Holmes & Media Watch versus Dr Marohasy & AEF
Jonathan Holmes in his Media Watch segment of March 19th attacking Dr.
Jennifer Marohasy’s research into the Murray’s lower lakes, raised questions
about the very name of the Australian Environment Foundation: his piece was
titled ‘What's in a name?’
Holmes purported to focus his reporting on the question of journalists’ research
into those who take public positions. But Holmes’ main implication was that
AEF is pretending to be something it isn’t. Yes, indeed - it isn’t your typical deepgreen, issue-driven, highly political advocacy group with an anti-business, antiemployment, anti-farming focus. You don’t have to be a youthful, long-haired,
latte-sipping, inner-city dweller to care about the environment. We aren’t, and
we do.
We care particularly when governments base public policy on politics and votepandering, not on solid research and real evidence. You have only to look at
climate policy in this country to see a glaring example of how this distorted
motivation is likely to cost our communities billions of dollars and extinguish
thousands of jobs, for absolutely no benefit at all to climate or environment.
Holmes dwelt at length on the origins of AEF, all of which are matters of public
record, as they should be. And what does it matter anyway? This is a free
country where freedom of speech prevails. AEF like any other group has the
right to take any position it chooses. But the question arises: how often has
Holmes similarly researched the origins and background of deep-green groups?
The real motivation behind Holmes’ take on AEF’s positions is that he doesn’t
like them. He doesn’t like any views that question his belief (for that is what it
is) in the supposed need to buy back and divert more MDB water into
‘environmental flows’, just as he dislikes any countervailing views on the stillunproven hypothesis that man-made CO2-driven global warming will lead to a
climate catastrophe.
As a publicly-paid broadcaster, he has a responsibility to be more even-handed
on these issues and to air his prejudices less.