2017-10-19
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) (10:05:32) — Greg Barber has gone fishing. On behalf of my Greens parliamentary colleagues and the thousands of Greens members with whom he has worked and supported over the years, I would like to thank him for his immense contribution to the Greens and to green politics. Greg's love for nature and the creatures we share the planet with led him to study biology at La Trobe University, and he also has a Master of Business Administration from the Melbourne Business School.
While at La Trobe, he invited Bob Brown to speak to students, and they have remained close since then. There is a great photo of Bob and Greg with a mullet haircut from those days. Bob was a great inspiration to Greg, as were Christine Milne and Greens leaders from New Zealand Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons, amongst many others. Margaret Blakers was a great mentor to him.
Greg was very active in the campaigns: against logging native forests in East Gippsland, where he was arrested, and against duck shooting. He and I still attend the wetlands every year to protest against duck shooting.
Greg joined the Greens not long after it was formed in Victoria. He was part of a very small group of highly committed people who worked tirelessly to build the party virtually from the ground up. He was the first Greens mayor in Australia at Yarra council, which he names as one of his proudest achievements.
Greg has a brilliant mind and is a strategic thinker; he is always thinking and planning ahead. He was elected to this chamber along with Colleen Hartland and me in 2006, and as leader from 2010 and 2014 he was a driving force behind the election of four new Greens MPs to this Parliament in 2014 and to the election of a growing number of Greens councillors across Victoria. Greg spent a great deal of time in regional Victoria visiting our members there and talking to farmers, small business people and campaigning against coal seam gas and for renewable energy.
We thank Greg for his vision, commitment and sheer hard work for more than two decades of building the Greens in Victoria — for inspiring, encouraging and mentoring so many people over those years. We thank him for his advice and support before and since we were elected to state Parliament. Greg has made a massive contribution to green politics, and we will miss him. We wish Greg and his family all the best for the future and hope he gets to see some of the rare bird species that are still on his list.