Outspoken climate sceptic Maurice Newman’s term as chairman of the prime minister’s business advisory council expired last week and he has not been reappointed, a spokesman for prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed.



Former prime minister Tony Abbott appointed Newman as one of his first acts after winning government in 2013.

Newman has used a weekly column in the Australian to expound private views on climate change, including that the world was ill-prepared for a period of global cooling and that the United Nations was using debunked climate science to impose a new world order under its own control.

He also called for a government-funded review of the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) to “dispel suspicions of a warming bias” in its temperature record-keeping, something freedom of information documents have recently revealed was under consideration by the prime minister’s department.

Turnbull’s spokesman said the new prime minister, who has strong personal links to the business community, was still considering whether he needed a formal business advisory council. He said Newman had not been reappointed.

The two-year terms of the other 11 members of the council expire in December because they were appointed by Abbott after he had named the chairman.

Newman is a former chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank (Asia Pacific) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as a former chancellor of Macquarie University. When appointing him, Abbott said he wanted to “restore a working relationship between government and Australian business”.

The other council members include former productivity commission chairman Professor Gary Banks, chancellor of the University of Western Australia Michael Chaney, Linfox chairman Peter Fox, Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo, Bluescope steel chairman Graham Kraehe and Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone.