Who says scientists don’t do it to get rich? Queensland climate expert in court over $500k in false expenses

Dr Daniel Michael Alongi, 59, is accused of taking over half a million dollars in federal funds over the last seven years. The carbon sequestration, mangrove, reef, eco-expert has admitted he made false invoices to claim federal funds (Courier Mail, paywalled). He is in court on Jan 18th. The alleged sum is the rather impressive $556,000.  His superannuation of $900k, and $80k in long service leave, has been frozen. (Nice work… )

I’m glad his financial accounts are being audited. But far more public money is potentially “hijacked” thanks to scientific accounts, let’s start auditing them too. When people claim a nation has warmed by 0.9 degrees we want the original receipts, not the ones they readjusted (and we need independent auditors and systematic methods, not “secret instructions”).

“The Science” has become “the loophole” where nearly any friend of big gov can get a hand in the treasury-bag.

There are reasons you aren’t allowed to pal review your tax return.

[Courier Mail] Alongi, who was well regarded in the science industry, allegedly pretended he was paying for “radioisotopes” imported from the US and to have samples analysed in US laboratories for his Great Barrier Reef research.

He told his boss he could “get a discount” on isotopes because he was a US citizen, and he claimed he was measuring carbon levels in “sediment core samples” taken from the Reef.

He has admitted to police that he made false invoices, credit card statements and created fake email trails to claim expenses over seven years, court documents state …

More info from The Townsville Bulletin Sept 15th.

He was charged with obtaining a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity, namely AIMS, by deception.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

He has also been charged with one count of dealing with the proceeds of crime worth $100,000 or more which carries a maximum term of 20 years behind bars.

His LinkedIn account lists his position as the Senior Principal Research Scientist at AIMS but his name has since been removed from the online AIMS staff register.

h/t To Pat, to Jim Simpson, and to Tim Blair.

Note to commenters: Take care, these are mostly alleged offences. No trial yet.

9.2 out of 10 based on 96 ratings

97 comments to Who says scientists don’t do it to get rich? Queensland climate expert in court over $500k in false expenses

  • #
    hunter

    Tip of the iceberg.
    Audit them all.

    352

    • #

      Isn’t that how he was caught?

      110

      • #
        RB

        According to the Guardian (who eventually published the story)

        Alongi allegedly put the scam in place in 2008 by convincing his supervisor at Aims he could obtain the materials and analysis cheaper as a US citizen by making orders on his own credit card and using his home address in Townsville.

        The supervisor, who considered these discounts “reason enough” to waive the institute’s regular purchasing procedures amid “generally slim research funds”, allegedly blew the whistle after noticing last year that her signature approving some of his claims appeared to be forged.

        120

        • #

          Interesting but only part of a story as this does not explain how his supervisor came to be looking over these expense documents.

          210

          • #
            RB

            7 years later she thought that it might be her job to check?

            140

          • #
            dean

            Have you ever worked?

            Over the last 25 years I have never worked at a company where your direct supervisor did not review your expenses prior to authorising them.

            It is standard practise.

            120

          • #
            Dennis

            Why did it take so long to discover, where were the auditors?

            90

            • #

              Indeed and that is a good question. Who is responsible for looking after the money.

              A granting body pretty much gives the money to an institution and expects them to look after it. The funders don’t expect to get a full list of every consumable and what it was used for but they do expect the institute to report, provide evidence that the research was pursued, and that the internal processes meet certain standards. The grant holders are the ones who let this happen through poor systems and processes that, if they are like most places I’ve worked at, my 6 year old could rort.

              50

            • #
              RogueElement451

              It would appear that an average of 75,000 dollars has gone astray for 7 years . In such cases , mostly people start small and as and when they realise they can get away with it, increasingly become bolder and more greedy, that is probably what happened here , a review of external payments brought a focus onto a large sum in a certain area which was not usual or warranted.
              The snout got too deep into the trough and choked on the swill.
              As for audit , standard procedure might raise a question but could be satisfied by a reasonable answer from a senior member of management. Having asked the question in year one and having been satisfied in year one , they would not normally query the same issue.
              A criminal audit would focus on different matters entirely and perhaps a review of ALL expenses is called for.

