Rogue Liberal candidate Frank Pangallo has admitted using A.I. to prepare a list of dodgy documents he submitted to a parliamentary committee and passed off as his own research.
That’s despite telling the Budget and Finance Committee: “I just want to briefly outline what the science is actually telling us about the potential links between desalination plants and harmful algal blooms.”
“This isn't some fantastical conspiracy theory and, unlike the Premier and his 'Yes Ministers', I am basing it on facts I have actually researched,” he previously said.
Now, after initially blaming an “administrative error” and then blaming a staff member, he admits he used an Artificial Intelligence application to compile a list of non-existent academic documents and phony links that he apparently submitted to parliament without checking.
While he has apologised, the apology rings hollow as he continues to double down on his wild assertions, tabling new documents to parliament yesterday – quite different from the phony ones he previously passed off as his own “research”.
However, it appears Mr Pangallo is still submitting documents he hasn’t actually read: one of the documents is entirely focused on the impacts of algal blooms on desalination plants – not the other way round!
The clue is in the title: “A review of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and their potential impacts on desalination facilities.”
Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia is still yet to speak publicly about his hand-picked candidate’s deepening ‘dodgy documents’ scandal. Mr Tarzia’s continued failure to rein in his so-called ‘watchdog’ prompts the question: who is running the SA Liberal Party?
Mr Tarzia has previously backed his predecessor David Speirs’ “deepfake” conspiracy theory when he was photographed snorting cocaine – a drug he was later convicted of supplying. And now Mr Tarzia’s hand-picked recruit is peddling actual fake documents in parliament - and he is silent.
The Adelaide desalination plant was regularly utilised by the former Marshall Liberal government to bolster Adelaide’s water security – including the production of 40 gigalitres of water in 2019-20 under the Water For Fodder program - but now the Liberal leader is tacitly endorsing his high-profile candidate claiming the facility is dangerous and undermining public confidence during an environmental emergency.
It is time for Mr Tarzia to show leadership and explain whether he endorses his star candidate peddling dodgy A.I. documents to promote disproven and dangerous conspiracy theories in a time of environmental crisis.
Why won’t he discipline Frank Pangallo for this outrageous attempt to fool the parliament and the public?
Quotes
Attributable to Tom Koutsantonis
Whatever credibility Vincent Tarzia and the SA Liberal Party might have had left is now on the line.
For the Liberal Party’s star candidate to be generating phony sources using A.I. and then submitting them as parliamentary “evidence” to promote conspiracy theories is absolutely gobsmacking.
How can Mr Pangallo remain on this committee?
If any serious or professional researcher did this, they’d be sacked!
Worse still, it seems the current Liberal leader just believes anything his colleagues tell him. He previously backed his predecessor David Speirs’ “deepfake” conspiracy theory when he was photographed snorting cocaine – telling reporters he had “no reason to doubt” that claim. And now his hand-picked recruit is peddling actual fake documents in parliament, and he is silent.
Mr Pangallo is also doubling down on his conspiracy theories about the algal bloom crisis. But even these are ill-researched – one tabled document deals with the impact of algal blooms on desalination plants, not the other way round!
Vincent Tarzia needs to show leadership, sanction Frank Pangallo and remove him from the Budget and Finance Committee.
The role of Government is public administration: if the Liberals can make an “administrative error” like this, what are they capable of if put in charge of our schools, hospitals and transport system?
