Jew World Order

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To his supporters, Bob Brown has been a much needed visionary in Canberra, but to his critics, he’s been labelled a dogmatic extremist. Few would deny the success he’s had in bringing environmental issues to front and centre of politics in Australia, but he’s also forged a political agenda that goes far beyond green policies aimed at saving the planet.

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ASHLEY HALL: To his supporters, Bob Brown has been a much needed visionary in Canberra. But to his critics, he’s a dogmatic extremist.

Either way, few would deny the success he’s had in bringing environmental issues front and centre of politics in Australia.

But he’s also forged a political agenda that goes far beyond the environment.

Emily Bourke compiled this report.

EMILY BOURKE: It was 40 years ago the young country doctor developed an interest in Tasmania’s environment.

BOB BROWN: The wilderness is a place not marked by the hand of modern man. A place that’s free of houses and cars and urbanisation and industry and agriculture. And the Franklin is one of those very rare places left on the earth which fulfils that criteria.

EMILY BOURKE: But it wasn’t until the 1980s and the Franklin River blockade that Bob Brown came to national prominence.

(ABC archival excerpts)

BOB BROWN: The Hydro-Electric Commission says that this scheme is going to take nine-and-a-half years to build and we will be opposing it in the strongest peaceful manner that we can all the way through.

JOURNALIST: But you say you hope to get thousands of people going to the south-west to lie down in front of bulldozers. Now surely this is a situation which would breed violence?

BOB BROWN: I see that as an extraordinary act of peace.

JOURNALIST: At the Tasmanian Wilderness Society headquarters in Hobart, the champagne flowed and so did the tears of joy.

BOB BROWN: It’s just tremendous after so many years of struggle for so many millions of people because millions of Australians have been involved in this campaign to know that the Franklin and Gordon Rivers will run free to the sea forever, for all future generations to enjoy.

EMILY BOURKE: The transition from activist to politician saw Bob Brown elected to the Senate in 1996. But that didn’t put an end to his protest days. Australia’s participation in the Iraq War saw him take to the streets again.

(Anti-war chants)

ANTI-WAR PROTEST MC: Bob Brown from the Australian Greens.

(Cheers)

BOB BROWN: This is a massive turnout of people in the global cities of Melbourne and Sydney. And now right around the world. Tens of millions of people have turned out and if democracies don’t respond to that message, who can we expect to respond to it?

EMILY BOURKE: His passion for peace wasn’t shared by everyone. In 2003 he was removed from Parliament during an address by the visiting US President.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy and stability in the Middle East. Today’s Saddam’s regime is gone. And no one-

BOB BROWN: (inaudible)

NEIL ANDREW: Senator Brown, I warn you. Senator Brown will excuse himself from the House. Senator Brown will excuse himself from the House. The Sergeant will remove Senator Brown from the House.

EMILY BOURKE: He became a fierce critic of the Howard government and Labor over the issue of asylum seekers.

BOB BROWN: They want to make good with life and they’re hoping that Australia can not only be a place where they can make good but they can contribute to this country too.

That’s my experience with the people who have come by boat to this country.

EMILY BOURKE: And as an openly gay political leader, he’s campaigned strongly for same sex marriage.

BOB BROWN: And if you want to extend monogamy and you want to extend stability then you certainly extend the privilege, which it is, of marriage under the law to everybody. And it’s about equality, it’s not about sympathy, it’s about equality.

EMILY BOURKE: As he pushed the Greens’ agenda beyond the environment, Senator Brown captured electoral ground lost by the other major parties

BOB BROWN: Because if you don’t have social justice ultimately you’re not going to win on the environment. And I think it’s not the petty bourgeoisie that is enlivened by the Greens so much as young Australia. The polls show that.

EMILY BOURKE: But the growing power and influence of the Greens only fuelled criticism.

GREENS CRITIC: How many kids’ lives are you going to be responsible for with your drugs policy?

BOB BROWN: Well this is an (inaudible) free. This is…

GREENS CRITIC: You haven’t got an … you haven’t got an answer, mate.

BARNABY JOYCE: Bob Brown is like leader of the Judean front. What have the Romans done for us? What has the mining industry done for us?

EMILY BOURKE: Nevertheless, Bob Brown is regarded as a shrewd political operator.

James Norman authored the biography, Bob Brown: Gentle Revolutionary.

JAMES NORMAN: Bob has an element of him which is almost …. Mormonesque kind of figure. But at the same time I think as a young man he was pretty confused and he had a lot of internal anxiety, you know mixed with a kind of idealism that yes you know he could change things for the better.

His struggle was one that almost took his own life at one point, you know, but he went through that aversion therapy for his sexuality. These are things that I think are testament to that ability for transformation.

EMILY BOURKE: And he argues the outgoing Greens leader will continue to be seen as a man and politician of integrity.

JAMES NORMAN: He had a sign on the front gate of the house saying “trespassers welcome” and I thought “gee, that’s interesting”. But then when I went in there and stayed, Bob wasn’t actually there at the time. I just went down and stayed in the house he invited me to.

There was actually a guy staying out in the back shed of his house, just someone from the community who didn’t have a house and had kind of found his way into Bob Brown’s back shed.

It struck me then that, you know, Bob is a conviction, a person who very much has idealistic convictions that seem almost too good to be true to some people. But he lives by them. There’s nothing that you can get on Bob, anything that he might have said which, you know, is proven to be a lie or a manipulative political tactic. He’s the real deal.

ASHLEY HALL: James Norman, the author of the biography, Bob Brown: Gentle Revolutionary. Emily Bourke compiled that report with help of John Spence from ABC Archives.