Clive Charles Hamilton AM (born 12 March 1953) is Professor of Public Ethics at Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and he also holds the Vice-Chancellor's Chair at Charles Sturt University. Hamilton is the founder of The Australia Institute, a progressive think tank, and from 1993 to 2008 was its Executive Director. He is well known as a climate change advocate and a public intellectual, and he regularly appears in the Australian media and contributes to public policy debates.
Hamilton was granted the award of Member of the Order of Australia on 8 June 2009 for "service to public debate and policy development, particularly in the fields of climate change, sustainability and societal trends".
Hamilton has a BA from the Australian National University and a BEc (Honours) from the University of Sydney. In 1984 he received a DPhil from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
Hamilton's work offers a critique of modern capitalism and consumerism. His recent book Towards a Post-Secular Ethics was launched in Canberra by Justice Michael Kirby in 2008. His most recent book is titled "Requiem for a Species".
In June 2007, Hamilton's book Scorcher was sharply criticised by The Australian in an editorial and three opinion pieces. The book elaborated on a speech Hamilton gave in February 2006 accusing the newspaper of openly favouring climate change deniers in its opinion pages. Hamilton responded by criticising the "Australia's Right to Know" campaign, which was hosting a non-partisan conference on media reform, for inviting The Australian to participate. Indicative of his lack of political standing, Marian Wilkinson did not follow up on the spat after reviewing the book in The Sydney Morning Herald in April; this was despite the fact she was the only reviewer to discuss Hamilton's criticism of the newspaper.
On 23 October 2009, Hamilton was announced as the Australian Greens candidate for the by-election in the federal seat of Higgins. He ran against nine others for the seat, and came second, receiving 32.40 percent of primary votes and 39.77 percent of preferred votes. The Australian Labor Party did not run a candidate in the election.
Views on internet censorship
Hamilton is a supporter of internet censorship in Australia.