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The old-school Greens getting expelled from their own party · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's July twenty three, twenty twenty five. There's a revolt
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: brewing in the National Party, with elder statesmen and former
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  Speaker 1: bitter rivals Michael McCormick and Barnaby Joyce joining forces to
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  Speaker 1: make life difficult for leader David Little Proud, and it's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: all about net zero policy. The bosses of Giants Superfund
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: host plus say Labour's plan for attacks on high superbalances
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is half baked and should be reconsidered. Those exclusives alive
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot Com dot a U, along
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  Speaker 1: with all the best coverage of federal politics. There's a
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  Speaker 1: band of old school Greens who say their parties become
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  Speaker 1: a cult, and it's all about women's rights and transgender
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  Speaker 1: policy today, how one of the party's co founders found
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  Speaker 1: himself kicked to the curb, and why he's vowing revenge, fighting.
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  Speaker 2: For the Satmonian worldnesses for at least the dead.
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  Speaker 3: The Greens used to sound like this.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're going to fight the damming of the Franklin
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  Speaker 2: all the way that they do not want their money,
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  Speaker 2: their taxes channeled through Canberra to destroy the National Heritage
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  Speaker 2: for a dam that Tasmania doesn't want and can't pay for.
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  Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five, they sound more like this.
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  Speaker 4: Gender affirming healthcare is life changing and life.
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  Speaker 1: Save and it's just horrifying in Gaza right now, horrific
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  Speaker 1: the worst it's.
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  Speaker 3: Been With a minority government. The Greens can deliver dental
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  Speaker 3: into Medicare and stronghousing and climate action wels.
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  Speaker 4: Trans rights are human rights.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a generation of the party's elders, old school
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  Speaker 1: Greens activists who chained themselves to bulldozers and pioneered gay
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  Speaker 1: rights in a Australia, who were finding the new look
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  Speaker 1: Greens a bit challenging.
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  Speaker 5: The Greens made a big mistake. They actually took this
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  Speaker 5: action against somebody who knows how to campaign. I know
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  Speaker 5: how to campaign and I'm going to campaign for free speech.
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  Speaker 1: This is Drew Hutton. He's seventy eight and he's a
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  Speaker 1: Greens founding father. He created the Queensland Greens and co
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  Speaker 1: founded the Australian Greens along with the party's patron Saint
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  Speaker 1: Bob Brown in nineteen ninety two. Earlier this week, the
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  Speaker 1: party expelled Drew Hutton for what it said were transphobic views.
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  Speaker 1: But it wasn't about something he said. It was about
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  Speaker 1: what commenters on his Facebook page said. Back in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, Hutton went on Facebook to support a member
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  Speaker 1: of the party who'd been expelled for saying that women
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  Speaker 1: should have female only spaces. Hutton's post was flooded with
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  Speaker 1: comments from friends who agreed women's shelters, prisons, and changing
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  Speaker 1: rooms should be women only. Hutton didn't even agree with them,
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  Speaker 1: He just let them have their say.
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  Speaker 5: The Greens then told me that while there was nothing
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  Speaker 5: that they could object you in my posts, that I
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  Speaker 5: had to delete every one of those comments. Everyone had
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  Speaker 5: to be deleted. And I said, but I believe in
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  Speaker 5: free speech. These are legitimate points that these people are making.
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  Speaker 5: They're not being defametory, they're not being abusive. Why should
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  Speaker 5: I delete them? And I refused, So they said, well
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  Speaker 5: you're suspended. You're suspended until you delete those comments.
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  Speaker 3: Hutton refused. Now he's out.
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  Speaker 5: Their motivation, I believe was if we can do it
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  Speaker 5: to Drew Hutton, we can do it to anybody. So
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  Speaker 5: keep your head down. The rest of you who think
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  Speaker 5: this is such a thing as a sex based rights
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  Speaker 5: and not gender identity, because if you put your head up,
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  Speaker 5: the same thing's going to happen to you.
