Everyone’s favourite Queensland senator, George Brandis, came over all Voltairean last week, defending to the death the right of complete idiots and knaves to say whatever they want about climate change. To be fair to Brandis, a professed believer in man-made climate change, he was making a larger point about discourse, about the importance of the free exchange of ideas.

I do wonder though if the senator might have been misinformed both about Voltaire and the meaning of the word "debate". The Frenchman never actually wrote or even said the phrase so often attributed to him, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. That stirring call to arms was actually the work of a woman, Evelyn Hall, writing under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre (because who wants to listen to a woman, right?) in a 1906 biography, The Friends of Voltaire. Still, half a point for the classical reference. There should be more of it.

Senator George Brandis fights for your right to debate - even if you don't know what you're talking about, writes John Birmingham. Credit:Andrew Meares

A point off, however, for claiming that unnamed climate change proponents (informally known as "highly qualified scientists") had adopted "medieval tactics" in the debate.

As much as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would probably love to put the scourge and the hot irons to the likes of the Koch Brothers for funding a grotesque and villainous campaign against not only climate science, but the very idea of science itself, I don’t believe we’re there yet.