Antinuclear

Senator Bob Brown to resign. Senator Christine Milne to take over Greens leadership

Brown’s protests and causes in his trailblazing career, ABC News,  April 13, 2012 After 16 years at the helm of the party he founded, Bob Brown has retired as Greens leader and will stand down as a senator in June. His resignation ends a trailblazing career in federal politics which saw him become Australia’s first openly gay member of Parliament.

Since his early career as a doctor, Senator Brown adopted left-leaning causes and was passionate about the environment and human rights.

In 1976 he held a fast for one week on top of Mt Wellington in protest of the arrival of the nuclear-powered warship USS Enterprise……
Senator Brown was an advocate for a range of human rights and green issues, introducing bills for forest protection, to ban mandatory sentencing of Aboriginal children and to block the dumping of nuclear waste.

Parliamentary rebel He was an opponent of the war in Iraq and campaigned for justice for David Hicks, the Australian who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Senator Brown was famously suspended from Parliament in 2003 when he
disrupted a speech being delivered by visiting United States president George W Bush.

During Mr Bush’s speech Mr Brown demanded the American “return Australians” respect Australians. He was barred for 24 hours but he and Mr Bush shook hands afterwards despite the altercation.

Later, when US president Barack Obama visited Australia in 2011 Senator Brown said he did not intend to interrupt his speech to Parliament. “We’ve got a president now who knows a lot more about equality and respect than his predecessor, George W Bush,” he said…… http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-13/brown27s-trailblazing-career/3948578

April 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics