Jennifer Marohasy

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Dr Jennifer Marohasy (b. 1963) is a senior fellow at the Australian think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, known for its free-market advocacy and is a director of the Australian Environment Foundation which she says was born out of frustration with the current direction of environment groups.^[1] She holds a PhD in biology from the University of Queensland.

Contents 1 Family History 2 Early career 3 Her Work at the Institute of Public Affairs 4 Public Position on Global Warming 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Family History

Marohasy was born Jennifer Joyce Turnour in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1963. Her parents were farmers at Coomalie Creek near the uranium mine of Rum Jungle. They grew tomatoes and pasture seed, ran buffaloes and cattle and built their home from handmade mud bricks.

She started school at Batchelor, but by second grade her parents had sold the farm and left the Northern Territory, to travel around Australia for a year. The family eventually settled in the Conondale ranges in south eastern Queensland, and their home became the community centre for the alternative lifestyle village of Crystal Waters.

After Conondale, the family moved to Indonesia where her father, John Turnour, worked on aid projects. Marohasy went to Clayfield College, a boarding school in Brisbane.

She started at the University of Queensland studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science but after one semester changed to a Bachelor of Science majoring in entomology and botany in 1984.

In Augsut 1988 she married Aime Marohasy, a Malagasy national, they separated in 1998 and divorced a year later. The union produced one child Caroline born in February 1989.

Dr Marohasy's brother, Jim Turnour MP, is the current ALP member for Leichhardt (Qld) in the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament.^[2]

[edit] Early career

After graduating Marohasy got a job with the Alan Fletcher Research Station and in 1985 was sent to work in Madagascar as a field biologist subsequently working for seven years in remote parts of Africa and Madagascar. The success of the biological control project that she worked on in Madagascar is documented in 'Reclaiming lost provinces: A century of weed biological control in Queensland' (Queensland Dept of Natural Resources and Mines, 2005).^[3]

During the 1990s, she published in Australian and international scientific journals and completed a PhD.^[4]

In 1997 she switched from researcher to environment manager with the Queensland sugar industry. In 2001, she started to develop an interest in environmental campaigns and, in particular, anomalies between fact and perception regarding the health of coastal river systems and the Great Barrier Reef.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2003, she became director of the environment unit at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

[edit] Her Work at the Institute of Public Affairs

While head of the Environment Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, Dr Marohasy compiled a backgrounder titled Myth and the Murray - measuring the real state of the river environment^[5] which was published by the Institute in December 2003. The Institute received a $40,000 donation from Murray Irrigation Limited at that time.^[6] This paper is quoted in the Interim Report of the Inquiry into future water supplies for Australia’s rural industries and communities of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, March 2004. At a science round table of the committee, when asked for her views on how much water should be returned to the River Murray, Dr Marohasy argued that there was no need for additional flows at that time and that we should test the results of current environmental measures before committing to more.^[7]

Dr Marohasy has been instrumental in establishing a joint programme with the Institute of Public Affairs and the University of Queensland, funded by Western Australian philanthropist, Dr Bryant Macfie (A top 20 Shareholder in Strike Resources Limited[3][4]).^[8][9]

Dr Marohasy’s research topics include dugongs and whales.^[10]

[edit] Public Position on Global Warming

In an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview she stated that... [i]t's not clear that climate change is being driven by carbon dioxide levels...whether or not we can reduce carbon dioxide levels, there will be climate change.^[11]

On Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National program, Okham's Razor, she says... I agree with Professor Flannery that we need to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.^[12]

In an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National program, Counterpoint, she said that... there has been cooling if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last ten years. ...very unexpected not something that is being discussed. It should though be being discussed because it is very significant.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• IPA homepage
• Jennifer Marohasy homepage
• Sourcewatch
• [5]
• [6]