Several prominent politicians and news personnel will be flying to the UK to attend a conference led by psychologist turned internet celebrity Jordan Peterson which purports to “re-lay the foundations of our civilisation”.
First reported by Guardian Australia, the list of attendees include more than 50 Australians, including figures from conservative think tanks and churches, News Corp (inc. Paul Kelly, an editor-at-large at The Australian), current and former politicians such as Tony Abbott, Peter Costello, Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie, South Australia senator David Fawcett, and the Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
The Director of the Indigenous Forum at the Centre for Independent Studies, Warren Mundine, is listed as one of the contributing speakers at the conference. Last year, Mundine campaigned against the Indigenous voice to parliament.
The group will attend the conference, which is being held from 17 to 19 February by Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc), a conservative think tank that claims to bring together “an extraordinary alliance of thought leaders and change-makers from around the world committed to shaping a hope-filled vision for the future.”
Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and self-help book author “whose content hinges on a mix of self-help content, psychology, mystic philosophy and conservative ‘anti-woke’ politics” has long been associated with Arc.
Last year, he was due to visit Sydney for the 2024 edition of the conference, but failed to show up when he could not obtain a visa in time.
According to the Guardian Australia, Deeming will miss a sitting week of state parliament to attend next week’s event in London. She said she has “organised a pair to negate my absence.”
Meanwhile, Bridget McKenzie claims she had been invited “as a guest of the organisation”.
A total of 38 keynote speakers will deliver addresses, among them, seven women, including Somalian-born Dutch-American author and conservative Ayaan Hirsi Ali, journalist Bari Weiss, former president of Hungary Katalin Novák and English actor Sophie Winkleman. Fifty-four panellists and contributors (among them, thirteen women) will be appearing on stage, including The Australian newspaper’s foreign editor, Greg Sheridan, Sky News Australia presenters Peta Credlin and Chris Uhlmann, former prime minister Tony Abbott and the former treasurer Peter Costello.
The group of Australians will join other climate sceptics and fossil fuel advocates to discuss global energy and the environment. The three-day conference will “draw together an invitational community from around the world to be part of the conversation as we work to re-lay the foundations of our civilisation”, the group’s website describes.
Peterson has said that the conference promises to see “the best slate of speakers that’s ever been assembled for any conference anywhere”.
He once described the term net zero as “a conspiracy run by narcissistic poseurs hellbent on gathering all the power to themselves while they pretend to be planetary saviours impoverish the poor and worsen environmental conditions.”