TAS Elections

McKim's sound decision making

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Friday 9th April 2010, 5:40pm

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says he backs, one hundred per cent, Tasmanian Greens Leader Nick McKim and his colleagues in their decisions.

"Nick was the only leader who did not paint himself, or Tasmania, into a pre-election corner," said Senator Brown.

"When asked by the Governor if he could form a government, Will Hodgman did not reach out to work on majority government with the Greens.

"The Liberal door was shut.

"That was Will Hodgman's team's decision, but it let Tasmanian voters down badly.

"I was not aware of the last Green Party room meeting and was not told about its decision until after the meeting when Nick kindly called me in Canberra to tell me about it."

Greens move to ban handing out how-to-vote cards

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Sunday 28th March 2010, 7:15am

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown will move amendments to electoral laws to prevent handing out of how-to-vote cards at federal elections.

"Action to stop misleading information from being given to voters at elections is needed urgently before the next federal election," said Senator Brown.

Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim's election night speech

Greens TV | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Friday 26th March 2010, 2:28pm

Tasmanian Greens reclaim the balance of power

Photo Gallery | Spokesperson Bob Brown, Christine Milne
Tuesday 23rd March 2010, 12:35pm
Click one of the thumbnails to view the gallery.

Greens condemn unscrupulous electioneering, renew call for truth in advertising

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Monday 22nd March 2010, 1:29pm

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has condemned the use of misleading how-to-vote cards directing Family First voters to preference Labor during the South Australian election.

Senator Brown noted a range of misleading Labor materials used in the lead up to both state elections over the weekend, from television advertisements attacking SA Liberal leader Isobel Redmond to automated calls in Tasmania to undermine the Greens.

State election results consolidate Greens' mainstream status

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Sunday 21st March 2010, 12:55pm

Solid swings to Greens candidates in both the Tasmanian and South Australian elections have consolidated the party's position as Australia's third party, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today. 

Truth in political advertising

Speech | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Friday 19th March 2010, 2:01pm

Senator BOB BROWN (Tasmania) (Leader of the Australian Greens) (1:15 PM) -This afternoon I will be moving a motion that asks the Senate to call on the government to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act before the next federal election to incorporate a truth in political advertising unit to monitor and regulate political advertising to ensure it is true and accurate. Following Senator Birmingham's speech, I expect that both the opposition and the government will support this move to insist that voters not be misled on their way to the ballot box. This is a move not just to help clear up some of the nastier politics that we are seeing unfold now in South Australia and Tasmania but to give voters a break from the persistent corrosion and erosion of the body politic by parties who wish to mislead electors about their opponents.


I also foreshadow that I will bring in legislation for a commissioner for integrity in politics. I believe we very badly need an independent arbiter of some of the nastiness and fraudulent behaviour that we see creeping into politics. In South Australia at the moment the Labor Party is running ads against the Liberal leader, Isobel Redmond, which imply that she is not concerned about some dangerous drugs, and ecstasy is named. They also imply that in some way or another she wants to be soft on murderers in prison who may vote for her in return. I went to Adelaide last Friday to campaign for the Greens and I found the attack ads from Labor that misrepresent the leader of the Liberals in South Australia not just tasteless but disgusting, as they are aimed at getting people to change their votes on false premises. They try to fit a woman who has integrity. Even though she is not in the political camp that I am in, she is leading a genuine party to an election and is prepared to enter into debate on a wide range of issues. She should not be traduced in the way those Labor Party ads are doing.


In my home state of Tasmania, in the elections in 2007 the Liberal Party apparatchiks entered into an arrangement with the Exclusive Brethren. They used the issue of gender to warn the electorate that they should be fearful for their families because of Greens policies. Mr Mantac, who came from Prime Minister Howard's office to the Tasmanian Liberals as their director, denied any connection with the Exclusive Brethren, but in a court case taken by a transgender citizen in Tasmania it was shown that Mr Mantac not only had knowledge of this attack but was an instrumental figure in misleading the electorate in a way which post-election required both the Exclusive Brethren and Mr Mantac to apologise to the voters of Tasmania. After the event it was too late. The voters of Tasmania had been misled on their way to the ballot box.


We now have in Tasmania an attack on the Greens coming from the Labor Party, which is very similar to the attack in South Australia on the Liberals, on the basis of drugs policy and prison policy. In both cases it is a complete misrepresentation of the Greens. It has got front-page articles in all three Tasmanian newspapers today. The Advocate has the headline ‘Girl gets automated ALP attack'. This article is about a nine-year-old girl who turned to her mother and said, ‘What's heroin, Mum?' The mother made inquiries and found out that this was a phone call from a Labor Party member who is currently in Western Australia. She recorded it as an attack ad on the Greens. She said she knew that this was not Greens policy but believed it might be in the future. In other words, it was a concocted and completely fraudulent representation of the Greens to the electorate, including to children who picked up the phone. You have to wonder how low this process has gone and why we as legislators who stand for decency, integrity and truth are not moving to cut this off at the pass.


Both Liberal and Labor have been involved in this process up to their necks. It is time it stopped. I can stand here and defend the Greens, but they need to look after themselves. The right of voters to be properly informed on their way to the ballot box is being attacked. Alison Andrews of the Examiner in Launceston is not a partisan journalist but she wrote today:


... I'm angry.


I'm annoyed at being treated like an idiot and cross at the thousands of dollars that have been spent on electioneering by candidates and party strategists acting like rude, spoilt children.


I'm talking about the dirty tricks campaigning that has exploded upon us in the desperate last days before Saturday's election.


It has included the voting rights for prisoners' policy taken to extremes so that suddenly interstate newspapers were writing stories about Port Arthur killer Martin Bryant getting the right to vote.


That is no party's policy, but Labor claim it is. It will not matter to them whether they are peddling the truth because we do not have an institution which prevents such presentation and misleading of the voters. Ms Andrews goes on to say:


There are the brochures being distributed across the state alleging that the Greens plan to legalise heroin as well as give Tasmania's worst criminals the right to vote.


Both of these are not manifestly or directly contrary to the Greens' policies and their actions in parliament. She goes on:


And yesterday we had the telephone calls to householders again across the state with a recorded message from a so-called mother of two-


this is by Labor-


warning people not to vote for the same party for all the above reasons.


Don't the people who dream up these smear campaigns realise that this is not the sort of behaviour that I expect from the people who aspire to represent our state, regardless of how I plan to vote.


We as politicians have a responsibility for what our party room and backroom boys and girls are doing. We are directly responsible for how the party behaves under these circumstances. It is appalling the way the Labor Party in both states is behaving on this occasion and as the Liberal Party has done on previous occasions in Tasmania.


It is time we cleaned this mess up and I intend to help do that. I will challenge both parties with a ‘truth in advertising commission' through legislation and an integrity commissioner before the next election. I hope that both the Liberal and Labor parties


  For an online version see http://tiny.cc/GHNZ7

Greens assured over $439m to Tasmanian schools

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Friday 19th March 2010, 12:58pm

Contrary to Labor spin, the Australian Greens' support for the Rudd government's $42 billion economic stimulus package has resulted in Tasmanian schools, including the Catholic and independent schools sharing in $439 millions for new classrooms, libraries and other amenities.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said that the Liberals opposed the package outright.

"But the Greens got it through the Senate," Senator Brown said.

"This funding boost for schools and the building industry resulted in $327 million going to 203 public schools, $74 million to 36 Catholic schools and $38 million to 32 independent schools in Tasmania."

"Left to the Liberals, not one dollar would have come to Tasmania."

"Labor should give the Greens credit where its due," Senator Brown said.

Media contact: Erin Farley 0438 376 082

Canberra call to clean up politics

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Wednesday 17th March 2010, 3:07pm

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has moved in the Senate for the establishment of a Truth in Political Advertising Unit before the federal election due later this year.


His motion will be voted on tomorrow.

Labor's tactic undermines decency in public life - Brown

Media Release | Spokesperson Bob Brown
Tuesday 16th March 2010, 12:00am

The Greens national leader Senator Bob Brown says that Labor advertisements attacking opponents in Tasmania and South Australia undermine decency in Australian public life.


Referring to Labor's pre-election ads attacking the Liberals in South Australia and Greens in Tasmania with false claims of affinity for crimiansl or drugs, Senator Brown called on Prime Minister Rudd to intervene.