Bob Brown
Encyclopedia
Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens
and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia
. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate
on the Tasmanian Greens
ticket, joining with sitting Greens Western Australia
senator Dee Margetts
to form the first Australian Greens
senators following the 1996 federal election. He was re-elected in 2001 and again in 2007.
While serving in the Tasmanian parliament, Brown successfully campaigned for a large increase in the protected wilderness areas. Brown has led the Australian Greens since the party was founded in 1992 until the present, a period of growth to poll today at around 10% at state and federal levels (13.9% of the primary vote in 2010). From 2002 to 2004 when minor parties held the balance of power in the Senate, Brown became a well-recognised politician. In October 2003 Brown was the subject of international media interest when he was suspended from the parliament for interjecting during an address by George Bush
, then United States president.
, one of twins and attended Trunkey Public School and Blacktown Boys High School. In his senior year he was elected school captain
. After graduating, he enrolled in medicine at Sydney University where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
degree. He practised medicine for a time at the Royal Canberra Hospital
. During his tenure at the hospital he and other senior medical staff took a pacifist
stance by refusing to certify young men who did not wish to fight in the Vietnam War as fit to be conscripted. He then worked as a resident at Darwin
and Alice Springs hospitals. At the latter post he met John Hawkins
, a surgeon who had kayaked rivers in Tasmania. He travelled to London in 1970 and worked at Hounslow Cottage Hospital and St Mary Abbott's Hospital in South Kensington.
Brown moved to Tasmania
in 1972 and worked as a medical general practitioner in Launceston
. He soon became involved in the state's environmental movement
, in particular the campaign to save Lake Pedder
. By 1972 he was a member of the newly formed United Tasmania Group
, Australia's first "green" party. In a newspaper interview at this time, Brown announced that he had a gay partner in order to highlight discrimination and encourage law reform as homosexuality was a crime in Tasmania at the time.
In 1976 he fasted for a week on top of Mt Wellington in protest against the arrival at Hobart of the nuclear powered warship .
, which would have drowned the Franklin River
valley as part of a hydroelectricity
project. Brown was among the 1500 people arrested while protesting during the campaign. He subsequently spent 19 days in Hobart's Risdon Prison
. On the day of his release in 1983, he became a member of Tasmania's parliament after the Democrats
MP Norm Sanders
resigned to successfully stand for the Australian Senate
; Brown was elected to replace him on a countback. The Franklin campaign was a success after Federal government intervention protected the Franklin River in 1983.
During his first term of office, Brown introduced a wide range of private member's initiatives, including for freedom of information, death with dignity, lowering parliamentary salaries, gay law reform, banning the battery-hen industry and advocation for nuclear free Tasmania. His 1987 bill to ban semi-automatic guns was voted down by both Liberal and Labor members of Tasmania's House of Assembly, nine years before the Port Arthur massacre resulted in a successful federal Liberal bid to achieve the same results.
In 1989 Tasmania's system of proportional representation
allowed the Greens to win five out of 35 seats in the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Brown became their leader.In 1989, the Greens did not have formal leadership positions, but Brown's official senate biography lists his leadership of the state party from 1989-1993 as his first parliamentary party position. He agreed to support a minority Labor Party
government, on the basis of a negotiated Accord (signed by Michael Field and Bob Brown) in which the Green independents agreed to support the budget but not motions of no confidence, and the ALP agreed to develop a more open parliamentary process, to consult on departmental appointments, provide a legislative research service, parity in parliamentary staffing and a reform agenda which included equal opportunities, freedom of information, national parks protection and public disclosure of bulk power contracts and royalties from mining companies. This agreement, however, broke down over forestry issues in 1992. In 1993 Brown resigned from the House of Assembly and stood unsuccessfully for the federal House of Representatives
.
Brown was elected to the Australian Senate for Tasmania in 1996, and was an outspoken voice in opposition to the conservative government of John Howard
, and in support of green and human rights issues, including international issues such as Tibet
, East Timor
and West Papua. He also introduced bills for constitutional reform, forest protection, to block radioactive waste dumping, to ban mandatory sentencing of Aboriginal children, to prohibit the use of cluster munitions and for greenhouse abatement.