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  Speaker 1: Jamie Walker is an associate editor with The Australian and
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  Speaker 1: he's based in Queensland, where the Greens have had a
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  Speaker 1: fascinating rise and then fall. They had three seats in
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  Speaker 1: Federal Parliament until the most recent election. Now they've just
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  Speaker 1: got one. But under the surface of the Greens there
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  Speaker 1: are really interesting currents and cross currents. Jamie, there's two
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  Speaker 1: different type of Greens. Can you explain for me what
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  Speaker 1: they are?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, traditionally they used to talk about the watermelon
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  Speaker 4: Greens read on the inside, green on the outside. That
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  Speaker 4: is a very deep marxistunderpinning, and what they'd call the
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  Speaker 4: deep Greens, and that was people like Bob Brown who
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  Speaker 4: were anchored in the environmental movement. But what you're seeing
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  Speaker 4: play out in Queensland at the moment and nationally is
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  Speaker 4: a more fundamental split within the Greens. It's a generational
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  Speaker 4: divide and it's what mister Hutton has termed a transgender
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  Speaker 4: and queer cult that has overtaken the Greens. I stressed
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  Speaker 4: there his words, not mine, and that that power group
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  Speaker 4: he alleges, has taken control of the party organs, administrative
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  Speaker 4: committees and management committees, are more importantly, the disciplinary committees
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  Speaker 4: right around the country, and it's chasing out anybody who
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  Speaker 4: won't toe the party line on transgender issues.
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  Speaker 1: I had to look at the Greens policy platform, Jamie,
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  Speaker 1: and what it says is that the Greens want trans
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  Speaker 1: and gender diverse young people to have the freedom and
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  Speaker 1: support to affirm their gender. Any medical interventions involved in
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  Speaker 1: this process should be guided foremost by the young person,
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  Speaker 1: with the advice and support of medical specialists. Now, what
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  Speaker 1: is missing from that that is causing a difference of
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  Speaker 1: opinion among some of these older Greens, like Drew Hutton.
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  Speaker 4: I think one thing that's notably missing is the term
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  Speaker 4: parent There is no mention about parental consent. There is
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  Speaker 4: no definition either of what a young person is. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: are they talking about teenagers, are they talking about people
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  Speaker 4: in the early ties? It is now presumably anyone over eighteen,
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  Speaker 4: of course, has a right to do what they see fit. However,
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  Speaker 4: when you're talking about teenagers, but the impact of puberty
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  Speaker 4: blockers and medical intervention on young people that can't be
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  Speaker 4: reversed is an issue of great concern. Now. Drew Hutton's position,
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  Speaker 4: and I guess the position of many people of his
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  Speaker 4: ilk in the Greens, isn't necessarily dogmatic on this. Simply Hey,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we need to have a discussion about this,
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  Speaker 4: and our policy platform needs to be informed about this discussion.
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  Speaker 1: Equal rights for gay and queer people are tootemic for
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  Speaker 1: the Greens. This was one of the issues that got
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  Speaker 1: them their first seats in any parliament. Bob Brown, the
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  Speaker 1: former Federal leader, was the first leader of any party
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  Speaker 1: to be openly gay, the first Federal MP to be
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  Speaker 1: openly gay.
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  Speaker 3: Why is this different, Jamie.
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  Speaker 1: Why is someone like Drew Hutton now being forced out
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  Speaker 1: given that he has a heritage of campaigning so hard
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  Speaker 1: for the rights of people in this community.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I think Drew Hutton's position is that to him,
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  Speaker 4: it's actually not about so much the issue of transgender rights,
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  Speaker 4: which he agrees with. He says a transgender person should
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  Speaker 4: have no more or no less rights than any adult austrade,
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  Speaker 4: but he sees this as an issue of free speech. Now,
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  Speaker 4: he has concerned some concerns about the Green platform. He
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  Speaker 4: thinks it should be more nuanced, and he'd liked those
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  Speaker 4: concerns addressed. He'd like to be able to raise it
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  Speaker 4: in party forums. Instead, he's thrown out of the party.
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  Speaker 4: He also is very angry about being denied what he
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  Speaker 4: sees as due process. Now at no point was he
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  Speaker 4: allowed to confront or challenge directly the people who made
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  Speaker 4: the accusations against him, who laid the complaints against him.
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  Speaker 4: And this is something that we're finding is a very
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  Speaker 4: common theme as we talk to other people who'd been expelled.
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  Speaker 4: There's more than thirty of them, and they all tell
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  Speaker 4: a common story. The other thing that's very interesting is
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  Speaker 4: that most of the people being expelled are women.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is interesting, and it goes hand in hand
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  Speaker 1: with the probably global trend of it being women speaking
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  Speaker 1: the loudest about their concerns about encroachment on women only spaces.
