The master of reinvention is at it again. From Trump-loving chemical boss to Biden-backing environmentalist, Australian billionaire Andrew Liveris knows no bounds when it comes to saying one thing and doing another.
Today Liveris has found a top spot in The Australian’s business section to declare himself the mastermind behind US President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package. The story features a photo of the Darwin-born oil magnate on a yacht in Sydney where he was “quietly celebrating” the passing of the bill from afar. (Quietly celebrating while on the phone to The Australian and posing for a photo).
According to the story, Liveris has been “working the phones” from Sydney to co-chair Build Together, a US lobby group that represents CEOs from some of America’s biggest companies including General Motors, Walmart and defence manufacturer Raytheon Technologies.
The former chair of US plastics giant Dow Chemical said the bill would pave the way for some of the biggest decisions of this century, “especially of the digital and green kind”.
It’s quite the statement coming for someone who sits on the board of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company. But the former Trump adviser is a master of spinning his personal brand to suit the politics of the day. Since returning to Australia he has become a close adviser to Scott Morrison, paving the way for a “gas-led” recovery even as his personal fortune is tied to the petrochemical industry.
Liveris’ support for Biden is a long way from his days as a Trump adviser when he joined the former president on stage at a rally in Michigan, declaring he “tingled with pride” listening to him speak, and positioning himself as the mastermind of Trump’s “America first” manufacturing policy. But it’s not the first time the billionaire has gone to great lengths to try to be all things to all people.
Last year he helped pen a breathless op-ed calling for the need to “rid the seas of plastic”. This was despite the fact that Dow is one of the biggest manufacturers of plastic, and that Saudi Aramco is the fifth biggest producer of plastics, according to charity Minderoo (whose board, ironically, includes Liveris).
It’s remarkable that despite all the hypocrisy, Liveris still enjoys a relatively clean image in Australia, where he is regularly called upon to give commentary as a “manufacturing expert”, including on the ABC’s Q+A. Perhaps it’s time to call Liveris what he is: a shameless self-promoter who is able to make, serve and eat his own cake.
I remember him appearing on Q and A where he spent much of the time mansplaining to Sarah Hanson-Young (in the most condescending tone) something she understood perfectly well, but which did not agree with his opinion. He is the epitome of male, pale and stale. A completely repulsive person.
I’m still trying to forget his appearance on Q&A, it was a master class in arrogance. His attitude to Hanson-Young & members of the audience was patronising & offensive.
There are words for this type of person.
One is p******e, another is b******t a****t.
But they might be offensive to honest sex workers and male cows.
That old MAD – Lone Ranger – cartoon? …. “What you mean “we”, Paleface?”
Interesting the plastics issue cited in the article, when one is certain most people do not even know that plastics come from fossil fuels……
For example another grifter, David Attenborough patron of Population Matters UK (with Paul Ehrlich and related to SPA locally), blames people, ‘immigrants’ and humanity, now plastics, for environmental degradation while ignoring the sources i.e. fossil fuels and any measures to ameliorate…..
Suppose it’s a long tricky game of denial and delay when the original ZPG Zero Population Growth of the ’70s with Ehrlich and deceased white nationalist John Tanton (the muse of Steve Bannon et al.) was reportedly supported by Rockefeller (then Exxon/Chevron), Ford and Carnegie Foundations; still has legs……
According to Seaspiracy, the fishing industry contributes around 50% of the waste plastic in the oceans of the world – via discarded fishing nets. 50%!!! Incidentally, not all plastics come from fossil fuels; merely most of the plastics that cause pollution.
There is no way to live in Australia today without plastics. This has all happened in my lifetime. When I was a kid, rope was made of natural (not oil based) materials; takeaway food was sold via “bring your own containers”; milk was delivered in re-usable/recycleable glass bottles; and groceries were packed in large paper bags. Rubbish bins were small (maybe 40-50 litre) galvanised steel drums.
We’ve gone backwards.
He’ll be promoting green hydrogen any day now. It’s not his fault we’re all such fools.