At the 2001 federal election Brown was re-elected to the Senate with a greatly increased vote, and was outspoken on Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to allow 438 asylum seekers (mostly from Afghanistan
) to land on Christmas Island
after they had been rescued from their sinking boat in the Indian Ocean by the MV Tampa
, a Norwegian freighter. Brown was equally critical of Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
's acquiescence to John Howard's stance on the Tampa incident
.
Brown was particularly vocal in his opposition to Australian participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq
and became recognised as a leading voice for the anti-war/peace movement. When President Bush visited Canberra on 23 October 2003, Brown and fellow Senator Kerry Nettle
interjected during his address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. During Bush's speech Brown and Nettle wore signs referring to David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib
, two Australian citizens held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, at that time (Habib was later released without charge and Hicks served a prison term for providing material support for terrorism
), following their apprehension by United States forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan
respectively. Bush accepted the interjections with good humour but the Speaker of the House
, Neil Andrew
formally "named" Brown and Nettle. This meant that they were both suspended from the Parliament for 24 hours which prevented them from being present during a similar address from Chinese President Hu Jintao
the next day. After the speech, however, Brown shook Bush's hand.
Brown opposed the Howard Government's amendments to the Marriage Act in 2004, stating that "Mr Howard should relax and accept gay marriages as part of the future's social fabric".
In December 2004, forestry and export woodchip company Gunns Limited attempted to sue Brown and others for $6.3 million, in an action which media reports say related to "ongoing damaging campaigns and activities" against the company. The original Statement of Claim issued by Gunns was struck out by the Supreme Court and costs were awarded against Gunns for the initial proceedings. Gunns ultimately failed with the company finally dropping all claims against Brown on 13 December 2006 while continuing its case against others including The Wilderness Society.
Brown was formally elected as the first Federal Parliamentary Leader of The Greens on 28 November 2005, following almost a decade of service as de facto leader since his election to the Senate in 1996.
In February 2007, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government responded by changing the text of the State's Regional Forest Agreement. New clauses make it clear that the word 'protection' relates only to whether the two respective governments deem a species to be protected rather than the meaning of the word being based on actual evidence of such.
In early 2007, Brown attracted scorn from sections of the media and the major political parties for his proposal to commit to a plan within three years, that would eventually see the banning of coal exports. Brown described coal exports as the "energy industry's heroin habit" and stated that the export of alternative technologies should be the priority.
Brown was re-elected in the 2007 federal election. He announced his intention to stand again at the Greens National Conference in November 2005.
Following his re-election and that of the new Labor Government
, Brown called on the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd
, to set fixed carbon targets immediately, and to announce their levels at the upcoming United Nations Bali Climate Change Conference
in December 2007, continuing his climate campaigning, and saying that it was "obvious" what the outcome would be if Australia was to not set carbon emissions goals.
In 2005, Brown brought a legal case against Forestry Tasmania
in the Federal Court, in an attempt to protect Tasmania's Wielangta forest
from clearfell logging. The 1997 Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement
(RFA) exempted logging operations from endangered species laws but required the protection of endangered species. Bob Brown brought a case against Forestry Tasmania citing threats to endangered species like the Swift parrot
and Wielangta Stag Beetle
. In December 2006, Judge Shane Marshall awarded the case in Brown's favour. On appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court
level, the case was lost, without rejecting the earlier judgement that logging would further endanger these species. In May 2008 the High Court
denied leave to appeal that decision after the wording of the RFA was changed.
Brown was ordered to pay $240,000 to Forestry Tasmania, which he said he could not afford to pay. Failure to pay would have resulted in bankruptcy proceedings which would have cost Brown his Senate seat. Brown had earlier rejected a settlement offer from Forestry Tasmania that would have required him to have only paid $200,000 of the costs he had incurred. On 9 June 2009, Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith
came to Brown's rescue with a promise to bail him out. Pledges for support from over 1,000 donors covered Brown's legal bill within a few days of his announcement.
In 2011, after the 2010–2011 Queensland floods
Brown drew criticism for suggesting that half the Mineral Resource Rent Tax be allocated to future natural catastrophes. He made comments to the effect that climate change, specifically the impact on climate from the mining sector should be held at least partially responsible for the flooding.
with his long-time partner, Paul Thomas, a farmer and activist whom he met in 1996.
Brown was the founder, in 1990, of the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, now Bush Heritage Australia
, a non-profit environmental organisation dedicated to purchasing and preserving Australian bushland
. He was President of the organisation until 1996.
On 20 March 2011 Brown gifted a 14 hectares (34.6 acre) property and house he had owned for 38 years to the conservation group Bush Heritage Australia
. The property is located 47 kilometres (29.2 mi) south-west of Launceston, Tasmania
, in the Liffey Valley. According to Australian Geographic it is a site of historic and symbolic significance.
Brown describes himself as a "lapsed Presbyterian
".
In an interview with Richard Fidler on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation
) radio , Nigel Brennan, an Australian photojournalist who was kidnapped in Somalia and held hostage for 462 days, revealed Brown had contributed $100,000 of his own money to help pay the ransom for his release. It was also revealed that Brown contacted Australian businessman Dick Smith
asking that he also contributed funds towards the release of Brennan Brennan, who was released in November 2009, also stated in this interview that Brown had to borrow this money, an assertion also made in various media outlets at the time of Brennan's release. In the same interview, Brennan notes that in contrast to Brown's compassion, the Australian government seemed unconcerned with his welfare, with Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd
dismissing his mother's anxiety at having her son released because she wasn't showing Rudd the level of respect he deemed acceptable.
), Memo For A Saner World (2004), Valley of the Giants (2004), Tasmania's Recherche Bay (2005), Earth (2009) and In Balfour Street (2010) In 2004 James Norman published the first authorised biography of Brown, entitled Bob Brown: A Gentle Revolutionary.
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
on the Tasmanian Greens
Tasmanian Greens
The Tasmanian Greens are a political party in Australia which developed from numerous environmental campaigns in Tasmania, including the flooding of Lake Pedder and the Franklin Dam campaign...
ticket, joining with sitting Greens Western Australia
Greens Western Australia
The Greens Western Australia is the state branch of the Australian Greens in Western Australia. The Greens WA was formed following the merger of the WA Greens and the Green Earth Alliance...
senator Dee Margetts
Dee Margetts
Diane Elizabeth Margetts was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1993 to 1999 and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005, representing the Greens Western Australia....
to form the first Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
senators following the 1996 federal election. He was re-elected in 2001 and again in 2007.
While serving in the Tasmanian parliament, Brown successfully campaigned for a large increase in the protected wilderness areas. Brown has led the Australian Greens since the party was founded in 1992 until the present, a period of growth to poll today at around 10% at state and federal levels (13.9% of the primary vote in 2010). From 2002 to 2004 when minor parties held the balance of power in the Senate, Brown became a well-recognised politician. In October 2003 Brown was the subject of international media interest when he was suspended from the parliament for interjecting during an address by George Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, then United States president.
Early life
Brown was born in Oberon, New South WalesOberon, New South Wales
-See also:*Oberon Correctional Centre*Mount Trickett*Mount Bindo*Shooters Hill-External links:***...
, one of twins and attended Trunkey Public School and Blacktown Boys High School. In his senior year he was elected school captain
School Captain
School Captain is a student appointed or elected to represent the school.This student, usually in the senior year, in their final year of attending that school...
. After graduating, he enrolled in medicine at Sydney University where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries...
degree. He practised medicine for a time at the Royal Canberra Hospital
Royal Canberra Hospital
Royal Canberra Hospital was the first hospital in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It opened in 1914 on the Acton Peninsula, as the Canberra Community Hospital. It grew to become the major hospital in Canberra before being closed in 1991 and later demolished in 1997.- Early Years 1912–1939 :In...
. During his tenure at the hospital he and other senior medical staff took a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
stance by refusing to certify young men who did not wish to fight in the Vietnam War as fit to be conscripted. He then worked as a resident at Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
and Alice Springs hospitals. At the latter post he met John Hawkins
John Hawkins (disambiguation)
John Hawkins may refer to:*Sir John Hawkins , English Admiral*John Hawkins , in charge of British embassy in Paris in 1626-1627*Sir John Hawkins , music historian...
, a surgeon who had kayaked rivers in Tasmania. He travelled to London in 1970 and worked at Hounslow Cottage Hospital and St Mary Abbott's Hospital in South Kensington.
Brown moved to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
in 1972 and worked as a medical general practitioner in Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
. He soon became involved in the state's environmental movement
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
, in particular the campaign to save Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder was once a natural lake, located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia but the name is now used in an official sense to refer to the much larger artificial impoundment and diversion lake formed when the original lake was expanded by damming in 1972 by the Hydro Electric Commission of...
. By 1972 he was a member of the newly formed United Tasmania Group
United Tasmania Group
The United Tasmania Group is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green party. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Group at the Hobart town hall in order to field political candidates in the April 1972 state election. They received 3.9% of the...
, Australia's first "green" party. In a newspaper interview at this time, Brown announced that he had a gay partner in order to highlight discrimination and encourage law reform as homosexuality was a crime in Tasmania at the time.
In 1976 he fasted for a week on top of Mt Wellington in protest against the arrival at Hobart of the nuclear powered warship .
State politics
In 1978 Brown was appointed director of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society. In the late 1970s he emerged as a leader of the campaign to prevent construction of the Franklin DamFranklin Dam
The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of most significant environmental campaigns in Australian history.The dam was...
, which would have drowned the Franklin River
Franklin River
The Franklin River lies in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park at the mid northern area of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its source is situated at the western edge of the Central Highlands and it continues west towards the West Coast of Tasmania...
valley as part of a hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
project. Brown was among the 1500 people arrested while protesting during the campaign. He subsequently spent 19 days in Hobart's Risdon Prison
HM Prison Risdon
HM Prison Risdon is a jail in Risdon Vale, Tasmania, Australia. Dubbed The Pink Palace, it was opened in 1960 when male prisoners moved from the Campbell Street Gaol in central Hobart. Female prisoners were moved to the complex three years later. When built, the buildings were painted pale pink,...
. On the day of his release in 1983, he became a member of Tasmania's parliament after the Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
MP Norm Sanders
Norm Sanders
Norman Karl Sanders is an Australian former politician, representing the Australian Democrats in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1980 to 1982 and the Australian Senate from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
resigned to successfully stand for the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
; Brown was elected to replace him on a countback. The Franklin campaign was a success after Federal government intervention protected the Franklin River in 1983.
During his first term of office, Brown introduced a wide range of private member's initiatives, including for freedom of information, death with dignity, lowering parliamentary salaries, gay law reform, banning the battery-hen industry and advocation for nuclear free Tasmania. His 1987 bill to ban semi-automatic guns was voted down by both Liberal and Labor members of Tasmania's House of Assembly, nine years before the Port Arthur massacre resulted in a successful federal Liberal bid to achieve the same results.
In 1989 Tasmania's system of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
allowed the Greens to win five out of 35 seats in the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Brown became their leader.In 1989, the Greens did not have formal leadership positions, but Brown's official senate biography lists his leadership of the state party from 1989-1993 as his first parliamentary party position. He agreed to support a minority Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
government, on the basis of a negotiated Accord (signed by Michael Field and Bob Brown) in which the Green independents agreed to support the budget but not motions of no confidence, and the ALP agreed to develop a more open parliamentary process, to consult on departmental appointments, provide a legislative research service, parity in parliamentary staffing and a reform agenda which included equal opportunities, freedom of information, national parks protection and public disclosure of bulk power contracts and royalties from mining companies. This agreement, however, broke down over forestry issues in 1992. In 1993 Brown resigned from the House of Assembly and stood unsuccessfully for the federal House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
.
