So who is this Chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council?

Abbott and Newman as seen by Nicholson

So who is this 75 year-old English immigrant from Greater London that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appointed Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council and of whom he states; Maurice is one of a range of voices that the Government takes very seriously.

A man whose publicly expressed views appear to march alongside Abbott’s own:

* climate change.... group-think where contrary views have not been tolerated, and where those who express them have been labelled and mocked

* The CSIRO, for example, has 27 scientists dedicated to climate change,..... It and the weather bureau continue to propagate the myth of anthropological climate change and are likely to be background critics of the Coalition’s Direct Action policies.

* the IPCC resorts to dishonesty and deceit

* Australian wage rates are very high by international standards, and our system is dogged by rigidities....The workplace is an important area of reform....

* There’s no point in beating around the bush, worthy though the causes may be, in the circumstances, it was reckless [to introduce Gonski education funding and NDIS disability insurance reforms]

A man who has been reported as meeting with Tony Abbott on a weekly basis since the September 2013 federal election.

This is what The Sydney Morning Herald of 21 December 1986 said of Maurice Newman:

Click to enlarge

While this is Mr. Newman’s professional background according to Bloomberg Businessweek:

Mr. Maurice Lionel Newman, AC, FSIA, FSDIA has been an Advisor of Newcrest Mining Limited since June 25, 2013. Mr. Newman is an Advisor of Marsh Group of Companies, Patron of CEDA. Mr. Newman was the Chancellor of Macquarie University from 2002 to February 2008. His career spans forty years in stockbroking and investment banking. He served as Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Group in Australia since 1984. He serves as Chairman of Melon Pastoral Pty Ltd He serves as the Chairman of Australian Stock Exchange Limited since November 1994 and has been its Director since 1990. Mr. Newman serves as the Chairman of Taronga Foundation. Mr. Newman serves as Chairman of Macquarie University Foundation; The Bradman Foundation; and The Australian Fathers' Day Council. He has been a Director of Tiger Airways Australia Pty Ltd. since July 08, 2013. He serves as a Director of Queensland Investment Corporation. Mr. Newman served as the Chairman of Australian Broadcasting Corporation from December 14, 2006 to December 2011. He served as an Executive Chairman of Deutsche Bank Australia from 1985 to 1999. He served as the Chairman at ASX Markets Supervision Pty Limited until August 2008 and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX Limited) until September 2008. Mr. Newman also served as the Chairman of Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific Advisory Board and a Director of Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific from 1999 to July 2001 and as the Chairman of Deutsche Bank Asset Management (Australia) Limited from 1997 to 2000. He served as the Chairman at Acrux Limited. Mr. Newman serves as a Director at QIC Limited since May 2004. Dr Newman has chaired a number of Asian business alliances including the East Asia and Oceania Stock Exchange Federation, and the Australia Taiwan Business Council. Mr. Newman served as the Commissioner of National Commission of Audit 1996. He served as a Commissioner of the National Commission of Audit since 1996; a member of the Business Advisory Panel established by the Minister for Multicultural Affairs from 1997 to 2002; Chairman of the National Judging Panel for Innovation in Local Government from 1997 to 1998, Chairman of the Business Mature Age Workforce Advisory Group from 2000 to 2001; Co-Chair of the Singapore Australia Business Alliance Forum from 1999 to 2002; Chairman of the Federal Treasurer's Financial Sector Advisory Council from 1998 to 2007; Member of the New South Wales Premier's Major Events Board from 2002 to 2004; Chairman of the Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau from 2001 to 2007; and Chairman of Tourism NSW from 2002 to 2007. In 1997, he was Australia's Private Sector Representative to the First Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Business Forum held in London; and in 1999 led a delegation of senior Australian executives to New York promoting Australia, the Dynamic Success Story of the Asia Pacific - A Centre for Global Financial Services. He is a Member of Business Council of Australia Chairmen's Panel, Civil Patron, Royal Australian Naval Reserves, and Professional Studies Program. He has been in MARQ Services Advisory Board since August 2012, and Honorary Professor in Public Diplomacy at the Soft Power Advocacy & Research Centre, Macquarie University since September 2012. He is a Fellow of SDIA and a Senior Fellow of Financial Services Institute of Australia (SF Fin). He holds Doctorate in Business from Macquarie University.

There is no mention of Newman’s time as an executive director at Bain & Co in the Bloomberg account, which is also silent about his scriptwriting efforts.

The general view of Maurice Newman’s time at the ABC may be summed up in this Brett Leithbridge cartoon:

http://www.walkleys.com/gallery/90

Wanker apparently being a popular opinion of Mr. Newman's personality and intellectual capacity - though sometimes more diplomatically expressed as his being naive, behind the times, a flat earth thinker or a class warfare warrior.