education”.

“Enjoying living standards unprecede­nted in world history, they have embraced alarmism as a new secular religion,” Mr Morga­n said.

He said although the group include­d many former mining execu­tives, it was not supported by the mining industry.

“Nowhere do you find the Resource­s Council, BHP or Rio because none of them support us,” he said.

“You can’t say we are the mouthpiece for the mining industry because we don’t support them.

“They have said publicly they don’t support us.”