Greens elder statesman Bob Brown has defended the ACT Greens’ talks with the Liberals, declaring Shane Rattenbury’s decision to reach across the aisle was outstanding and the party’s long-time ACT leader had shown political maturity.
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Mr Brown, a leading figure in the Australian environmental movement and the establishment of the Australian Greens, said history had shown the left and right could collaborate in the national interest and talking across the board was not new or unique.
“Shane Rattenbury and the ACT Liberals have shown political maturity by talking over future possibilities. The hankie-twisting commentariat of the far right needs to grow up and the lack-lustre Labor government of the ACT needs to lift its operation,” Mr Brown wrote in a letter published in The Canberra Times on Friday.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown, who has defended ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury’s talks with the Canberra Liberals. Picture by Karleen Minney
Mr Brown used a letter to the editor to condemn a column in The Australian which argued serious talks between the Liberals and Greens in the ACT about forming government were a “sign of madness” on the conservative side.
“While the far right is shocked by the prospect of Rattenbury becoming chief minister, unlikely as that is to happen, Rattenbury has the political maturity and runs on the board as a high-performing minister to make the prospect a good one for the ACT – and, it seems, the local Liberals who are well-placed to know, agree,” Mr Brown said.
“In this age of manufactured division and hate politics, fuelled by the right-wing media, the very fact that Rattenbury has the nous and commonsense to be talking across the board with his political colleagues is of itself outstanding. But it’s not new or unique.”
Mr Brown, who served in the Tasmanian Parliament for a decade and 16 years in the Australian Senate, said he talked with Labor and the Liberals when balance-of-power situations came up following close elections.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown with ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury in 2012. Picture by Karleen Minney
“After the 2010 federal election, Julia Gillard was first to seek talks to form government with the support of the Greens and that led, amongst other gains such as limited denticare, to the world-leading carbon trading scheme which reduced both Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and household power prices,” he said.
“Nevertheless, I had made it our business after the election to also talk with the Liberal leader Tony Abbott. We knew that Abbott had said that “climate change is crap” but also that some 20 per cent of Greens voters were former conservative supporters. No harm could come of talking with the right side of politics about the potential to form government.”
Mr Brown said after the 2010 election it was clear Mr Abbott was not interested in serious negotiations.
“Some on the left might have thought that that meeting was ‘madness’ or ‘lunacy’, and Abbott and his Murdoch backers might have seen it as little more than a farce, but I saw it as politically responsible for the nation which had just voted for neither major party to govern alone,” he said.
Mr Brown also pointed to state Green-conservative governments with composite ministries in Germany, including a “successful government in Baden-Wurttemberg”, and Labor and Liberals sharing cabinet portfolios in Australia during World War II.
“Talks across the political spectrum occur all the time. Look at the recent flurry which saw the Liberals support an amended version of Anthony Albanese’s legislation against ‘hate speech’ and Labor gain Greens support for its gun control laws,” he said.
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