Lord Monckton climate change lecture costs Australian sceptics $100,000

It's astonishing, but aside from travel costs, climate sceptic Lord Monckton will get a $20,000 stipend as the organiser in Noosa, Queensland calls for donations
What price climate scepticism? Ever wondered? Well, now we have an answer. With just a few days to go now before the climate sceptic Lord Monckton sets off from his Highlands estate and embarks on his grand tour of Australia to spread the good word, a local newspaper in Queensland called the Noosa Journal has revealed how much Monckton's trip down under is costing his loyal fans. Nice work if you can get it, judging by the comments made by Case Smit, the Noosa resident who has invited Monckton to speak in his home town:
Mr Smit said getting Lord Monckton to Australia came at a substantial cost and he was appealing to supporters for donations. "We have to fly Lord Monkton to Australia, cover all his domestic travel and accommodation and provide a stipend of $20,000 [£11,500],'' he said. "Our aim is to cover these costs from donations from individuals, appropriate associations and corporations. We expect the required total to be about $100,000. We would like to keep the cost of admission to Monckton's lectures to around $20 to maximise the number of people that will come to hear him. We have already had a number of offers of $1,000 and would prefer donations to be of that order, but of course any amount is very welcome. Should there be a surplus, this, depending on the amount, will be given to Lord Monckton and/or the Climate Sceptics Party which is assisting with this project.''
Personally, I would love to know what Monckton has requested to be on his rider. One suspects that if the tour is reportedly costing $100,000, with Monckton bagging a $20,000 stipend, then the organisers can afford him something a little more luxurious than, say, the obligatory freshly pressed towels and bottles of mineral water.
The story of how the idea for the tour was born is worth hearing, too. Australian Associated Press is reporting that it originated how all good ideas originate – between good friends over a beer.
Engineer John Smeed said he and a friend, retiree Case Smit, were having lunch and "crying in our beer about what Mr Rudd was going to do to us", when they decided there was no point just whingeing. The pair contacted Australian climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer, who was with Lord Monckton at the Copenhagen conference. "We rang Ian and said, put the weights on his Lordship and ask him if he'll come out to Australia," Mr Smeed said. "He agreed, and it ran from there."
What a double act – Plimer and Monckton together on the same stage. And, by all accounts, it is building up to be quite the social event, too:
It promised to be an entertaining tour, Mr Smeed said. "His Lordship's a bit of a thespian," he said. "He's very good on his feet." Mining heiress Gina Rinehart, chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting, will host the Perth visit on 8 February, before Lord and Lady Monckton are scheduled to leave Australia on 9 February.
Not all Australians are looking forward to the moment Monckton steps off the plane in Sydney on 27 January, though. It seems news of Monckton's infamous "Hitler Youth" jibes during the Copenhagen summit are common knowledge down under, as is his habit of making grandiose unfounded claims on his curriculum vitae. The Australian news site Crickey, for example, isn't exactly enamoured by the thought of Monckton hitting the nation's airwaves and lecture halls:
It is tempting to scoff at the simple-minded mid-west Americans who lap up [Monckton's] fairy stories, until we remember that Senator Nick Minchin believes them too … Monckton and his associates are to climate scepticism what black-clad anarchists are to the anti-globalisation movement, except that the Moncktonians are no longer just embarrassing parasites on the body of sceptical thought but have colonised the host entirely.