Brown’s Green legacy
Dr Zareh Ghazarian
By Zareh Ghazarian
The resignation of Bob Brown from the Senate is a significant moment for the Australian Greens as a political party. Brown’s achievements in public life were many, but perhaps his greatest legacy was in creating the Australian Greens and leading it from the margins of Australian politics to its current peak.
But Bob Brown was far from an ideologue. In fact, he could be seen as one of the most pragmatic ‘green’ politicians in Australia. In the 1970s he became part of the United Tasmania Group, which holds the title of being the first ‘green’ party in the world. When it collapsed he became involved with the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, becoming its director in 1979. Brown’s involvement with the environmental movement, especially during the Franklin River campaign of the 1980s, is well documented.
As a politician, Brown won the respect and adoration of many who applauded the courage of his convictions and in 1983 The Australian newspaper pronounced him ‘Australian of the Year’. Brown’s personal life was also the subject of much scrutiny – he was the first openly homosexual parliamentarian at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Tasmania.
Brown believed that the most effective way the environmental movement could influence the political debate was to have a unified political party. He, along with other green activists such as Drew Hutton from Queensland, sought to create a national party in the early 1980s, but their plans did not have popular support. Rather than risk fragmenting the movement, Brown put his plans for a new party on the back burner. By the 1990s, however, Brown had enough support to create the Australian Greens and by 2003 Green parties in all states had joined the national confederation.
Elected to the Senate in 1996, Brown positioned the Greens as more than just an environmental party, especially during the era of the Howard government. The party’s opposition to the ‘War on Terror’ and Australia’s close military relationship with the United States promoted the peace and disarmament ethos of the Greens. Indeed, the party consolidated its role in promoting socially progressive policies during Brown’s leadership.
Brown also tested how pragmatic his party was. A classic example of this came in 2001. Back then, the Howard government sought to privatise the remaining stake of Telstra and the prime minister promised Brown that he would divert billions of dollars from the sale to environmental projects. Brown made public comments suggesting that he would vote with the government in order to get funding for environmental programs. But many in the party were outraged with Brown’s position and he received many angry messages from Greens members. The party ultimately rejected Brown’s proposal and he opposed the government’s sale of Telstra. While this episode was not Brown’s finest hour, it strengthened the idea that the Greens’ parliamentary wing would represent the views of its members in parliament.
The Greens continued to build its role in parliament and in 2010 reached its highest point yet when it decided to back the ALP to form government. Since then, the party has had a significant influence on the political debate and the shape of national policy.
To say that Christine Milne has big shoes to fill is an understatement. It might be tempting to think that, with Brown now gone, the Greens may experience leadership tensions similar to the Australian Democrats. Don Chipp, the Democrats’ founding leader, led the party for its first eight years, but when he left the party went through nine leaders in 18 years. Infighting, as well as debates about the Democrats’ role in the political system, underpinned the party’s problems.
The Greens, however, are a different party with a clearer policy agenda and stronger links with broader social movements in society. This suggests that if the parliamentary party veers off course, its broader membership has the capacity to set it back on track.
Despite these strengths, recent opinion polls suggest that the Greens face significant challenges after the next election. The Coalition may not only thrash Labor in the House of Representatives, but there are signs it may even win a majority in the Senate and thus marginalise the contribution of the Greens.
After campaigning long and hard to reach its current heights, the Greens will have to carry on the fight to maintain its position in the political system. This may be just that bit harder without Bob Brown.
Dr Zareh Ghazarian is a lecturer within the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University.