A message from Bob Brown

Welcome to the Australian Greens website

2008 sees us busting old barriers and setting new goals.  Our membership is about to pass the 10,000 milestone.  We have 100 or so local government representatives, 15 state MPs and now 5 Senators.

With the Green Institute, we are taking a leading role in this year’s Global Greens Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  I am in close consultations with several governments, including Venezuela, in an effort to have former Greens Senator for Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt released from her six years’ imprisonment in the jungles of Colombia. 

With our vote in the 2007 election growing from 917,000 in 2004 to 1,184,000, we captured party status in Canberra.  I am looking forward to working with Rachel, Christine, Sarah and Scott as we employ our policy platform and Greens Charter to negotiate the balance of power in the Senate.

Our planet Earth and its 7 billion people face awesome problems and great opportunities.  Global warming is escalating and already triggering mass-migrations away from misery – annual arms spending is one trillion dollars.  Neo-conservative politics, however, is on the wane.  Howard has gone.  George Bush is going.  Things are looking up.

But beware!  The Rudd government backs Gunns’ pulp mill, will pour millions into the coal industry, not lift carers out of poverty, and is putting tax cuts for the wealthy ahead of better pensions for 2 million Australians.  And overseas aid languishes way below international best practice while $6billion (so far)  is going to ‘filler’ jet fighters and the silence on Tibet and West Papua is deafening.

No wonder we are, gradually, inexorably, unrelentingly, bit by bit, solidly, indefatigably and reasonably going up in the polls.  Enjoy 2008!

Bob Brown