Rstuart, can you remember a whole area of science who so completely lied to the public, to gain favour of the government of the day? We need drastic action to counter drastically immoral behaviour of the sector.

I wouldn't be lampooning them. After the election, I'd be charging them, convicting them with the increasing evidence of their lies, & have them pay back all those grants at a dollar a day in the clink.

I doubt that it would not be possible to include a few vice chancellors with them.

We must make damn sure that we make these servants of the public, just that in future. If it is OK to charge company directors who lie, so is it with academics.

Poirot,

If Juliar had a modicum of substance, it would not be so easy for Abbott to shred her. She has no authority, no gravitas. People listen to Abbott far sooner than Juliar. It virtually does not matter what she says or does, Australia turns to the coalition for the facts.

not particularly impressed with Labor at the moment, however, I wouldn't dream of voting for a party led by Abbott.
Poirot,
that makes you a voter the country can do without. may I suggest you vote informal then, for decency's sake.

@ Hasbeen:

Now you're getting completely ridiculous. It's one thing to deny the science, quite another to demand punishment for those who demonstrate quite conclusively that your increasingly shrill rhetoric is based on wilful ignorance. Your comments used to be conservative, but far more civil and occasionally even informative, witty and perceptive. Now they're just belligerent rants and insults, fed by the latest fabricated factoid to emit from Abbott & Co.

I suspect it's much the same for many who've invested so much credibility in denying the veracity of the science that predicts global warming. You've painted yourself into an intellectual corner, so all you can do is make a lot of angry noise to try and distract from your fundamental error.

Of course, you're not alone. Indeed, the phenomenon has given rise to the neologism "agnotology", which refers to "the study of culturally-induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data". Abbott's and your rhetoric would appear to be quite amenable to analysis under the rubric of agonotology.

Shadow Minister,
How much respect we have lost for our so-called Leaders. Let us not forget that it wasn't Julia (not Juliar - you mispelled her name or are you so disrespectfull? - She was approached by other Politicians to take over from Rudd, she accepted that challenge, she also inherited the Global Financial Disaster, The Continuing war in the Middle East, not to mention the Queensland, and Western Australia Flooding.
But somehow she did what other Leaders have failed to do.....she at least started to do something about Climate change, rightly or wrongly she took a step forward....the reason the Abbott bunch was against it was the dreadful Protectionism of the already wealthy, in both the private sector and the mining industry. As it happened, many politicians have done a backflip in the past....Tony Abbott only today said on ABC Radio, that he might just change is mind about the Carbon Tax, so why is every one wallowing in the muck because Julia
changed her mind about Carbon Taxes, there wouldn't be one person 'out there' who hasn't changed their minds on big issues, and not necessarily Politicians......if we look past the end of our noses, we would see that future generations need to be able to enjoy the life that we are currently living.
Noisy

Shadow Minister,
Rubbish- in fact it is the opposite. At a meeting of 200 people in QLD last night of undecided votes plenty went her way.
The problem the libs have is Tony Abbott. Its his nasty attack plans that only he cant see are back firing.Of course the best PR for Julie is Malcom the sheep farmer. Tony just today with his scare mongering told a transport company they were up for an extra 300 grand a year because of carbon tax- until one of the workers pointed out they were exempt:) How embarrassing. Above all without a doubt the biggest thing is Tony himself. People tend to forgive a few stuff ups if they like the person. The public mostly vote a PM rather than policy. ( not all I agree but many)
When you have a life time lib voter swing to ALP despite everything because of dislike for the leader thats good PR for any PM.

This would be a dream come true ( or should be) for any other leader of position- and yet.

His nasty attitude and already dirty scare mongering will be Julies best friend.

Horrible man in my opinion