Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. TOTOTO Mind-blowing conspiracy theories are nothing new for One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts, who is currently under pressure for sharing a social media post featuring a notorious anti-Semitic mural, among other controversies. Long before becoming a One
Mind-blowing conspiracy theories are nothing new for One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts, who is currently under pressure for sharing a social media post featuring a notorious anti-Semitic mural, among other controversies.
Long before becoming a One Nation senator in 2016, Roberts wrote a voluminous letter to then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard, arguing in what appeared to be sovereign citizen-style language that he was not subject to Australian law and should be exempt from the carbon tax.
His letter was addressed to “The Woman, Julia.Eileen: Gillard, acting as The Honorable JULIA EILEEN GILLARD.”
He presented her with a detailed contract that he expected her to sign, accompanied by a demand that she receive compensation of $280,000 if the prime minister did not provide “full and accurate disclosure” regarding 28 points explaining why he should not be liable for the carbon tax.
Roberts referred to himself as “Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts, the Living Soul” and identified himself as the “beneficiary, trustee” of a corporate entity called “MALCOLM IEUAN ROBERTS.”
He also suggested that the Commonwealth of Australia could actually be a US corporation “registered on the stock exchange of the United States of America”.
In his 28-point affidavit sent to Gillard in 2011, he further stated that he had never been provided with “facts or material evidence” compelling him “or any other free man to be a member of a society”, or that he could not resign from a society at any time.
Roberts’s unusual word constructions and punctuation were widely compared at the time to the language employed by the sovereign citizens movement.
Sovereign citizens – an anti-authority group little known to many Australians before the late fugitive Dezi Freeman became infamous – often refer to themselves as “freemen” and use strange language ostensibly to establish their independence from government authority, or what they see as governments’ use of grammar to enslave citizens.
However, Roberts denied being a sovereign citizen in interviews after copies of his correspondence surfaced shortly after his election to the Senate.
At that time he refused to answer questions about the topic to Michael Koziol, of this newspaper, and declared that he would only do live interviews “that cannot be edited.”
In an ABC radio interview in August 2016, Roberts confirmed he was the author of the affidavit he sent to Gillard, but denied being allied with the “sovereign citizens” movement.
“No, I’m not,” he said. “You are welcome.”
Roberts has also long maintained that climate change, or what he calls “human CO2,” is a global conspiracy created by bankers seeking to establish a world government.
In 2013, three years before becoming a One Nation senator, he alleged there was a United Nations campaign for global governance.
That year, he produced an extensive report titled “CSRIOh!: Climate of Deception or First Step to Freedom?”
“The UN IPCC’s unfounded central claim on human CO2 is part of the UN Agenda 21 campaign for global governance,” its report says.
In a 135-page appendix to the report, published online, he detailed his claim that “an international cabal of bankers” exerted massive influence on world affairs.
Their report claimed that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England were privately controlled corporations and that their owners wanted to introduce carbon trading as a way to make money and extend their control over the global economy.
“The goal is global control through global socialist governance by international bankers who hide control behind environmentalism,” he wrote.
He cited as a primary reference for part of his 2013 report the American Holocaust denier, white supremacist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, the late Eustace Mullins.
Roberts was accused at the time – and to this day – of using “international bankers” as a trope to refer to Jews.
However, he has always denied this and insists that he is not anti-Semitic.
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Tony Wright is associate editor and feature writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect by email.From our partners
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