In a surprise move, the leader of the Australian Greens has said he is retiring, and will leave politics at the end of June. Brown of course created the political party and brought it into national prominence. And he is also known for his radical, even moonbattery ideas.
The actual news of this announcement goes as follows: “Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens and will quit the Senate, with his former deputy Christine Milne to replace him at the helm of Australia’s third party. Senator Brown, 67, will leave the Senate in June. The party will now seek a successor to fill his seat.
“Senator Milne, who was unanimously endorsed by colleagues as Senator Brown’s successor, flagged a fresh push by the party to secure rural and regional support, and said the Greens would boost their engagement with ‘progressive’ businesses under her leadership.
“The party will choose a deputy leader this afternoon. Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and MP Adam Bandt are considered the frontrunners for the post. Senator Milne and Senator Brown said the leadership change did not alter the Greens’ minority government agreement with Labor, which had been signed by both leaders.
“Senator Brown said he had been considering retiring since the last election, and finally made the decision with his partner Paul Thomas two weeks ago while attending a global Greens conference in Senegal. ‘I am sad to leave but happy to go,’ he said in Canberra. ‘It’s a great reassurance to me that under Christine leadership this team will be in place.’ Senator Brown’s departure presents a huge challenge for the party, which faces the loss of its Senate balance of power position at the next election amid surging support for the Coalition and Bob Katter’s Australia Party.”
As I mentioned, his radical policies and beliefs have made him one of the more controversial figures in Australian politics. I have outlined his very radical agenda and ideas elsewhere:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/02/15/thinking-about-the-greens/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/04/28/greens-the-party-of-death/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/16/green-atheist-soul-mates/
Given the huge shellacking Labor just received in the Queensland state election, with no gains at all for the Greens, and a certain death of Labor federally when that election is held, perhaps Brown was just reading the handwriting on the wall, and jumped ship before it was too late.
And his recent bizarre comments about “earthians” demonstrate he may well be losing his marbles even more than we all had thought. I wrote up his bizarre thoughts about global governance and the like here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/03/24/green-globalism/
As Miranda Divine wrote, “The intergalactic phones must be ringing off the hook now that Greens Leader Bob Brown has resigned. Was that nutty speech to his ‘Fellow Earthians,’ he gave in Hobart last month a sign that he was on his way out the door and giving vent to his kooky side?”
Or as another commentator quipped, perhaps ET has called him home. So Christine Milne is the new leader. Unfortunately she will not likely be much better than her predecessor. She too has her fair share of moonbeam ideas and harmful policies.
And plenty of other mad hatters still abound in the party. Lee Rhiannon for example is another nutter and radical who will continue to do plenty of damage. The NSW Senator is unashamed of her communist and pro-Soviet involvements, and is just another example of why the Greens are the most dangerous and whacko political party in the country.
This is one nut job party, and the sooner it is put out of its misery, the better. But the significance of this retirement lies deeper than just in one fruit loop party. Brown has of course been our de facto co-leader of the nation along with Julia. With Labor and the Greens in bed, this nation has been in a steep downward plunge.
With Brown moving on, this could simply mean more headaches for Labor. As mentioned, Brown is probably just being smart here, and sees what a disaster Labor now is, and it does not have a future with Julia at the helm. So he is getting out while the going is good – deserting a sinking ship at the right time.
Andrew Bolt discusses their marriage of convenience: “Gillard gave the Greens the carbon tax she’d promised never to impose, and a $10 billion green energy fund that business is now demanding be scrapped. Brown in return gave Gillard the support it would have offered her anyway. In a way, it was a deal that will destroy them both, and we can only suspect that Brown is getting out while the going is good.
“The electorate’s fury at the carbon tax grows only stronger. Labor is headed for a wipe out, and the Greens vote remains static at around 11 or 12 per cent. At the next election, the Greens will certainly lose its power in the Lower House and could even lose its balance of power in the Senate.
“Its carbon tax will be scrapped, and even Labor is now cutting back green waste as the great green movement slowly deflates, pricked by public anxiety about jobs and prices. Just this week, Gillard vowed to cut back on green waste, prompting Brown to rage that the ‘big exploiters’ now had Government’s ear.
“In Queensland’s election last month, the Greens vote went backwards. The Greens nirvana in Tasmania, where the Greens are in coalition with Labor, is turning sour, with the state recording the highest unemployment rate in the country. Brown himself has done himself damage this year by overreaching….
“All this already spelled a long-term decline of the Greens, who have done so much to make the public despise the ‘new paradigm’ of minority government. By leaving, Brown will only hasten that slow phut.” Yes quite right.
Or as another commentator puts it, “In essence, Brown’s resignation adds to the instability of an already shambolic government. The man with whom Gillard fashioned a partnership and compromised on policy is gone. She will be left scrambling again to prop up the very arrangements that keep her in power.
“And finally, let us not forget that Brown’s real legacy is a very bad one for the nation. He has used his influence to impose a carbon tax, waste massive amounts of taxpayers’ money on inefficient and ineffective green energy schemes, and to impose a ridiculous media inquiry among a range of other policy distractions. The Greens have been anti-development, anti-business and constantly disruptive when it comes to intelligent discussion of foreign policy and other issues. In the end Brown’s political career must be judged on how he has impeded economic progress rather than how he has enlivened a fringe protest movement.”
Yes it has been a nightmare for the past few years with these guys in charge. But hopefully this decision to leave may well mean the death knell of both Labor and the Greens. To which many of us will exclaim, ‘And not a moment too soon’.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/bob-brown-quits-as-greens-leader-setting-challenge-for-party-and-new-leader-christine-milne/story-fn59niix-1226325838511
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/mirandadevine/index.php/heraldsun/comments/chef_earthian_bob_brown_resigns/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/secret-past-of-greens-senator-lee-rhiannon/story-e6frg6z6-1226255689458
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/bob-browns-decision-to-quit-leaves-the-australian-greens-with-nowhere-to-go-but-down/story-e6frfifx-1226325745273
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/goodlyfabric/index.php/theaustralian/comments/fellow_earthians_the_planet_will_go_on/
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