21 May 2008

Shallow academic gets pay cut

The Melbourne Age reports that public transport evangelist Paul Mees of Melbourne University has had his pay cut after saying " the authors of a 2007 report on privatisation were "liars and frauds and should be in jail". It's called defamation you lunatic. He says it is an "attack on free speech". He claimed "the comments were not "insulting or derogatory"". What planet does he occupy?
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Well it isn't earth. Mees has long been an environmental evangelist's pinup boy eager to damn any road building and cheerlead on rail and especially light rail projects (you know the sort of people who when talking about this sort of thing sound like they are engaging in foreplay), with rather appalling economic analysis. He's had a pay cut of A$8,000 a year as a result. I wouldn't hire the man for A$8. Tim Blair pointed out that Mees persists that cars are no more fuel efficient today than they were in the 60s and no more cleaner burning, both of which are ludicrous claims.
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This same man claimed on the ABC once that the Melbourne Citylink toll road, which has been a roaring success, would be a failure and need taxpayer bailout.
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Of course the Green Party quotes him, for their anti-road fanaticism, so beware - the media often thinks academics on a subject don't have a barrow to push. Paul Mees is a leftwing, environmentalist car hating light rail enthusiast. If you ask for his opinion, I'd approach Wendell Cox for a rebuttal - and watch the sparks fly.
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Hat Tip: Tim Blair

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha,

Perhaps the Melbourne CityLink wouldn't be so profitable if its contract with the Victoria State government allowed it to sue if it built any roads that would reduce its revenues.

Libertyscott said...

Though if a company has built a road on the basis of it charging the users directly, the Victorian state government should only do the same - given it builds roads funded from taxes it isn't the same.