“Your conspiracy theory seemed utterly stupid,” Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt told soon-to-be One Nation Senator for Queensland Malcolm Roberts in 2012.

Back then, Roberts was project leader for the Galileo Movement, a group that calls man-made induced climate change a “UN political fabrication” and a conspiracy involving the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, among other things. Bolt confronted Roberts after a Fairfax interview in which Roberts had claimed that climate change science had been “captured by some of the major banking families in the world” who form a “tight-knit cabal.”

Bolt had been listed as adviser to the Galileo Movement but demanded his name be removed from the website, as its wild speculation had veered into anti-Semitism. Bolt told Roberts:

“Two of the three most prominent and current banking families you’ve mentioned are Jewish, and the third is sometimes falsely assumed to be. Yes, this smacks too much of the Jewish world conspiracy theorising I’ve always loathed. Again, I insist: remove me from the list of people you claim are prepared to advise you.  I’ve never advised you, Malcolm, and would never want to. I am offended to be linked to you.”

Roberts appeared on Bolt’s radio show with Steve Price on 2GB last night where the issue was discussed. Bolt indicated that the issue of the banking families involved (including the Rothschilds) remains a sticking point for him, but said no one could deny that Roberts was well-researched on the issue of climate change. Roberts said that he didn’t think religion was connected to the climate change “corruption” but reiterated his theories about the international banks.

The Galileo Movement still boasts advisers of the usual cabal of climate change sceptics including Ian Plimer, David Flint and Lord Christopher Monckton. The movement’s patron is 2GB’s Alan Jones.

Now Roberts will be one of four One Nation senators sitting in the Senate when Parliament resumes later this month, a surprise addition to the expected three seats Pauline Hanson’s party picked up at the election.

Roberts also appears to have gone by the full name of “Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts.”, which is an odd punctuation style used by a group of people who believe that government uses grammar to enslave its citizens. Interestingly, he doesn’t seem to think he alone should get all the colon fun — in a downright weird affidavit to Julia Gillard he addresses the prime minister as “The Woman, Julia-Eileen: Gillard.”.

Roberts has studied engineering and economics and has worked for coalface mining and in management consulting. His movement rose to prominence during the peak of the carbon tax debate in 2009-10, when Roberts said he wrote to every MP and senator demanding they back up their claims about climate change with scientific evidence. Roberts has a long history of writing to journalists and politicians about his views on climate change, demanding a response. In one response from The Sydney Morning Herald‘s then-environment editor Ben Cubby, Cubby indicated that Roberts had frequently written to him on the subject:

“As I’ve made clear in earlier replies to your many emails, I don’t mind a civil discussion about environment reporting or climate change. But until you start to ground your opinions in fact, I will continue to regard your correspondence as amusing spam.”

In a press conference Roberts held today in Brisbane, he reiterated many of his claims about climate change, as well as his call for an investigation into the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology:

“We need an investigation into the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology based upon their comments and claims. There is not one piece of empirical evidence anywhere, anywhere, showing that humans cause, through carbon dioxide reduction.”

He also doubled down on his claims about the banks.

“ I started finding out things about the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology. That led me then to the UN which has been driving this. Then I started following the money trails. It’s important to under the motives. The people who will benefit enormously from the climate scam are the major international banks through their carbon dioxide trading … Those banks will make enormous money, trillions, not millions, trillions on trading of credits on a program that does not exist.”

Roberts also said that he backs repealing 18(c) from the Racial Discrimination Act because it was “curbing free speech” on issues like “tax, Islam, terrorism, the economy”.

In his declaration of personal interests, Roberts says his daughter has a horse named Clancy that only eats “fuels from renewable sources.”

“He eats no oil, coal or natural gas! Clancy does fart a lot.”