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Wednesday May 22, 2013

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Jonathan Moylan's utterances have the ring of self-delusion

Posted by: Steve Vizard | 9 January, 2013 - 2:40 PM
Steve Vizard.

One man’s cause is another man’s tedium. One man’s passion is another man’s indifference. One man’s sense of humour is another man’s insult.

On Monday, environmental anti-coal activist Jonathan Moyal exercised his perverse passion, he displayed his unique sense of humour in pursuit of his particular cause, anti-coal mining, when he issued a fake ANZ press release announcing that the ANZ had withdrawn a $1.2 billion line of credit to Australian coal miner Whitehaven.

The results, much to Jonathon Moylan’s joy, were profound an immediate.

Acting on the fake, negative press release, shares in Whitehaven mines plummeted wiping approximate $314 million of value from the company almost immediately as share traders dumped the shares.

An unrepentant Moylan was ecstatic even after his fraud was discovered: “The hoax is a campaign against ANZ because if its customers knew their money was being used to finance coal, they’d object to that.”

Really? Frankly, Moylan’s utterances have the ring of utter self-delusion.

First, the ANZ’s financing of coal mines is available in public documents to shareholders; It’s public information. The banks customers are aware of such support of such industries by the ANZ.

Second, even if he believes his cause, Moylan has discredited the integrity of his cause by engaging in such reckless behaviour.

Thirdly, he’s damaged the integrity of the financial market.

Fourthly – and critically, his protests have hurt precisely the wrong people. Many ordinary investors, share traders, mums and dads, and super funds who all took a loss, dumped their shares because of that announcement. His useless protest has been made at the expense of ordinary people like you, who collectively lost $314 million to pay for his fruitless outburst.

Earlier today, ASIC raided Jonathan Moylan’s campsite and seized his computers and property. Doubtless, Moylan will get his comeuppance. He will pay the prices for his pointless outburst, but nothing will compensate the investors who lost $300 million.

As worrying, in my view, is a slightly different development - Greens leader Christine Milne and Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon have both come out and congratulated Moylan on his hoax.

Hello, it’s one thing for a lone wolf protester to break the law and potentially face the legal consequences. But for one of Australia’s most senior politicians to blindly, laughingly endorse this pointless exercise in law-breaking, to condone the fraud, and to be seemingly indifferent to his loss of hundreds of millions of dollar by day traders – perhaps you – I think is breathtaking.

Senator Milne said, siding with the hoaxer: "The two hottest days in Australian history have just been recorded and fires are burning around the country."

"Companies that are driving climate change will increasingly come under scrutiny and be exposed for their investments and actions, and Jonathon Moylan is drawing attention to these companies."

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Hoaxer refuses to admit dirty tactics

Jonathan Moylan. (Photo: Kitty Hill)ANZ HOAX: A 24-year-old man whose hoax ANZ media release saw $314 million be wiped from the value of Whitehaven Coal has refused to say whether he employed ‘dirty tactics’ in his anti-coal campaign.

 

Blog comments Your Say

  • @Ahhh; Are you suggesting that the investing public (including many pensioners and private superannuation funds) should be intimidated into doing the will of a bunch of financial incompetents and nut-cases?

    David T. Sunday 13 January, 2013 - 5:16 PM

  • Hundreds of people lost money on their shares because of Jonathan's actions - but hundreds of millions will loose their jobs, property or even lives because of coal mining - coal mining made possible because of public investment. Perhaps Mr Molyan did the wrong thing, but he did it for the right reason.

    JNB Friday 11 January, 2013 - 5:34 PM

  • To Ahhh. Congratulations on bringing to light the type of morals that qualify the "Greens" to be added to the list of despotic, Machievellian pigs that include Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin etc.
    I bet you'd be the first cry- baby if your Centrelink payment was stopped because of "drastic times". Keep up the great commentary.

    Eddy Friday 11 January, 2013 - 2:07 PM

  • Nice to see people rise in defence of the share market while ignoring the defence of the environment, and at the end of the day, human existence.
    Without humanity, we have no financial markets.
    Bob Brown understood the bigger picture and so spent 19 days in jail in the defence of humanity via the Franklin Dam.
    Well done Jonathan Moylan.

    Greens Win Friday 11 January, 2013 - 1:40 PM

  • If the "Greens" are content to openly condone fraud as a means to their ends, it's not hard to imagine what they are willing to do in secret. How stupid can these people, (Milne et co.) be, to publicly align themselves with such values. They have taken a giant leap to the radical left on this one. Moderate people, who may have had sympathies of a green nature, will surely have to rethink their notions of the "Greens" as a legitimate, rational representative of a sector of the Australian public. To Kai Wild-- Wonderful quotation Kai. "stupid people think, brilliant people are crazy"....someone once said???? Who said?...I know, a crazy person said. Just cos you write it, don't make it so....unless you are crazy.

    Eddy Friday 11 January, 2013 - 11:27 AM

  • Congratulations to Johnathan â?? drastic times call for drastic measures and, although it has cost ordinary people, perhaps those very people will think twice about where they invest their money in the future and which companies they support.

    Ahhh Friday 11 January, 2013 - 9:45 AM

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