That's right Pericles, blame those conned by the fraud. The poser was good enough to even take calls (leaving a contact number on the press release) to verify the fraud. Why didn't he 'fess up at that point as he still would have left his mark and gotten his point over. Do you check every banknote in your wallet against forgery?

The last time I looked carbon was the base of our economy, with alternatives making inroads as they become more viable. Greens expecting the mining, selling and usage of coal to be made illegal have awhile to wait yet.

Coal right now is a necessary evil and everyone knows it, except the bright eyed lillian who equates coal with tobacco and asbestos in their negative health effects, implying coal company CEO's are somehow holding back vital information from the public. All the info on AGW is public knowledge and governments are doing something about it, as are people individually.

What Moylan did can not simply be dismissed as a harmless prank as some would have it. He must pay a price, not only because he did wreckless damage, but because the integrity of our financial institutions must be defended from others who may attack it, as ASIC has done on other occasions. Any argument that deflects from Moylen's wrong-doing is fine, but it is only deflection. He broke the law with intent and must accept a consequence.

"When people with extreme mindsets cannot win an intellectual argument in the first instance, they tend to resort in exasperation by throwing their own bodies against their perceived grievances"

This remind me of the action of the young people who threw themselves in front of President Johnson's car in Sydney. Their "percieved grievance", was the war in Vietnam. A "grievance" was shared by an overwhelming majority of Australians and by the world.

The issue that motivated Johathan Moylan is another one that threatens our world. It is not "an extreme mindset" of an individual.
The Institute of Public Affairs has to produce a better argument to refute the wealth of science backed by the damage that exptreme climate change is causing doing to our planet. Or perhaps they haven't got one.

To call instead for extreme punitive measures to silence protest will not work just as "ride over the bastards" did work on that past occaision.

Gun Boat

Tis is not a case of killing in self-defense. Moylan broke a reasonable law and did damage to people. He had legal protest options but chose an illegal one, case closed.

Throwing one's self in front of a gov't car, self-immoliation, etc are other options. They have their own consequences and so do Moylan's.

Moylan tried the old press release scam to get some coverage of his anti-coal stance. Some media outlets fell for the scam. This is something a fair few people from many different political persuasions have tried. And it is funny when media outlets fall for it. I took four issues from this amusing incident

1. The media, in general, needs to check sources a little better. No serious banking reporter would have fallen for the false heading and telephone number gag as they would know the person in ANZ to ring and discuss. The timing might have been the issue here as many journalists are on holiday and less experienced staff are probably manning the desks.
2. It reinforced to me that the Carbon Tax is about redistribution of money to Labor supporters and not really about reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - or they would ban coal mines and coal fired power stations.
3. I do wonder if the large and speedy fall in price is related to computerized trading.
4. The media will cover anything during the funny season.

"Companies should take a more willing stand against environmental NGOs and other extremist groups" what like the IPA.

Take a moment or two to think it through, Luciferase.

>>That's right Pericles, blame those conned by the fraud. The poser was good enough to even take calls (leaving a contact number on the press release) to verify the fraud.<<

The office number for the ANZ Media Relations Adviser, Joanne McCulloch, was correct. So any journalist ringing this number would have been told straight away that the press release was not issued by the Bank. Her email details were also correct.

The only other two numbers provided were mobile numbers, and any journalist who in 2013 doesn't understand the inherent risks of relying on a mobile phone contact should be fired forthwith.

The email address for Toby Kent was also suspicious, being "anzcorporate" rather than the simple "anz". A minute's research - no more - would have uncovered the fact that the address was created on 4th January by... Jonathan Moylan.

http://dig.whois.com.au/whois.php?dom=anzcorporate.com&secondary=1

This simple act of fact-checking, available to anyone, would also have uncovered the information that the mobile number on the "press release" that was supposed to belong to Toby Kent, was the number given by Moylan when setting up the anzcorporate address.

If this is the quality of journalism in this country, then they have no more credibility than the random bloggers who announce the death of a movie star

http://www.take40.com/news/16565/jeff-goldblum-harrison-ford-deaths-a-hoax

Admittedly, it is easier to understand how Richard Wilkins can be fooled by gossip-as-news, rather than a real journalist, but that's beside the point.

Incidentally, apart from the fact that no Bank in its right mind would issue a release announcing withdrawal of funding - for anybody - any journalist worth the name must know that these announcements must - repeat must - be issued through the Stock Exchange. It's the law.