Of course Des and the various people and outfits that he associates with and promotes do not have political, ideological or "religious" bias's or axes to grind - do they?

They see "reality true" - "reality" as defined by the corporately funded right-wing tanks and their vast network of propaganda outlets and public relations (lying) firms. Items that appear in the "news" reports pretending to be "news" items but which are public relation press releases - manipulative propaganda and down-right lies.

Ross Garnaut, Professor Steffen, David Karoly, Tim Flannery and their ilk should be required to adhere to the same standards of due diligence required of company directors, particularly those signing off on a Prospectus.

Corporations Law has very demanding requirements that company directors ensure that statements that they are making are in fact true, and that they have undertaken serious due diligence to ensure that. Standard practice has developed around the preparation of prospectus that requires preparation of due diligence files that contain the appropiate supporting information for every material statement made in the prospectus. The idea is that the due diligence file can be tendered as evidence that the directors undertook sincere and detailed due diligence to ensure that statements that they signed off on in the prospectus are in fact true. Lawyers are engaged to supervise the whole process, and directors are required to personally sign off on the final prospectus and the related due diligence files.

It has amazed me, and I am sure many other experienced business people familiar with due diligence processes, that people like Ross Garnaut (and many politicians for that matter) can get away with making public statements as they do, completely ignoring the substantial bodies of evidence contradicting almost all of the statements that they have made.

Arguably, the impacts of statements made by Ross Garnaut are far larger in terms of their possible economic impact on more people than most prospectuses. He should be held accountable for the statements he has made

Herbert Stencil

Your comments are absolutely right on the button.

The standards required of company directors are far higher than those in academia

If the principle of telling the truth, and of being held accountable for both the intended and unintended consequences of what one says in public were applied across the board, hardly anyone would be qualified to make a statement about anything of importance at all.

This would obviously include all politicians and religious "authorities".

By this standard John Howard, George Bush and Tony Blair should all be in jail by now for telling outright lies. Lies which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq, and which set the scene for the DELIBERATE systematic trashing of the infrastructure of the nation of Iraq.

I remember reading at the time that what actually happened in Iraq was the largest single theft of resources that has ever occurred on this planet - in the shortest time too.

Remember too, that the right-wing stink-tanks that Des associates with were all very enthusiastic about this Imperial invasion and subsequent (deliberate) trashing and theft. The magic (voodoo) of the "free" market.

All of which was made "lawful" by the new system of "laws" that were put in place by the Bremer "administration" after the Imperial invasion. "Laws" which enabled the subsequent theft and looting.

This reference titled TOTAL WAR: AGRIBUSINESS STYLE describes what thus happened to agriculture in Iraq.

Read and listen to this and weep

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/1022.html

Plus a reference on the unintended consequences of the now ubiquitous
herbicide Roundup http://www.responsibletechnology.org

"Remember too, that the right-wing stink-tanks that Des associates with were all very enthusiastic about this Imperial invasion and subsequent (deliberate) trashing and theft. The magic (voodoo) of the "free" market."

Only an idiot could style the government-funded, government-authorised, government-perpetrated invasion of Iraq as anything to do with a "free market". It's the exact opposite and you are either displaying your confusion or your dishonesty.

Posted by bigmal, Monday, 7 February 2011 12:59:52 PM

yes bigmall precisely my sentiments !