Federal politics
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, and in support of green and human rights issues, including international issues such as Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
and West Papua. He also introduced bills for constitutional reform, forest protection, to block radioactive waste dumping, to ban mandatory sentencing of Aboriginal children, to prohibit the use of cluster munitions and for greenhouse abatement.
At the 2001 federal election Brown was re-elected to the Senate with a greatly increased vote, and was outspoken on Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to allow 438 asylum seekers (mostly from Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
) to land on Christmas Island
Christmas Island
The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
after they had been rescued from their sinking boat in the Indian Ocean by the MV Tampa
MV Tampa
MV Tampa is a roll-on/roll-off container ship completed in 1984 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in South Korea for the Norway based firm, Wilhelmsen Lines Shipowning.-Tampa affair:...
, a Norwegian freighter. Brown was equally critical of Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
's acquiescence to John Howard's stance on the Tampa incident
Tampa affair
In August 2001, the Howard Government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, carrying 438 rescued Afghans from a distressed fishing vessel in international waters, to enter Australian waters...
.
Brown was particularly vocal in his opposition to Australian participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
and became recognised as a leading voice for the anti-war/peace movement. When President Bush visited Canberra on 23 October 2003, Brown and fellow Senator Kerry Nettle
Kerry Nettle
Kerry Michelle Nettle is a former Australian Senator and member of the Australian Greens in New South Wales. Elected at the 2001 federal election on a primary vote of 4.36 percent with One Nation and micro-party preferences, she failed to gain re-election at the 2007 federal election, despite an...
interjected during his address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. During Bush's speech Brown and Nettle wore signs referring to David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib
Mamdouh Habib
Mamdouh Habib is an Egyptian born Australian Muslim best known for his extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, on suspicion of involvement in terrorism....
, two Australian citizens held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, at that time (Habib was later released without charge and Hicks served a prison term for providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism is a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act which prohibits material support to groups designated as terrorists. The four types of support described are “training,” “expert advice or assistance,” “service,” and “personnel.” In June 2010 the United States Supreme...
), following their apprehension by United States forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
respectively. Bush accepted the interjections with good humour but the Speaker of the House
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer in the upper house is the President of the Senate....
, Neil Andrew
Neil Andrew
John Neil Andrew, AO , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1983 to October 2004, representing the Division of Wakefield, South Australia...
formally "named" Brown and Nettle. This meant that they were both suspended from the Parliament for 24 hours which prevented them from being present during a similar address from Chinese President Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
the next day. After the speech, however, Brown shook Bush's hand.
Brown opposed the Howard Government's amendments to the Marriage Act in 2004, stating that "Mr Howard should relax and accept gay marriages as part of the future's social fabric".
In December 2004, forestry and export woodchip company Gunns Limited attempted to sue Brown and others for $6.3 million, in an action which media reports say related to "ongoing damaging campaigns and activities" against the company. The original Statement of Claim issued by Gunns was struck out by the Supreme Court and costs were awarded against Gunns for the initial proceedings. Gunns ultimately failed with the company finally dropping all claims against Brown on 13 December 2006 while continuing its case against others including The Wilderness Society.
Brown was formally elected as the first Federal Parliamentary Leader of The Greens on 28 November 2005, following almost a decade of service as de facto leader since his election to the Senate in 1996.
In February 2007, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government responded by changing the text of the State's Regional Forest Agreement. New clauses make it clear that the word 'protection' relates only to whether the two respective governments deem a species to be protected rather than the meaning of the word being based on actual evidence of such.
In early 2007, Brown attracted scorn from sections of the media and the major political parties for his proposal to commit to a plan within three years, that would eventually see the banning of coal exports. Brown described coal exports as the "energy industry's heroin habit" and stated that the export of alternative technologies should be the priority.
Brown was re-elected in the 2007 federal election. He announced his intention to stand again at the Greens National Conference in November 2005.