              40

        • #
          Hasbeen

          Those “generally slim research funds”, can’t be all that slim, if just one smarty can rip almost $100,000 a year out of it with a mild con job.

          Too many of these organisations, & their people, have a highly inflated opinion of what they & their work is worth, even when it is legitimate.

          Surely this blokes manager is now proven too naïve to continue managing anything.

          Another question, how long did it take for him to accumulate $900K super balance?

          80

          • #
            John Smith

            J.H.
            How dare you notice the man in the gorilla suit?
            Methinks there’s lots of gorilla suits in this climate thing.
            We can only hope for more stumbling.

            31

      • #
        hunter

        Stumbling across is not auditing.

        100

      • #
        J.H.

        Yep, but his science now needs auditing too. If he is corrupt enough to steal money, he’s corrupt enough to falsify his science.

        61

    • #
      Olaf Koenders

      Tip of the iceberg for sure. His admissions MIGHT get him a reduced sentence if found guilty, but the most important thing is that such corruption is now in the open and its existence can no longer be denied. Watch this space. I expect the iceberg melt to accelerate.

      162

      • #
        Peter Miller

        As climate alarmism costs/wastes the taxpayers of this planet about $1.0 billion per day, the alleged figure of $556,000 is indeed a very, very, very tiny tip of the iceberg.

        Presumably Mr. Daniel Alongi is not an official member of the Team, which has a very professional crew of fixers to whitewash all its members’ cavalier claims.

        131

    • #
      George McFly......I'm your density

      build troughs and you will find snouts…

      200

      • #
        King Geo

        No doubt many of these Climate Alarmists think they are impervious to close scrutiny and like their fellow “snout in the trough oink oink cousins” – really believe that “Pigs Can Fly”.

        41

    • #
      REPEL space Damocles swords

      Another proposal for Earth Shield!!!
      “CREATE a solar shield mechanism that can screen out the most energetic solar storms in the form of coronal mass ejections that could wipe out a significant number of electrical power grids, application satellites and other electronic devices that might be destroyed or incapacitated by coronal mass ejections (CMEs)”.  January 13, 2016 
      Joseph N. Pelton, PhD, is the former Dean of the International Space University, and Executive Board, International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-hazards/space-weather/protecting-earth-and-a-better-way-to-mars/

      00

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Just what the Climatescience™ industry didn’t want after the Shukla case. It does expose how much money is available to those ‘in the game’ and it is no wonder that there is corruption.

    371

  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    Alongi, who was well regarded in the science industry, allegedly pretended he was paying for “radioisotopes” imported from the US and to have samples analysed in US laboratories for his Great Barrier Reef research.

    It will be interesting to see whether anybody in AIMS checks his research. Did he actually measure any “Carbon levels” in the core samples? Did he publish his results? Did they contain his US “analysed samples”? Were there actually any US “analysed samples” in his published data or did he find some other way of obtaining data? Is the integrity of all his published data intact?

    If not, what is AIMS doing about it? Does AIMS have a quality control mechanism built into its research practice or does it just trust the honesty of its researchers?

    Given that this all happened back in September any science integrity review taken by AIMS should have occurred by this or be coming to a conclusion very soon.

    481

    • #
      Peter C

      The Skula story seems to have gone cold since October.

      Lamar Smith has probably been distracted, trying to get the emails out do NOAA.

      110

      • #
        Peter C

        Whoops sorry,

        Should have been a reply to Graham No3.

        Those are all very good questions Skeptical. I do not expect answers anytime soon. Our minister for Science should be asking question but probably will not. AIMS expected to close ranks and hope it all goes away. No comment from coauthors of his papers.

        210

        • #

          Our minister for science among other things is another useless lawyer with no time in industry, science or anything useful to the real world, at all. Seems he graduated and went to work for Amanda Vanstone straight out of school.
          I doubt he would even know what questions to ask.

          Jo must be horrified to see what science has become since it hijacked by the global warming stupidity, then aided and abetted by corrupt politicians kenn to win votes from a population that in the main, couldn’t give a damn about climate change.

          131

          • #
            Dennis

            To be fair to the Minister, he is advised by the experts and cannot think outside that deceptive square of know how.

            70

    • #
      Dave

      Yes!

      “Over the last seven years”

      He’s got a large list of publications (over 140) and many in this time frame!

      Wonder if the Pal Reviews Folks are worried?

      They probably approved MADE UP DATA in his papers?
      Do they even check DATA authenticity?

      321

      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        Over the years reading here, Bishop Hill and WUWT, I’ve never yet heard of any checker asking for and looking through source data. It may happen, but it has never yet been said to have happened.

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Thanks for the references Dave.

        I’ve scanned some of the Abstracts for the period and they don’t seem to indicate that Alongi is a warmist. In fact, on the Abstracts I scanned, he seems to be associated with sensible scientific research rather than warmist scare-mongering.

        Have the warmists’ set him up, is the question I ask myself?

        131

        • #
          RB

          Based on the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts, mangrove forests along arid coasts, in subsiding river deltas, and on many islands are predicted to decline in area, structural complexity, and/or in functionality, but mangroves will continue to expand polewards. It is highly likely that they will survive into the foreseeable future as sea level, global temperatures, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to rise.

          The Impact of Climate Change on Mangrove Forests (PDF Download Available). Available from:

          https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273488691_The_Impact_of_Climate_Change_on_Mangrove_Forests [accessed Jan 13, 2016].

          I joked in a previous post that he is a contrarian because he asserts orders of mag larger sea level rise in the past than is used to scare us. It looks like he did try to play along, though.

          40

    • #
      MudCrab

      I was wondering along those lines too, Sam.

      Was/is what he was claiming to do actually a thing? My background is engineering (mechanical detail design) but some of those processes do seem a little bit too technobabble to actually exist. You know, the sort of things to sprout to your project manager to hide the fact you have been goofing off all afternoon.

      40

  • #

    What’s that expression? Ah, yes. Follow the money.

    Pointman

    160

  • #
    Just-A-Guy

    Whoa!

    If this guy was able to “skim’ 500K, then what were his “total” expenses?

    Who paid them?

    Why?

    Abe

    240

  • #
    Jim from Maine

    Agreed…ALWAYS follow the money 🙂

    81

  • #
    Yonniestone

    I think we’re starting to see a trend between CAGW climate science and financial corruption, in the endeavour to prove a false hypothesis false arguments and data must be produced, the above behaviour will be of little surprise to those that have followed the molestation of science the past decades.

    271

  • #
    Robert O

    Aren’t Govt. expenditures on hot rocks, wave machines, desalination plants….. also fraudulent?

    162

    • #
      Dennis

      The corruption too often extends beyond the original concept. Desalination plants to overcome the deceptive claim that there would never again be enough rainfall to fill the dams according to Tom Foolery and fellow travellers. A retired NSW Labor Premier, a consultant to Macquarie Bank with an office suite alongside NSW Government Cabinet Ministers in the NSW Government Office Block, became a consultant to foreign desalination plant suppliers and promoted their product to the State Governments, and successfully attracted doers for his client.

      And then the unions joined the gravy train.

      Australia, the wealthy country.

      41

  • #
    Manfred

    When you swimming in a lake of money it stands to reason you’re going to get soaking wet.

    100

    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      When you swimming in a lake trough of money it stands to reason you’re going to get soaking wet.

      Welcome to the Trougheraticene Era.

      70

  • #
    Ted O'Brien

    Sad, but true!

    40

  • #
    Hot under the collar

    If he admitted making false claims then he’s a confirmed Shill for Big Green!

    111

  • #
    Ross

    I think Sceptical Sam is asking the right questions. The financial issues are one important thing but one has to presume data was made up for the analysis that was supposedly paid for. What was that false data used for and just as important what claims were made as a result of it ?

    160

  • #
    Rosco

    All this “research” into the effects of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef accompanied by caterwauling about its future while our governments have done nothing about the single biggest threat which has been known for more than 4 decades.

    A recent University study found that in areas where the starfish were in plague proportions reef damage was as high as 50%.

    In areas where the starfish were not present new coral growth was as high as 25%.

    The study found that a simple injection of vinegar killed the starfish.

    So through inaction and wasting money trying to cause alarm Australia has stood idly by while a known destructive plague has caused up to 75% loss of coral in large areas of the reef.

    The money alleged to have been stolen could have funded positive action against the single biggest known threat to the reef.

    Note the story says the good alarmist has admitted the [snip “false”] nature of his claims to police, his employment has been terminated – he resigned but what choice did he have, his >$900,000 superannuation and >$80,000 leave and long service entitlements have been frozen by a court under proceeds of crime legislation, his passport surrendered.

    He may be eligible for deportation under the new federal laws for dual citizens or foreign nationals who serve significant jail time – he is a US citizen.

    And what a job he had – field work in a tropical paradise many would actually pay for – and he threw it all away no matter the outcome of the legal process.

    Lots of AGW acolytes often say to me why would climate scientists lie about AGW.

    The obvious answer is that some people just do – this is just one case in point.

    [Edit – we have to be careful about being literal in this situation – Jo]

    121

    • #
      cephus0

      “So through inaction and wasting money trying to cause alarm Australia has stood idly by while a known destructive plague has caused up to 75% loss of coral in large areas of the reef.

      The money alleged to have been stolen could have funded positive action against the single biggest known threat to the reef.”

      This is what makes me almost despair. These endless ranks [snip] who not only want to destroy the economy but really don’t care if they destroy the ecology along the way. And meanwhile the legions of well meaning [public] out there have been brainwashed into supporting it all. Really, it’s to cry [over?].

      [I hope my edits don’t change your meaning.] AZ

      00

  • #
    Ross

    Sorry to be O/T, but could you get a clearer picture of how data is altered ?

    http://realclimatescience.com/2016/01/stunning-evidence-that-man-made-global-warming-is-real/

    41

  • #
    Anton

    Climate Hustle!

    51

  • #
    EternalOptimist

    Is it any wonder that Climate scientists do not want to reveal their data, methods, algorithms, expenses when all you people want to do is to find fault with them ??

    271

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘In 2005, Dr Alongi revealed that researchers had unearthed 9000-year-old mangroves in old river channels that were swamped when sea levels rose after the last ice age.’

    Hotcopper

    50

  • #
  • #
    mrenzo01

    The cash trough is crowded by the Climate Change cattle. There is the herd mentality of these “scientists” going for the cash while this phoney cause is in fashion.

    61

  • #
    TdeF

    This man made a life’s work of analysing coastal sediments, muck raking.
    Now who would set out in life to do that? What a depressing job. He must be fun at parties.

    He has admitted what he has done.
    That is not the behaviour of a criminal, just a very silly person.
    This was first noted in December 2013 and he is finally getting to court this month. That is not justice.
    How many scientists are drawing their salaries and knowing it is wrong. What about NOAA’s group studying ocean acidification when they
    admit there is none?

    It also demonstrates the sort of financial pressure scientists can be under, with mortgages, families, school fees, regular expenses.

    However imagine the pressure scientists are under when the press wants environmental horror stories, so they can sell media.

    To even admit that there is no ocean acidification is the end of your career.
    To admit the Great Barrier Reef is fine, as UNESCO say, is also fatal.
    To suggest windmills are a waste of money is a good way to get thrown out of a university.

    Besides, you miss out on the free trips to Copenhagen, Qatar, Rio, Durban, Paris etc. and all those
    wonderful international conferences on nothing happening.

    Scientists are the worst paid professionals in Australia and that is why there are so few, except in the CSIRO where
    government superannuation is the golden lining. The rules are clearly, keep your head low and maybe fiddle your accounts.
    Certainly no one dares disagree with media stories or Green disinformation.

    For example, when has any newspaper, television or internet news organization said the world’s oceans are not acid?
    When has any public scientist said so, including the Chief Scientist? Why not?

    When has anyone said the young men who played for the Essendon football club did nothing wrong and do not deserve to be treated as criminals?

    There is something very wrong when real criminals walk free and people who make and admit mistakes are punished to the limit of the law.

    There is something wrong when real scientists are afraid to speak the truth and have to rake mud and steal for a living.

    271

    • #
      TdeF

      Besides, that is taking work from journalists and lawyers.

      60

    • #
      Leonard Lane

      TdeF. No scientist nor anyone else has to steal. The same with lie, cheat, and falsify expenses to get rich.
      A scientist who would lie or cheat should have never been allowed in science and when caught should do hard time for many years. This is what the laws of many nations require. No one should be above the law. Maybe he thought he was Obama?

      151

      • #
        TdeF

        Agreed. Stealing is wrong. He is 59, his career and job are gone. He is disgraced personally and professionally and has admitted his guilt, which real criminals never do. All for a relatively small amount of money, falsely padding his expenses each year so it is accumulated amount. This he can repay from his superannuation. He may even go to jail. That is enough. Many serious criminals have not been punished at all for far more serious crimes.

        If however the conclusion is drawn that he is typical of climate scientists and dishonest in his research too, there is no basis for that. My gripe are those people who take big money and do not tell the truth. It is not criminal and they lie, cheat and falsify expenses data to get rich or simply to keep their jobs. Or do you think the people who altered the temperature records at the BOM were acting for the greater good? Or the historians who falsify their research and make up their references? Or the UN people who say they are saving the planet when they are just making money.

        How does Al Gore get away with a judge finding nine lies in “An inconvenient Truth”? The truth is that a film on the Truth itself is full of lies, even to a non science judge. However no one is prosecuting billionaire Gore. He has never admitted even a problem, let alone culpability. Of all the crimes in Climate Science, this particular one seems small and tragic and victim less but not excusable.

        141

    • #
      Eugene WR Gallun

      Lets see — upper class people have so many problems they need to be forgiven for their indiscretions.
      It is the lower class scum who need to do hard jail time. Lower class scum are morally bankrupt but
      upper class people know right from wrong and that alone proves they must be victims of circumstances
      beyond their control. Equal treatment under the law is false doctrine.

      The above is socialist thinking. Socialism always creates two classes — the ins and the outs.

      Eugene WR Gallun

      31

  • #
    EternalOptimist

    If being a scientist is so badly paid, can’t they get a job as a patents clerk or something ?

    90

  • #
    John

    It’s getting a bit hot for some climate scientists, and it ain’t AGW

    61

  • #
    el gordo

    In defense of the accused, he doesn’t think global warming is a huge problem.

    ‘Over the next 25 years, unrestricted clear felling, aquaculture, and overexploitation of fisheries will be the greatest threats, with lesser problems being alteration of hydrology, pollution and global warming. Loss of biodiversity is, and will continue to be, a severe problem as even pristine mangroves are species-poor compared with other tropical ecosystems. The future is not entirely bleak.’

    Dr Daniel Michael Alongi 2002

    51

    • #
      TdeF

      Especially when you consider that most scientists know nothing more about alleged Global Warming than anyone else!

      Global Warming is the strongly defended and utterly exclusive realm of self appointed Global Warming scientists, like dead kangaroo expert Tim Flannery. Man causes extra but tiny CO2 which causes Global Warming which causes Climate Change which causes everything else, especially bushfires and hurricanes and anything even a little out of the average. Who needs facts when you need funding?

      131

      • #

        TdeF, don’t these people know of the Conservation laws of mass and energy, another of Mr Newtons ideas, nothing important. I remember first hearing about them in high school in an overview type of presentation in a physics class.
        They wouldn’t make these idiotic statements if conversant with these laws.

        10

        • #
          el gordo

          Professor Matthew England thinks he is ‘conversant with these laws.’

          ‘For some people, it’s very easy for them to get this, but there are other people who are just absolutely obsessed with derailing the basic physics of climate change, and for them this poses a great little story that global warming’s paused. I wish they were right but unfortunately they’re wrong.’

          10

  • #
    toorightmate

    The Rudd “administration” got rid of Bob Carter, but retained the likes of this loafer at JCU.
    Rudd killed the resources industry in Australia. Who will invest with the threat of “there will be a great big new tax on mining”?
    What did Rudd do that was not deleterious to this once great nation?

    112

  • #

    This is the merest tip of the iceberg of corruption that CAGW has fostered and spawned. CAGW ‘Climate science’ and financial corruption go hand in hand and support each other. The false hypothesis of CAGW is unsupportable on any scientific level. False data must be bought from willing hands to appear to support it and the false data must be paid for. Government subsidies torn from the general population pay for such boondoggles as ‘hot rocks’, wave machines, desalination plants, solar panels, wind turbines and the rest of the ugly crew,

    81

  • #
    Doug Proctor

    If there were invoices for analyses, there should be corresponding analyses. Were they made up?

    60

    • #
      fromdownunder

      Well that in theory would be the logical way to go. Make up the data pocket the money.. Made up data would always line up with the expected results.

      In for the penny, in for the pound.

      21

  • #
    Kim

    It’s easy to milk the system. If consultant A gives work to consultant B and vice versa and on around they can soon mount up mutually beneficial expenses.

    30

  • #
    PeterS

    Not really a surprise; more of why did it take so long to be detected? As I stated many times before, the source of the global warming scam and hoax is not the politicians but the scientists who are peddling the myths or those who are silent on the matter. The politicians are simply doing what they know best – taking advantage of situations to gain more tax money and power. Scientists are supposed to be pursuing the truth, not the protagonists of false religions.

    61

  • #
    handjive

    Quiz: What is wrong with this photo, and what is the correlation to this post?

    Buddhist monk, 61, attacked and robbed as he bought lottery tickets at Philadelphia gas station

    1. Doomsday Global Warming. Monk was purchasing ticket in a fossil fuel p.o.s. = karma.
    2. Why the need for money & fossil fuelled material items that only money buys? See #1.
    3. Reincarnation: does the monk know it is the winning ticket? Cheating? Karma? See #2 & #1.
    4. Will the next life be better? Or worse? See #1 & #2.
    5. Suspect escaped in a silver Ford Mustang. Blame Global Warming. See #1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
    ~ ~ ~
    If your answer was ‘everything’, you would be correct.

    30

  • #
    jorgekafkazar

    No doubt there’ll be a slot waiting for him at the University of Bristol. Membership in the RS can’t be far, either.

    70

  • #

    First, Gleick, then Shukla, now Alongi. With various episodes of malpractice in between such as the ‘Iceman’, Turney. There’s probably a lot more Cooks and Lewandowskis out there too to be audited.

    72

  • #
    Ursus AUgustus

    I lost all faith in the climate science community over the Climategate emails and a partilcularly cowardly and sleazy use of the denier term with all the associations there on the one overhead during a keynote speech by a Nobel Laureate no less.

    Anyone who crawls into that gutter not to make a point of science but to simply smear those who hold to a different thesis about the matter is not someone to be trusted, no matter what their academic or other social status. They are not a credible witness as our legal fraternity would characterise them. Former ederal Court Judge Marcus Einfeld is an exemplar of just how far from our expectations or professional integrity and virtue such people can actually drift.

    This episode just confirms what grubs some of them actually are.

    92

  • #
    TdeF

    Of all the things to lie about? Radio isotopes? As if no one would care what happened to them or check quantities or perform due diligence? $500,000 in radio isotopes and then try to hide them or expect no one to check? This must have been at least $1,000 a week and surely someone would want to see them and check quantities and perform reconciliation. After all, what if radioactive isotopes were released into the environment without care or control? As before, this man is living proof that being a scientist does not mean you are clever. This sort of waste at $200 a day matches a few more serious problems in sheer cost. In terms of sheer waste of public money though, head of the ABC’s Mark Scott’s salary of $800,000 pa plus expenses comes to mind, but that’s not criminal.

