This Climate-Change Denying Liberal Senator Straight-Up Admitted To “Not Relying On Evidence”
Jim Molan went on 'Q&A' to deny the connection between climate change and extended bushfire seasons. The audience weren't having it.
Last night’s Q&A, the first with new host Hamish MacDonald, was dedicated to the terrible devastation of Australia’s recent bushfire season. It was an opportunity for the panel to come together and discuss practical means to move forward — but instead, discussions were quickly bogged down when Liberal Senator Jim Molan decided to sing the same sad old song of the climate denier.
Molan, a former General in the Australian army and one of the key politicians involved in the Liberal Party’s disastrous ‘Stop The Boats’ immigration policy, was asked whether he accepted the real, obvious link between climate change and the extended bushfire season.
But Molan couldn’t even do that.
“Jim Molan, do you accept the scientific view?” MacDonald asked.
“I certainly accept that the climate is changing, it has changed and it will change. As to whether it is human-induced climate change,” said Molan, to rising boos and jeers from the audience, “my mind is open.”
Molan then proceeded to say that he gets “information” come across his desk every day contesting the accepted climate science. When MacDonald asked Molan what that information was, the Senator repeatedly dodged the question, until finally, he gave this corker of an answer:
“It’s a range of information,” he said, to more audience boos.
“What is the evidence that you are relying on?” MacDonald pressed.
“I’m not relying on evidence, Hamish,” Molan replied, and was immediately greeted by an eruption of applause and laughter from the audience.
“I’m not relying on evidence, Hamish” – Jim Molan, Liberal Senator #qanda pic.twitter.com/fZk5443Wpi
— H Wise (@H_j_wise) February 3, 2020
“You said it,” said climate scientist Michael Man, seated next to Molan.
“This is why my mind is open,” Molan shot back.
So there you go, straight from the horse’s mouth: senior, climate-change denying members of the Liberal government are not relying on evidence to form their backwards opinions.
Watch the whole glorious exchange in full below, starting at 56:25: