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'''Mike Nahan''' has spent most of his life as an administrator and lobbyist with John Hyde's Perth-based [[Australian Institute of Public Policy]] in Western Australia, and then as the Director of the State Policy Unit after it merged with the Kemp Family's [[Institute of Public Affairs]] in Melbourne, Victoria. More recently he has returned to Western Australia, entered Liberal Party politics and ended up as the WA Treasurer.
He is most famous among Australian health researchers and journalists for a document he wrote to [[Robert Deards]], who ran of the [[Australian Tobacco Information Centre]], outlining a proposed deal with the tobacco industry to run a program which includes bringing Steve Milloy]] the notorious 'junk-science' king of TASSC to Australia, and promoting him to the media as a scientific guru.
==Documents & Timeline==
<b>1997 Nov</b> [[Mike Nahan]] at the [[Institute of Public Affairs]] was writing to [[Robert Deards|Bob Deards]] of the Tobacco Information Centre. This was the hurried replacement for the [[Tobacco Institute of Australia]] when its activities were exposed by the signing in the USA of the [[Master Settlement Agreement]]. Nahan is spelling out the IPA;s current services to the tobacco industry with an implicit request for more money. (See [https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/stfd0204 letter] <font color=green>
: Both the IPA in Melbourne and its associated [[Centre for Independent Studies]] in Sydney were getting annual retainers and special grants for specific lobbying projects from the tobacco companies, until this year. </font><BLOCKQUOTE><I><OL>
We are planning a number of things that will be of interest to your members.<font color=green></I></BLOCKQUOTE>
: Deards 'members' were the main tobacco companies in Australia who were under attack.</font>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<LI> We are in the process of publishing a monograph by Peter Finch with a working title of <I><B> "The Smoking Epidemic: Death and Sickness Among Australian Smokers"</B></I>. The monograph uses the anti-smoking lobby's own research to attack the conclusions they draw from the research. The monograph is currently with referees and, subject to successful passage of our review process -- which is expected -- we plan to publish June 1994.[http://members.iinet.net.au/~ray/finch2.pdf See Draft Copy]</I></BLOCKQUOTE><font color=green>
: Peter D Finch (A statistics lecturer at Monash University - not a "Professor" - although he used the title) was a serial supporter of the cigarette companies (as was the Institute of Public Affairs). He published pro-tobacco articles through a series of think-tanks which laundered tobacco money: [[Social Affairs Unit]] in the UK, the [[Manhattan Institute]] in New York, and the Melbourne [[Institute of Public Affairs]]. His associates were [[Christopher E Ulyatt]] and [[J. Raymond Johnstone]] - both with the WA Uni and John Hyde's [[Australian Institute of Public Affairs]]. They were collaborators with [[John C Luik]] from Canada who was brought out to Australia by the IPA to help the local tobacco industry obstruct (unsuccessfully) the first international 'plain packaging laws' for cigarettes.</font>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<li> Secondly, we will be publishing an Australian version of a book by [[Steven Milloy]] entitled <I><b>"Science Without Sense: The Risky Business of Public Health Research".</b></I> This book is a lighthearted but hard hitting critique of junk science in public health. Mr Milloy is an American public health specialist and a lawyer. We will organise a national lecture tour to accompany the release of the book. This should be released in March 1998.</I></BLOCKQUOTE><font color=green>
: Milloy was neither a lawyer or a public health specialist: he was a professional lobbyist hired to run a very successful (for a time) "junk science" operation known as [[The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition]] (TASSC). This had been set up by Philip Morris through their private PR firm, [[APCO]]. In the early days of the internet it became the source of anti-science propaganda: claiming that global warming, the toxicity of dioxins and DDT, and the claimed dangers of cigarettes, were all the results of "junk-science" conducted by biased researchers. Nathan and Deards would both have known of this connection by this date.</font>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<LI> Third, [[Alan Moran]] (IPA staff executive) is writing a feature article for the December 1997 Edition of ''IPA Review.'' It draws from three contemporary pieces of work: the revamped 'blue book' prepared by ACIL on the costs & benefits of smoking; a recent article of Robert Bork defending people's choice to smoke,; and the Alan's analyses in "Soaking the Poor". The article will address the issues from the viewpoints of the economics and morality of individual choice.</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<font color=green>
: ACIL was actually the cosmetic front of an 'Economic Consultancy" that had been retrofitted to the [[Tasman Institute]]. This was an associated (to IPA) libertarian advocacy operation which transformed itself into a semi-legitmate research organisation for right-wing governments wanting to justify privatisation of public assets. This Institute ran ''Project Victoria" for the Kennett Liberal government's privatisation program.</font>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<LI> Fourth, next year we plan to prepare a Special Lift-out in the ''IPA Review'' on the nanny state. The lift-out will be published and distributed separately from the IPA Review with a circulation in the vicinity of 8,000 [copies].</I></BLOCKQUOTE><font color=green>
: The term "Nanny State"" to characterise the UK welfare system was invented for Margaret Thatcher by [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Ralph Harris]] of the London [[Institute of Economic Affairs]] and used very successfully by her in her campaign to become the UK Prime Minister. Harris then established two operations for the tobacco industry: [[FOREST]], the Smoker's Rights organisation, and the [[European Science & Environment Forum]] (ESEF) which was the European version of the American TASSC (initially known by the US tobacco companies as "Euro-TASSC). It was run by Harris's assistant at the IEA, [[Roger Bate]], but he didn't have the skills of [[Steve Milloy]] and the ESEF was only marginally successful in becoming the arbiter of what was 'sound science' and what was 'junk science'. It's most effective propaganda was the spread of the derogatory term "Nanny State" to suggest regulatory interference in personal choice -- and the organisation that spread this message so successfully in Australia was the [[Institute for Public Affairs]].</font>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<LI> Fifth, staff of the ''IPA Review'' write a large number of op-ed pieces (over 200 last year) and are otherwise active in the media. In the ast we have written on a variety of issues of interest to you and we no doubt will continue to do so.</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<font color=green>
: Op-ed writing for the newspapers is still the main activity of the IPA, and the newspaper editors know that they will be well written (the IPA has a multiple input and review process) and they don't need to pay for the copy. They can always claim to justify the opinion as the need to balance views against those of most journalists.</font>
Of course other things may arise during the year, </I></OL> [http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pfe51a99/pdf]</BLOCKQUOTE>