    90

    • #
      PeterS

      Yes it is amazing. What’s more amazing is it’s alleged he did it for 7 years without anyone noticing. What gives? Surely others must have been involved. Everyone knows there are bad apples in any group. What’s not yet commonly understood is the scientific community is full of such bad apples ripping billions off tax payers all over the world for their illegitimate grants. It’s time the people knew so they can demand the governments to stop covering up this corrupt practice.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Not sure about all these bad apples. I would rather suggest there was only one. This was really stupid theft and hardly worth involving someone else.

        The moral question for scientists is whether they believe their work is worthwhile in the first place.

        Take the CSIRO another $1Bn centre of Green activism and Global Warming

        CSIRO: big ideas start here
        55 sites
        Over 5,000 talented staff
        $1Billion+ Budget

        So what do we get back? The entire value of the expired WiFi patent only covered only half of one year.
        What do the 5,000 staff really think of their output and value for money? When did Australia really do something remarkable with half the population of England? Give a modified gene Herpes to carp and hope it doesn’t mutate and pass to humans? This could make Cane toads seem benign.

        50

        • #
          TdeF

          The CSIRO WiFi noise reduction patent was only one of 19 and does not include the actual WiFi invention. The revenue was $430million. However the CSIRO failed to commercialise it at all and only obtained belated income by lawsuit. When was the last time the CSIRO invented something and they made money from it? They might even be seen as patent trolls or that might be unkind. Still 98% of the real work and investment is in making a viable commercial product, not inventing a patentable technique or device.

          30

    • #
      Dave

      Of all the things to lie about? Radio isotopes?

      Yes!

      I thought all imported radioactive materials into Australia must obtain approval for the import from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)?

      How did all this bypass authorities?

      20

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Mate!

      $800,000 you say for the lefty Scott?

      That’s chicken feed.

      The bloke at Australia Post gets $4.5 million. And, he runs the joint at a whopping loss. Postage stamps are about to increase to a buck a pop for a standard letter.

      Privatize the ABC. Privatize Australia Post. Sack the incompetents.

      They mightn’t be criminals but their incompetence and greed knows no bounds.

      31

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    $556,000 could pay for the whole unused Sydney desal plant for a whole day! It could fund unused Melbourne desal plant for up to 18 hours. Or you could fund Mick Gatto’s unused cranes to stand around the unused Melbourne desal plant for weeks…

    Look, why don’t we just dig a big black hole with a fire in the bottom, call it a green hole, and just shovel money down into it? Direct action!

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    Dennis

    It is timely to remember the internal inquiry conducted at the BoM into climate change personnel media releases not matching BoM historical records data, errors and omissions were found and reported on.

    And that Prime Minister Tony Abbott recommended to his Cabinet that following the inquiry report findings that an independent audit, due diligence, be conducted at the BoM. His recommendation was rejected by a majority of Cabinet Ministers.

    How can we have confidence in the integrity of our government, and the previous Labor Government?

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    Dennis

    I apologise for another repeat however I hope that eventually the message is widespread and makes voters extremely angry with the politicians and climate change fraudsters.

    What is the point in arguing now that the real objective has been admitted;

    conomic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man’s stewardship of the environment. But we know that’s not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this.

    At a news conference last week (October 2015) in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.
    “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said.

    Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/021015-738779-climate-change-scare-tool-to-destroy-capitalism.htm#ixzz3x61ejlf6
    Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

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    el gordo

    Realpolitik infests government and Opposition.

    Abbott to his credit stood up to Malcolm, Julie, Greg and Morrison, but was effectively rolled.

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      Dennis

      And the White Ants gnawed at his foundations from 2009 after he was elected leader. Even after he led the Coalition to effectively defeat Labor at the 2010 election, forcing them into an alliance minority government.

      Continuing after Abbott led the Coalition to defeat the Labor Government in an historic landslide victory in September 2013.

      But note too that despite media speculation that at the Canning by election the Coalition would lose the seat the Coalition won with a comfortable 6 per cent margin and with a determined Labor candidate working hard to win.

      Later at the North Sydney by election the new PM arranged for a massive campaign including spending an unprecedented around $600,000 when there was no Labor candidate for that safe Liberal seat. And the swing against the Coalition was a massive 13 per cent, and the Liberal Party members were thin on the ground on election day and outsiders had to be recruited to man the polling booths.

