Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 124.190.11.155 (talk) at 18:47, 25 July 2020 (→Political career: Adding context). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Gerard Rennick (born 5 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Queensland since July 2019. He is a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and sits with the Liberal Party in federal parliament.

Early life

Gerard was born and raised on a property outside Chinchilla, on the Darling Downs. In his youth he worked as a farmhand, fruit picker, bartender and pump attendant.

He completed his education in Toowoomba at Downlands College, before moving to Brisbane where he completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Queensland. He also has a master's degree in Taxation Law from the University of Sydney and a master's degree in applied finance from FINSIA. He is married with three children.

Political career

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Rennick donated $35,000 to the Liberal National Party of Queensland in the year before winning the third slot on the party's senate ticket—a position that eventually saw him elected to a six-year term. The LNP rejected as "offensive and ridiculous" any suggestion the donations played a role in his preselection, and highlighted the fact that some of their members self funded their elections.

During a speech on the Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct Bill, he referred to Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt as Labor's "chief yapping poodle."

On an interview on Sky News, Rennick spoke about government overreach in the "classroom and the bedroom" and compared it to a Communist takeover by the bureaucracy. When asked to clarify, Rennick said "there are... groups within Australia, they are not Chinese groups, they are Australian groups, that seek to undermine our individual liberties and I think that is a greater threat to our sovereignty ." Many of these communists regularly attack Rennick on Misplaced Pages by using unsubstantiated slurs from left wing activists.

Positions

Tax Reform

Rennick has used his background in finance to advocate for tax reform. He called for profits in Australia to be taxed at the same rate as profits of foreign owned entities. He claims that this will fund cuts to both payroll tax (even though this is a state based tax) and income tax.

Rennick has repeatedly accused the Australian government's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) of falsifying climate data, and tampering with climate data to "perpetuate global warming hysteria". On 12 November 2019 Rennick again accused BOM of not following proper processes when recording statistical data, although he admitted he had not yet met with the BOM, adding would "get to that eventually". Rennick stated that he had read the 2011 independent peer review panel findings into the BOM's methods but nonetheless he accused the BOM of incompetence due to the BOM's supposed failure, in his eyes, to meet the recommendations of the review, even though the key finding of the review was that the methodologies used by the Bureau were satisfactory. Despite this the panel made 31 recommendations for the Bureau indicating the poor quality assurance practices of their work. Most conspicuously, the Bureau has not included confidence intervals in their models a basic statistical procedure. They have also failed to undertake parallel runs on changes in the equipment despite parallel runs being listed as one of ten best practices in Appendix 2. Rennick, who is not a scientist, continued to accuse the BOM of not following proper procedures because, inter alia, Australian weather stations do not yet have 3 temperature gauges, as is now best practice in the USA and Canada. This was not a recommendation of the independent review panel, which only recommended that equipment "redundancy" be deployed in weather stations over time, to which the BOM agreed, stating that "System redundancy will be introduced gradually over a ten-year period at a rate that is dependent on available funding." In their reply to Rennick’s Questions on notice the cost of a thermometer was $1200. Despite having an Annual budget of over $300 million dollars, the Bureau does not consider Quality Assurance important enough to invest approximately $300,000 to have 3 thermometers at each ACORN weather station to reduce redundancy and improve calibration as advised by the Independent Peer Review. The bureau uses reference stations as far as 1000kms away to guess what the temperature would be if a thermometer breaks down and claims it can guess what the temperature was as far back as a hundred years ago, because they assume that the reference station recording was accurate but the ACORN recording wasn’t. This practice is insulting to the volunteers who collected data for the bureau and is a part of the Marxist cancel culture that has infected many parts of the bureaucracy including the BOM.

Rennick has also accused the BOM of "keeping two sets of books", saying that scientific data collection should be subject to the rigorous statistical quality assurance.

Rennick has questioned the bureau in the media and at Senate estimates on including charges that they have destroyed records. During that questioning Rennick accused the Bureau of ignoring scientific advice and destroying records, and suggested that the BOM showed a lack of commitment to scientific accuracy. When questioning the CSRIO, Rennick based part of his argument on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The scientist questioned pointed out that models didn’t need to use an understanding of quantum physics despite the fact that photons are the subatomic particles that carry energy and that the assumptions climate models use should take into account the emissivity of CO2, which indicates how much energy a CO2 molecules radiates. ta Many of Rennick's questions to the BOM were taken on notice. BOM director, Andrew Johnson responded to these accusations by stating that the "Bureau stand by the quality and integrity of those datasets. The answer is obstruction as the bureau and Johnson could not explain why they destroyed records relating to observational practices rather than digitalise them as advised in the peer review. As per s24 of the 1983 Archives Act it is illegal to destroy records. Observational records are not considered records that can be destroyed in the normal course of business. ”

Rennick has challenged BOM on the margin of error in their thermometers, which according to the independent panel's findings, should be reduced from ±0.5°C to ±0.2°C. The BOM has not replied to Rennick's queries about the implementation of procedures recommended by the 2011 review,although the BOM did agree in 2012 to tighten the error margins in their response to the independent review, and has shown progress in implementing this. The BOM also reported that the 6-monthly checks of some of their weather stations showed that 97% were within 0.2 °C and 99.5% of the stations were within 0.5 °C. Despite these claims the Bureau indicated in the reply to questions on notice from Rennick that they have still not reduced their margin of error to 0.2 °C, five years later after claiming they have. The public service code of conduct prohibits dishonesty.