Following his re-election and that of the new Labor Government
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, Brown called on the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
, to set fixed carbon targets immediately, and to announce their levels at the upcoming United Nations Bali Climate Change Conference
2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at the Bali International Conference Centre, Nusa Dua, in Bali, Indonesia, between December 3 and December 15, 2007 . Representatives from over 180 countries attended, together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental...
in December 2007, continuing his climate campaigning, and saying that it was "obvious" what the outcome would be if Australia was to not set carbon emissions goals.
In 2005, Brown brought a legal case against Forestry Tasmania
Forestry Tasmania
Forestry Tasmania is a Tasmanian state government-owned corporation. It runs the state-owned forestry for tourism and logging including the Tahune Airwalk and Upper Florentine Valley.-Controversy:...
in the Federal Court, in an attempt to protect Tasmania's Wielangta forest
Wielangta forest
The Wielangta forest is located in South East Tasmania, Australia. It is notable for its role in a 2006 court case that called into question the effectiveness of Australia's cooperative Commonwealth-State forest management regime known as Regional Forest Agreements.-Environment:The Wielangta forest...
from clearfell logging. The 1997 Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement
Regional Forest Agreement
The Regional Forest Agreements are 20 year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia's native forests, and are intended to provide certainty to commercial forestry operations while protecting environmental values. The 10 RFA's were progressively signed between 1997 and 2001...
(RFA) exempted logging operations from endangered species laws but required the protection of endangered species. Bob Brown brought a case against Forestry Tasmania citing threats to endangered species like the Swift parrot
Swift Parrot
The Swift Parrot breeds in Tasmania and migrates north to south eastern Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is related to the rosellas, with the feeding habits of a lorikeet...
and Wielangta Stag Beetle
Wielangta stag beetle
Lissotes latidens, commonly known as the Wielangta Stag Beetle or Broad-toothed Stag Beetle, is a species of stag beetle which is only found in an area centred in Wielangta Forest in eastern Tasmania...
. In December 2006, Judge Shane Marshall awarded the case in Brown's favour. On appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
level, the case was lost, without rejecting the earlier judgement that logging would further endanger these species. In May 2008 the High Court
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
denied leave to appeal that decision after the wording of the RFA was changed.
Brown was ordered to pay $240,000 to Forestry Tasmania, which he said he could not afford to pay. Failure to pay would have resulted in bankruptcy proceedings which would have cost Brown his Senate seat. Brown had earlier rejected a settlement offer from Forestry Tasmania that would have required him to have only paid $200,000 of the costs he had incurred. On 9 June 2009, Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith
Dick Smith (entrepreneur)
Dick Smith, AO is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist. He is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic, and was selected as the 1986 Australian of the Year.-Electronics:In 1968, Dick Smith founded electronics retailer...
came to Brown's rescue with a promise to bail him out. Pledges for support from over 1,000 donors covered Brown's legal bill within a few days of his announcement.
In 2011, after the 2010–2011 Queensland floods
2010–2011 Queensland floods
A series of floods hit Australia, beginning in December 2010, primarily in the state of Queensland including its capital city, Brisbane. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least seventy towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was...
Brown drew criticism for suggesting that half the Mineral Resource Rent Tax be allocated to future natural catastrophes. He made comments to the effect that climate change, specifically the impact on climate from the mining sector should be held at least partially responsible for the flooding.
Personal life
Brown lives in HobartHobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
with his long-time partner, Paul Thomas, a farmer and activist whom he met in 1996.
Brown was the founder, in 1990, of the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, now Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It purchases land, assessed as being of outstanding conservation value, from...
, a non-profit environmental organisation dedicated to purchasing and preserving Australian bushland
Bushland
Bushland is any area in Australia that is predominantly indigenous flora and fauna.Bushland is the term commonly used by conservation protection groups and other environmental groups as a blanket term for natural vegetation, which may cover any kind of habitat from open shrubby country with few...
. He was President of the organisation until 1996.