      I cannot recall a time in my voting experience that a leader was subjected to such determined character assassination from insiders leaking to the media against their leader.

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      TdeF

      He also stood up to the ABC, BOM, SBS, United Nations, people smugglers, Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, the Indonesian government and every other bully in the world. He personally led a fire team into deadly fires, spent two weeks a year living with aborigines, rode for charity regularly and donated time freely for others and actually rescued drowning people himself. Now we have an effete rich banker who has done nothing and will look after his friends and bring in an ETS. Will someone please talk sense to the Liberal party and give us back our PM.

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        Dennis

        I read recently that when Tony Abbott was Leader Of The Opposition, when he visited the ADF in Afghanistan, he requested to go on a patrol. When he arrived at the Australian Base he was given intensive training including use of a firearm and later wearing the same equipment as the soldiers he went on patrol with them and by all accounts the soldiers were impressed with his physical fitness and ability to work with the team.

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    Get Real

    I wonder if he drives a Volkswagen?

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    Degradation of Science

    In recent years I have met many students who are studying for their PhDs. for a few number of them they have a love of science , but for many they see it is as a means to an end. In essence they have lost their love for exploration and Science and merely get “the qualification” for the purposes of obtaining money rewards.
    The Climate “thing” has seen many of these pretend PhDs come into public view and express concerns about the planet’s climate (which would under normal rigor require they obtain many PhDs in each discipline and many years of research) to which we are now subject.

    It is my opinion we face a multitude of ill informed (PhDs) so called qualified people who know less about science but more about passing exams.

    Simply put they have lost their love of Science as it was intended.

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    pat

    WUWT now has a thread on this topic, with reference to jo’s thread.
    some are suggesting Alongi isn’t a “climate scientist”.
    check the PDF below (some other familiar CAGW names are on the list too):

    PDF: 4 pages: Great Barrier Reef Foundation: Research projects
    p3 of 4: Solutions & Adaptation,
    Carbon Budget, Ocean Acidification – Daniel M. Alongi – Funding allocated 2013/2014 & 2014/2015
    Carbon chemistry – Daniel M. Alongi – Funding allocated 2013/2014, 2014/2015
    http://www.barrierreef.org/sites/default/files/List%20of%20GBRF%20Funded%20Projects_March2015_1.pdf

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    Lewis P Buckingham

    This may be an opportunity to have all data re examined as part of the process of giving evidence.
    If the alleged theft took place, there is still the problem of validating any data that was forthcoming when it was being allegedly sourced through the US.
    There is then the opportunity of both open peer review and expert opinion to be published as a result of the court hearing.

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    pat

    for the record:

    Great Barrier Reef Foundation: Our Research Investors
    Rio Tinto, Boeing, Commonwealth Bank, The Tiffany & Co Foundation, Google
    The projects in which the Foundation invests are determined by the International Science Advisory Committee, not by investors or donors
    http://www.barrierreef.org/our-partners/our-research-investors

    Great Barrier Reef Foundation: Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC)
    The Foundation is directly advised by an International Scientific Advisory Committee (or ISAC). ISAC is made up of the leaders of research and management on the Reef, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, University of Queensland, James Cook University, and CSIRO. Independently chaired by Professor Paul Greenfield AO, the committee plays a critical role in the selection, development and implementation of significant research projects with the Foundation’s partners. This is an important component of our rigorous governance process for funding priority research projects.
    The Scientific Advisory Committee is composed of:…
    ◦Professor PAUL GREENFIELD AO, Chair
    ◦Professor CHRIS COCKLIN, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, James Cook University…
    ◦Professor OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG, Director, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland
    ◦Dr ANDREW JOHNSON, Group Executive—Environment, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation..ETC
    http://www.barrierreef.org/who-we-are/scientific-advisory-committee-isac

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    […] it for the money! Climate Scientist Daniel Alongi has been indicted by Australian authorities, and accused of falsifying half a million dollars worth of […]

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