But Fairfax Media has found at least five further examples after running a sample of Dr Phelps' speeches through online plagiarism detectors. Dr Phelps compared himself to Winston Churchill when presented with evidence he had borrowed from British newspaper articles, blogs and speeches. Perhaps the starkest example comes from a speech last May, on the subject of sustainable development. About 80 per cent of the 1200-word speech matches a piece from the Social Issues Research Centre, a think tank with links to the food industry. The SIRC piece, attacking the "precautionary principle" notes: "The absence of an effect can never be proved, in the way that I cannot prove that there are no fairies at the bottom of my garden.

"All I can say are two things: firstly, sustained observation over the past 20 years has revealed no evidence."

Mr Phelps, by contrast, noted: "The absence of an effect can never be proved in the way that I cannot prove that there are no fairies at the bottom of my garden. "I say two things: first, sustained observation over the past 20 years has revealed no evidence". The piece is rife with other instances of only minor changes to the original. "This is how science works – precisely in accord with the principles of Karl Popper that hypotheses cannot be proved, only refuted," the SIRC continued.

Dr Phelps, in the same vein, continued: "That is how science works – precisely in accord with the principles of Karl Popper that hypotheses cannot be proved, only refuted". Dr Phelps is known for his eccentric sense of humour and habit of speaking to zany motions on the floor of the Legislative Council. More than once this has landed him in hot water, such as speaking about the positive aspects of the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Earlier this year, Dr Phelps rose again in the same fashion, noting the recent anniversary of the Magna Carta, to speak to the topic of the "glory of Britain" and the achievements of the "Anglosphere", a term meaning English-speaking nations. But Dr Phelps' sentiment appears unoriginal.

About 40 per cent of his 700-word address matches a newspaper article on the same subject by a high-profile member of the European Parliament, Daniel Hannan. "We often use the word 'Western' as a shorthand for liberal democratic values, but we're really being polite," Mr Hannan's article notes, before launching into a description of the superiority of Anglo-American values. Dr Phelps' speech contains very nearly an exact copy of this and many other sentences: "We often use the word 'Western' as shorthand for liberal democratic values but we are really being polite when we do that." Dr Phelps said that MPs' copying others' work allowed "views [to] be promoted and promulgated to a wider audience, and to receive a form of official recognition, if not imprimatur, for what is being said". Dr Phelps said he had not attributed authorship because of time constraints or because it was not necessary.

"In all cases [this was] because the message is more important than the messenger," he said. "Churchill and Menzies both borrowed material from others. "Does than make their speeches any less valid in term of their content?" Compare and contrast: the speeches of Dr Peter Phelps Peter Phelps, speech to the NSW Legislative Council, May 6, 2014: One simply has to look to Australia, where Eddie McGuire, a multimedia personality, multimillionaire and president of the Collingwood Football Club, made an off-colour and racially-tinted remark about Australian of the Year Adam Goodes.

The powerful and influential McGuire was castigated by virtually every media outlet in the land and forced to make a grovelling apology. Jeremy Sammut, the Spectator Australia May 3, 2014: Witness the reaction last year when Eddie McGuire, multimedia personality and president of AFL club Collingwood, made a racially tinged and off-colour remark about the current Australian of the Year, Indigenous footballer Adam Goodes. The powerful and influential McGuire was castigated by virtually every media outlet in the land and forced to make a grovelling apology. Peter Phelps, speech to the NSW Legislative Council, May 8, 2014:

A new mantra is beginning to occupy pride of place in debates on all environmental issues, whether they be to do with food safety, genetic engineering or global warming – the precautionary principle. Originating in 1960s Germany as Vorsorgeprinzip (literally foresight planning) it has been increasingly seized upon by green activists and other romantics since the 1970s as an unanswerable credo – when considering technological innovation, The Social Issues Research Centre, [online archive available since 2012]: This new mantra is beginning to occupy pride of place in debates on all environmental issues, whether they be to do with food safety, urban planning, genetic engineering or global warming. The precautionary principle, which originated in the 1960s in Germany, has been increasingly seized upon by Green activists and other romantics since the 1970s as an unanswerable credo when considering technological innovation.

Peter Phelps, speech to the NSW Legislative Council, June 23, 2015: Above all, liberty was tied up with something that foreign observers could only marvel at: the miracle of the common law. Laws were not written down in the abstract and then applied to particular disputes; they were built up by accretion, like a coral reef, case by case. They came not from the state but from the people. The common law was not a tool of government but an ally of liberty. MEP Daniel Hannan, The Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2013: Above all, liberty was tied up with something that foreign observers could only marvel at: the miracle of the common law. Laws weren't written down in the abstract and then applied to particular disputes; they built up, like a coral reef, case by case. They came not from the state but from the people. The common law wasn't a tool of government but an ally of liberty.