Superannuation

On 13 November 2019 Rennick called superannuation a "cancer", stating in his speech; "Millions of dollars gets sucked out of the pockets of the battlers in the bush and sent to the blowhards in Sydney and Melbourne to manage, all for a small cost of around $37 billion a year in management fees." He said union-linked industry super funds were "laughing all the way to the bank" while no money was reinvested in regional areas. In the same speech he accused the Labor party of selling regional Australia "down the toilet" during the Hawke-Keating era through their globalist, privatisation agenda - selling off such government owned corporations as Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "Now regional Australia has to pay more for flying regionally than it costs to fly overseas...The CBA, like every other bank in this country, became obsessed with housing rather than driving business and investment, especially in the regions."

Childcare

He called Labor's policy of providing free childcare to all 3 year olds in Australia a conspiracy "to strengthen the role the state has in raising a child at the expense of parents." Rennick's position is that "subject to financial considerations, if we can leave children at home with at least one parent, that's something worth striving for," but he suggested that "early childhood education is... not the best way to invest in our future".

Foreign relations

Rennick has advocated for closer ties with Russia because "they're part of the West; they drink, they're Christians, they play soccer, they're Caucasian". Rennick has called for deescalating tensions with Vladimir Putin and Russia; "They are a genuine superpower and it’s not in the world’s interest to have antagonistic relations with superpowers...There’s a bigger picture here and it is world peace."

Rennick raised doubts that Russia was behind the Skripal chemical weapons attack in the United Kingdom.

Rennick is a non-interventionist and has spoken out against regime change wars. He outlined his position clearly during his maiden speech.

Immigration

Rennick has compared Australia's immigration policy to farmers who "overstock paddock", and has claimed that immigration was more damaging to Australia's environment than carbon pollution. He also wants a reduction in the number of temporary visa holders in Australia which numbers over 2 million.

Other positions

Rennick has been a long term advocate for reforming the federation; government building and retaining profit making infrastructure such as dams, ports and electricity power plants; sustainable immigration to ensure quality of life for all Australians; higher taxes on profits sent offshore; and he has called on universities to underwrite the costs of education.

Rennick opposes the closing of maternity wards by the state government in regional Queensland.

Rennick is also opposed to the adoption of poker machines in the state of Queensland. He consequently has accused the Labor state government of being "utterly incompetent and morally corrupt".

He also spoke about having a constitutional convention to clearly define and separate the responsibilities of the Federal and State Governments in the federation - "It is time for COAG to hold a constitutional convention to clearly define and separate these responsibilities with proposed changes put to a referendum."

References

1. "SA, WA and Qld Senate teams are finalised". NewsComAu. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
2. "Gerard Rennick". Liberal Party of Australia. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
3. ^ corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Senator Gerard Rennick". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 11 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. "ParlInfo - FIRST SPEECH". parlinfo.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
5. Conifer, political reporter Dan (24 April 2019). "Controversial candidate won spot on Senate ticket after 12-month cash splash". ABC News. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
6. "Senate candidate Gerard Rennick donated $30k to LNP ahead of preselection. In 2016 Rennick was a senate candidate for the LNP".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
7. corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 29 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Hansard Display". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 29 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
9. https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6162561965001
10. "ParlInfo - FIRST SPEECH". parlinfo.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
11. corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Hansard Display". www.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 29 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
12. Coughlan, Matt (13 November 2019). "Lib senator says superannuation a 'cancer'". Guardian News. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
13. "Senator Gerard Rennick". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
14. "Coalition candidate Gerard Rennick floats 12 per cent company tax rate, suggests early education a conspiracy - ABC News". www.abc.net.au. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
15. "Stop vilifying Russia: candidate". www.theaustralian.com.au. 26 September 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
16. "Coalition candidate Gerard Rennick floats 12 per cent company tax rate, suggests early education a conspiracy - ABC News". www.abc.net.au. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
17. "Senator Rennick - First Speech".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
18. Remeikis, Amy (10 September 2019). "LNP senator compares immigration to 'over stocking' paddocks – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
19. ^ "Senator Gerard Rennick". 2GB. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
20. "Courier-Mail: QLD maternity ward closure putting newborn babies at risk".{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
21. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansards/644bd0ba-8cda-49ec-8c32-397474f759c5/&sid=0030
22. ^ https://www.gerardrennick.com.au/parliament/maiden-speech/
23. https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2006/30-2006.pdf
24. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansards/644bd0ba-8cda-49ec-8c32-397474f759c5/&sid=0030
25. https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2006/30-2006.pdf
26. "LNP senator says Australia's immigration policies like 'over stocking' paddocks". SBS News. Retrieved 11 September 2019.

• Liberal National Party of Queensland politicians
• Living people
• 1970 births
• People from the Darling Downs
• Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland
• University of Queensland alumni
• University of Sydney alumni