Lord Monckton’s second tour of Australia is in tatters after another venue withdrew its offer to host the notorious climate sceptic, despite tickets for the dates still being spruiked online and sold through Ticketek.
Crikey can reveal that the German Club Tivoli, located in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Windsor and originally scheduled to host two speeches from Monckton on July 20, has ditched its support following the Nazi swastika scandal that has made the ex-Margaret Thatcher adviser a laughing stock.
It leaves Monckton with only one remaining fixture in Australia’s second largest city — a function hosted by pollster Gary Morgan in league with the conservative Institute of Public Enterprise in the CBD.
However, the cancellation appears to have been ignored by Monckton’s backers in the Climate Sceptics party, with its website and the Nine Entertainment-owned Ticketek site still plugging the Melbourne events this morning. On Ticketek the speech costs $25.00, plus a $4.95 booking fee.
German Club president Eddie Reichman confirmed to Crikey that he had spoken and written to the Monckton camp to relay the bad news.
“Comments he made a while back…that was not very pleasing to us,” said Reichman.
“It was the backdrop [of the swastika] and the final comment he made…I saw it on the television for that reason, being a German Club, we can’t be associated with him.”
“I notified them verbally and by writing. It will not be happening at our club,” he added.
In the Los Angeles address that led to his downfall, Monckton said “Heil Hitler. On we go” in reference to Ross Garnaut’s apparent fascism in front of a massive PowerPoint swastika. He was later forced to apologise after Australian TV networks went large with the yarn on their 6pm bulletins.
The German Club has courted controversy over the swastika before, which may also explain Reichman’s reticence. In 2009, the feisty pres banned the neo-Nazi group “Blood & Honour” from holding future events on the premises after details of the “tattoo club’s” get together appeared online and in the Herald Sun.
The Melbourne German club’s Adelaide and Fremantle counterparts had already backed away after the Hitler debacle — however, both of those events were not being sold through Ticketek.
The cancellation comes just days after the Brisbane Broncos Leagues Club also dumped its support under media pressure. A replacement venue, Gambaro’s restaurant (owned by the family of federal Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro) was originally floated but Crikey understands the booking fee was too expensive. Instead, it appears the Brisbane speech has been shifted to the suburban Central Bardon Conference Venue.
Last week, Monckton went ahead with speeches at the University of Notre Dame’s Perth campus and the nearby Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ conference, despite vociferous academic protests.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.