A prominent member of the Blue Mountains Greens has come under fire for her past links with controversial rightwing thinktank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), with one Greens councillor describing the situation as “extraordinary”.
Nichole Hoskin stood for the Greens in Ward 1 at the last council election but revelations she worked for the IPA 10 years ago saw her criticised on social media last week. Ms Hoskin worked as a researcher at the IPA for eight months in 2008-2009.
The Institute is regularly a target of left wing criticism for its scepticism over climate change. It is notoriously tight lipped about its funding (and as a registered charity is not legally obliged to divulge these details) but mining magnate Gina Rinehart donated $4.5 million to the think tank in 2016-2017.
Responding to questions about her IPA connection on the Facebook group, Blue Mountains Political Forum, Ms Hoskin wrote: “I didn’t agree with the vast majority of their views. I worked with one of their fellows and wrote about animal welfare, animal rights campaigns and the scientific research.”
She accused one of her Facebook critics of “blatantly” mischaracterising what she wrote on a blog post by an IPA fellow and “straying into defamation”, while accused another of mansplaining the issue.
“Funnily enough, I don’t need the IPA mansplained to me. The widely different views on most things was why I decided to leave and pursued practising law,” she posted.
When contacted by the Gazette she said: “Embarrassingly for them [social media critics], they appear to have completely misunderstood the articles I wrote and cannot provide any examples to back their claims that I’m a climate change denier. I believe that climate change is real and that we need to be advocating for solutions for the many people that climate change will force to flee their homes.”
It’s clearly an extraordinary situation which the Blue Mountains Greens will need to resolve internally with strict regard to procedural fairness.
- Cr Brent Hoare
Ward 2 Greens Cr Brent Hoare described the revelations as “extraordinary” when contacted by the Gazette.
“It’s clearly an extraordinary situation which the Blue Mountains Greens will need to resolve internally with strict regard to procedural fairness,” he said.
The controversy came in the same week conservative talkback radio host Ray Hadley praised Greens Ward 1 Cr Kerry Brown on his 2GB program. He congratulated Cr Brown, who has appeared on his show, for having “brains” for not supporting Labor’s Mark Greenhill in last week’s mayoral vote.
Ms Hoskin was the number two candidate on Cr Brown’s ticket at the 2016 council elections and regularly attends council meetings.
Cr Brown declined to comment when contacted.