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Malcolm Roberts Denies Climate Science, Rod Culleton Compares Self To Muhammad Ali

It's been a big morning for One Nation.
Senator Malcolm Roberts presented his report to media on Monday.
Fairfax Media
Senator Malcolm Roberts presented his report to media on Monday.

One Nation certainly had their Weetbix this morning, coming strong out of the blocks on a Monday with Malcolm Roberts issuing a report slamming the CSIRO's climate science and Rod Culleton likening himself to Muhammad Ali.

Roberts had been spruiking his Monday morning press conference all weekend, promising a "major" announcement at 9am. The press conference was to launch his report -- 'On Climate, CSIRO Lacks Empirical Proof' -- taking aim at the climate change science of the CSIRO.

Roberts said he had a meeting in September with "CSIRO senior scientists", which led him to find that the science agency "does not have empirical evidence proving that carbon dioxide from human activity effects climate", that their findings "contradicts the empirical climate evidence", and that their climate computer models are neither appropriate nor recommended to be used to inform government policy".

"The ultimate goal of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party is to dismantle Australia's obsession with green guilt and assist in restoring our country's former agricultural, manufacturing and economic base," Roberts said in a media release.

In the 42-page report, with the tagline, "We have a choice: the tyranny of controlling opinions versus the freedom of objective scientific evidence", Roberts writes that the CSIRO "relies on unscientific Australian and overseas manipulations of data that have fabricated warming temperatures".

The Huffington Post Australia contacted CSIRO for their thoughts on Roberts' claims. Their response?

CSIRO stands behind its peer-reviewed science on environment, climate and climate changeCSIRO spokesman

The report also repeats Roberts' call from his maiden speech for an "Aus Exit" or Australian departure from the United Nations, an inquiry into the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, and for Australia to reject the international Paris climate agreement which set out targets for nations to reduce their emissions in order to limit global temperature rises.

The report criticises the Gillard government's carbon tax, the "carbon tax by stealth" or emissions trading scheme that former environment minister Greg Hunt included in the emissions reduction fund earlier this year, and claims the world is not warming unusually, but is instead following long-established natural warming and cooling patterns.

"There is no justification for saying that human carbon dioxide output determines carbon dioxide levels in the air," Roberts' report outlined.

How did we get here? Roberts claims that "modern media force-feed us with myths that are easy to understand yet are the very opposite of science". He says this includes "emotive statements and pictures of cute cuddly animals and smiling baby dolphins that distract from the lack of empirical evidence", "name-calling, labelling and smearing people who disagree so as to silence their colleagues afraid of speaking out", and "people in authority such as ministers expressing beliefs or opinions not science".

"We acknowledge the many scientists and everyday Australians now breaking free of the fear of being called names and labelled 'deniers' in order to speak out. That is the real climate issue: freedom of thought and speech," he wrote.

The full report is available on Malcolm Roberts' website.

But Roberts was far from the only One Nation senator making news on Monday. Rod Culleton, in hot water over a High Court referral regarding his Senate eligibility over a larceny charge, took to Facebook to update his followers on the latest.

"I am really disappointed that in a sense the govt has picked a fight with me to start pushing me into the highest court in the land," he said.

"I'll do the Muhammad Ali, I'll go out and hopefully take it out in the eighth round today.

"It is not a fair go if the govt thinks it will just go in and spend serious amounts of money in the court arena. This is really saying you can't stand up for your property rights."

Roberts was asked about Culleton at his own press conference on Monday. He said he supported his fellow One Nation senator but seemed not keen to take many more questions on the matter.

Shortly after the presser ended, though, Roberts was back online and saying more questions would be answered on Tuesday night at Parliament House:

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