Sam Newman slams Greta Thunberg in vicious tweet

Polarising football identity Sam Newman has landed in hot water again, this time lashing out at teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg ahead of his trip to Perth to host a grand final function at Optus Stadium.

After the 16-year-old Swedish girl made an impassioned speech to world leaders at the United Nations in New York this week, a furious Newman tweeted: “This annoying little brat addressed the UN on the so-called climate crisis. WHO lets this s**t have a platform? Mendacious, inbred sycophants, that’s who. #ClimateChangeHoax.”

Gender equity advocates last week questioned the merit of paying the controversial figure to host the $135-a-head stadium event, but tickets to the Saturday lunch have almost sold out.

Newman is also hosting a grand final function at Perth’s Hyatt Regency on Friday.

Women’s Affairs Minister Simone McGurk reaffirmed her stance that the government, although not involved in selecting the host for this event, would not intervene as it was being run by a private company, stadium operator VenuesLive.

But the minister yesterday condemned Newman over his latest attack.

“Public figures have an obligation to be respectful. Sam Newman’s latest spray simply demonstrates, yet again, his blatant unwillingness to make a measured and thoughtful contribution,” she said.

WA Commissioner for Children and Young People Colin Pettit said it was important that young people were encouraged to have a voice and respected when they did speak out.

“The onus is on all of us to listen and to treat young people with respect when they do speak out,” he said.

“WA young people are genuinely concerned about their environment and regularly raise these concerns with me,” he said.

An Optus Stadium spokesman said there would be no change to Saturday’s event, which had sold 600 tickets and was close to selling out.

Newman’s Twitter rant prompted an outcry on social media.

“You’re a sad excuse of a man, picking on a 16-year-old girl with Aspergers, all because she and millions of her peers care about the future of our planet,” one person posted.

Another added: “Perhaps try and do something different, soften a little, be kinder, maybe even demonstrate respect to an opposing opinion with out degradation, who knows, it might feel good.”

Last week, Newman told this newspaper that he believed he had “better core values” than 90 per cent of West Australians.

Other prominent identities, including Karl Stefanovic and politicians Pauline Hanson and George Christensen, also criticised Thunberg this week, with some claiming the teenager is being used as a puppet for radical climate activists.

Fox News in the US was forced to apologise this week after a guest, conservative commentator Michael Knowles, called Thunberg “mentally ill” on air.

But Thunberg appears to be taking the criticism in her stride.

After US President Donald Trump posted a sarcastic tweet that she “seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future”, the teenager used that description as her Twitter bio.