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  Speaker 1: For example, JK. Rowling, the author Martina navattlover the Athlete
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  Speaker 1: have been very forthright in saying that something that must
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  Speaker 1: be preserved as more people's rights are recognized is the
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  Speaker 1: right for biological women to have spaces, whether it's prisons
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  Speaker 1: or breastfeeding rooms.
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  Speaker 3: Or schools that are just for women.
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  Speaker 1: Is that something that Drew Hutton and the other Greens
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  Speaker 1: that you've spoken to are passionate about. Is it about
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  Speaker 1: safe spaces for them?
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  Speaker 4: Jamie, Absolutely, Yeah, they are saying the platform should be revisited.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, and it's not unreasonable. When they attempt to
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  Speaker 4: raise these issues, then the hell down and they say
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  Speaker 4: they are hew down, and it's by what Drew Cutton
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  Speaker 4: calls this cult. They are then facing punitive action. They
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  Speaker 4: are suspended and then expelled. You see some of the
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  Speaker 4: language of these complaints. They're almost stalinist. You know, they're
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  Speaker 4: expecting people to make pledgues that I'm actually being genuine
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  Speaker 4: with you, you know, and all this sort of stuff
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  Speaker 4: because they the people make the complaints don't believe that
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  Speaker 4: their heart is in what they say.
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  Speaker 1: This is the great trope of kind of progressive or
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  Speaker 1: left wing thought, isn't it that, just like the Revolution
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  Speaker 1: in Russia, which was all about equality and the working class,
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  Speaker 1: that it drifts slowly towards totalitarianism of either thought or
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  Speaker 1: deed or both. You know that everyone has to have
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  Speaker 1: the same opinion.
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  Speaker 4: Well exactly, I mean, this is part of the criticism
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  Speaker 4: that is coming out of this here as a party
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  Speaker 4: that is founded in a left wing tradition is founded
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  Speaker 4: in tolerance, is founded in raising up the rights of
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  Speaker 4: gay people. And you mentioned, you know, Bob Brown's extraordinary
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  Speaker 4: life story. That's you know, this is part of the
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  Speaker 4: tradition of the Greens. And yet what is now happening
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  Speaker 4: intolerance is being wielded as a weapon against some of
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  Speaker 4: the very people who founded the party. It's an extraordinary outcome.
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  Speaker 4: Drew Hutton says, I don't recognize the party that I
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  Speaker 4: founded anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up should be all these just pan the Greens
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  Speaker 1: over to a fresh new set of future leaders.
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  Speaker 5: It is not bigoted to say a girl or a
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  Speaker 5: woman should not have to compete in a sporting team
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  Speaker 5: against a biological male. There is nothing bigoted about that.
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  Speaker 5: Where to put our spear in the ground and the
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  Speaker 5: organizations like the Greens think that that's something that they've
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  Speaker 5: got to snuff out and watch out they're going to
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  Speaker 5: get hit by a freight train.
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  Speaker 3: Is there an element of this, Jamie?
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  Speaker 1: Where do you think the old people you know, have
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  Speaker 1: to stand back and accept that what is now progressive.
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  Speaker 3: Thought has left them behind.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the ideas that the Greens have advocated have
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  Speaker 1: always been on the radical fringe before they become the mainstream,
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  Speaker 1: including for example, marriage equality that was a wild idea
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  Speaker 1: in the early nineteen eighties. Now it's completely mainstream.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah maybe maybe I think though that you know, some
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  Speaker 4: of the old campaigners are making the point, where are
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  Speaker 4: the results on the board for the new generation. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: they had a breakthrough result in Brisbane at the twenty
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  Speaker 4: twenty two election where they had three MPs elected, and
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  Speaker 4: what happened in May they lost two of those seats.
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  Speaker 4: They lost the seat of Adam Bant, their leader in Melbourne.
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  Speaker 4: And you know when you see the Greens trying to
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  Speaker 4: spin that, oh look, you know our vote was our
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  Speaker 4: primary vote actually went up, will you kind of go
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  Speaker 4: be real mate. You know, this is a party that
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  Speaker 4: went backwards at an enormous rate of knots at the
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  Speaker 4: last election and it suggests that the public are not
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  Speaker 4: buying what they're selling.
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  Speaker 1: Jamie Walker is The Australian's associate editor. You can check
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  Speaker 1: out his reporting and a piece Drew Hutton wrote for
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  Speaker 1: The Australian Right Now at the Australian dot com dot
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  Speaker 1: au