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Business-Managed Democracy

‘Business-managed democracies are those in which the political and cultural
arrangements are managed in the interests of business.’
Sharon Beder, 2009.


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pointer Business-Managed Democracy » Environment » Global Warming » Front Groups » Tthe Lavoisier Group

The Lavoisier Group

In Australia the Lavoisier Group was formed in 2000 to cast doubt on global warming theory and oppose measures being taken to prevent global warming. Its membership includes some high profile businessmen (many from mining giant WMC) and politicians:

  • president, Hugh Morgan, former CEO of WMC and former CEO of the Business Council of Australia (BCA),
  • past president, Peter Walsh, former Labor Minister for finance 1984-90,
  • vice-president, Ian Webber, a former WMC director and Managing Director of Chrysler/Mitsubishi Australia
  • secretary, Ray Evans, former executive officer of WMC (pictured)
  • treasurer, Harold Clough, a board member of the IPA and a director of Clough  Ltd, an engineering and construction company servicing the mining industry, and
  • “ex-ALP and Liberal powerbrokers” Gary Gray and Tony Staley.
Ray Evans reference
Reference: Melissa Fyfe, 'The global warming sceptics', The Age, 27 November 2004.

Ray Evans' paper for the Group entitled ‘Nine Lies about Global Warming’ starts with ‘1. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant.’ He describes the groups membership 'as a "dad's army" of mostly retired engineers and scientists from the mining, manufacturing and construction industries'.

The Lavoisier Group shares the same post box number and phone number as the Bennelong Society, formed to opppose Aboriginal land rights, and the anti-union HR Nichols Society. Morgan and Evans from WMC played a major role in the establishment of all three front groups and Evans is president of the Bennelong Society.

reference
Reference: Patrick Hodder, 'The Politics of Climate Change in Australia: the Interplay between the Lavoisier Group, the Media, and Federal Government Policy', Report for the Faculty of Arts, 2007.

Patrick Hodder, concludes in his honours research 'that the arguments of the Lavoisier Group, and the way they have been replayed in certain sections of the media, has been useful in allowing the Government to retain a skeptical position on climate change over the past decade and still appear prudent and mainstream'.

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See also: Providing Information | Global Climate Coalition | Fossil Fuel Astroturf

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© 2010 Sharon Beder
http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/warming/Lavoisier.html
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