Bundarrah Days

Melbourne University's Professor Ary Hoffmann was touted as an alpine expert in the Weekly Times this week as he criticised the Victorian Government's fledgling alpine grazing study.

The good professor claimed there was a "a lot of research" on whether grazing reduced fires and that it had produced "no strong evidence that grazing suppresses fire in the alpine area".

Quite simply Ary is wrong! To begin with he is not an alpine expert. I checked. His qualifications are listed as a bachelor of science and a PhD and when I asked him today numerous times whether he had ever carried out a study in the Victorian Alps or knew anything about alpine grazing he refused to provide me with a yes or a no.

Turns out he had some involvement with a study on climate change and alpine vegetation and that's supposed to make him an expert. Pull the other one, Ary!

In fact there is not a lot of research on grazing and fuel reduction in the Victorian Alps. There is the notorious and thoroughly discredited CSIRO travesty by Dick Williams and that's about it.

The new study by Professor Mark Adams initiated by the Victorian government will continue for six years and will be the most comprehensive study involving alpine grazing ever carried out. Green activists fear it will prove them comprehensively wrong.

You see, not only do they like to quote "the science", they like to own it. How dare anyone but they and theirs conduct a scientific study in the Alpine National Park. That's just not the done thing. Too bad!

Ary Hoffmann has made no contribution to the field of alpine grazing so what qualifies him to comment? Ah, he's read the literature. Well, big deal - so have I and I have vastly more experience in Victoria's alpine country than he does.

Ary was quite annoyed by our interview. He stated that he "didn't have to put up with this kind of abuse", and promptly hung up.

Bottom line? He wasn't abused and there were witnesses who heard every word I said. He was caught on the hop and didn't appreciate it.

That's what he gets for making allegedly expert comments on an issue he knows nothing about on a professional basis and has not conducted studies on.

Green scientists who claim expertise they don't possess in order to comment publicly on topics they know next to nothing about in an attempt to manipulate public opinion deserve to be outed and will be at every opportunity.

Accountability is the name of the game and these alleged experts are going to be held accountable from now on just as other professionals are.