On 20 March 2011 Brown gifted a 14 hectares (34.6 acre) property and house he had owned for 38 years to the conservation group Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia
Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It purchases land, assessed as being of outstanding conservation value, from...
. The property is located 47 kilometres (29.2 mi) south-west of Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
, in the Liffey Valley. According to Australian Geographic it is a site of historic and symbolic significance.
Brown describes himself as a "lapsed Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
".
In an interview with Richard Fidler on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
) radio , Nigel Brennan, an Australian photojournalist who was kidnapped in Somalia and held hostage for 462 days, revealed Brown had contributed $100,000 of his own money to help pay the ransom for his release. It was also revealed that Brown contacted Australian businessman Dick Smith
Dick Smith (entrepreneur)
Dick Smith, AO is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist. He is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic, and was selected as the 1986 Australian of the Year.-Electronics:In 1968, Dick Smith founded electronics retailer...
asking that he also contributed funds towards the release of Brennan Brennan, who was released in November 2009, also stated in this interview that Brown had to borrow this money, an assertion also made in various media outlets at the time of Brennan's release. In the same interview, Brennan notes that in contrast to Brown's compassion, the Australian government seemed unconcerned with his welfare, with Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
dismissing his mother's anxiety at having her son released because she wasn't showing Rudd the level of respect he deemed acceptable.
Publications
Brown has published several books including Wild Rivers (1983), Lake Pedder (1986), Tarkine Trails (1994), The Greens (1996) (with Peter SingerPeter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
), Memo For A Saner World (2004), Valley of the Giants (2004), Tasmania's Recherche Bay (2005), Earth (2009) and In Balfour Street (2010) In 2004 James Norman published the first authorised biography of Brown, entitled Bob Brown: A Gentle Revolutionary.
Awards
Bob Brown has received the following awards:- The AustralianThe AustralianThe Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
newspaper ‘Australian of the Year’ (1983) - IUCN Packard Award (1984)
- UNEP Global 500 Roll of HonourGlobal 500 Roll of HonourThe United Nations Environment Programme established the Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1987 to recognize the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world.The last Global 500 Roll of Honour awards were made in 2003...
(1987) - Goldman Environmental PrizeGoldman Environmental PrizeThe Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of...
(1990) - MAPW Distinguished Physician Award (1990)
- BBC WildlifeBBC WildlifeBBC Wildlife is a British glossy, all-colour, monthly magazine about wildlife, founded by BBC Worldwide and published through the BBC Magazines Bristol division, also trading as Bristol Magazines Ltd....
magazine ‘World's Most Inspiring Politician’ (1996) - National TrustNational Trust of AustraliaThe Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
Australian National TreasureAustralian Living TreasuresAustralian Living Treasures are people who have been nominated by the National Trust of Australia. The first list of 100 Living Treasures was published in 1997....
(1998) - Rainforest Action NetworkRainforest Action NetworkRainforest Action Network is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, USA. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, with the financial help of Fund for Wild Nature....
Environmental Hero (2006) - Australian Peace PrizeAustralian Peace PrizeThe Australian Peace Prize was an annual award presented from 2006 to 2009 to an Australian citizen or resident, or to a group based in Australia, for outstanding contributions towards peace. It was awarded by the Peace Organisation of Australia. The first prize was awarded in 2006 to Dr Helen...
(2009) - Australian HumanistHumanismHumanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
of the Year (2010)
Further reading
- Armstrong, Lance J.E. (1997). Good God, He's Green! A History of Tasmanian Politics 1989–1996. Wahroonga, N.S.W., Pacific Law Press. ISBN 1-875192-08-5
- Lines, William J. (2006) Patriots : defending Australia's natural heritage St Lucia, Qld. : University of Queensland Press, 2006. ISBN 0-70223-554-7
External links
- Brown's official website
- Brown's parliamentary website
- Brown's photographic exhibition to raise raising money to pay for the court challenge against logging the Wielangta Forest
- Brown's campaign to challenge logging in the Wielangta Forest
- Senator Bob Brown's YouTube Channel
- Bob Brown's conference talks on SlowTV