Hugh Matheson Morgan AC, (born 9 September 1940), an Australian businessman, is the son of former Western Mining Corporation CEO Bill Morgan, and was himself CEO of WMC from 1990 to 2003. He was also President of the Business Council of Australia from 2003 to 2005. The Howard Government appointed him to the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1996.[1] He also was the Founding Chairman of the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre. He is currently the Chairman Emeritus of the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre.
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Morgan is a politically vocal member of the Liberal party. He is sceptical of global warming, opposed to the Kyoto Protocol [2] and, as a member of the Greenhouse Mafia and president of the Lavoisier Group,[3] was central to a campaign to prevent the Federal Liberal Government from acting to cut emissions[4] (in collaboration with fellow former WMC executive Ray Evans).
In June 2006, Hugh Morgan formed the company Australian Nuclear Energy with Fairfax chairman Ron Walker and fellow mining executive Robert Champion de Crespigny, planning to build nuclear power plants in Australia.[5] Morgan has a 20% stake in the company.[5] Controversially, prime minister John Howard revealed that he had a discussion with Mr Walker about the company days before he announced an inquiry into nuclear power. (The inquiry predicted that Australia could have 25 nuclear reactors producing a third of the country's electricity by 2050).[6] Formerly an outspoken opponent of Aboriginal Land Rights (Morgan claimed Native Title threatened Australia's sovereignty), Morgan has more recently spoken of reconciling mining with Aboriginal welfare.[7] With less transparent conservation agreements under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, Morgan flagged how an internationally owned nuclear waste repository could be built[8] (such as the one announced on Aboriginal land[9] late in the Howard government era).