Bob Brown quits Australian Conservation Foundation

Bob Brown has cut ties with a major Australian environmental organisation due to its support of a polarising federal government policy. Why he thinks they and Labor are ‘sell-outs’ >>

Bob Brown at Parliament lawns, Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

BOB Brown has handed back his life membership of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) in protest over the foundation’s stance on government climate policy.

However the ACF has reiterated its suppoert for stengthened climate legislation does not meant it will stop campaigning for a stop to new coal and gas projects.

The Greens are under pressure to finalise their ­position on the Albanese Government’s climate policy and safeguard mechanism, which from July 1 would require the nation’s biggest emitters to cut pollution by nearly 5 per cent each year to 2030.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has said if the Greens did not vote for the changes in parliament Australia’s emissions reductions targets would be at risk.

Speaking at the National Community Legal Centres Conference in Hobart, Dr Brown said he was appalled that instead of backing the Greens, the ACF and Climate Council in the public arena calling for the Greens “to ignore yesterday’s alarming IPCC report and cave in to Labor’s sell-out policy”.

“Like the United Nations and global scientific opinion, Adam Bandt’s Greens are calling on the Australian government to allow no new coal mines or gas fracking,” Dr Brown said. “(Tuesday’s) IPCC was a clear call for an end to more coal and gas. That’s the Greens’ honourable position. I cannot remain part of the undermining of that stand for the future of Australia and the planet.”

ACF chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy said Dr Brown would reconsider coming back to the foundation.

“ACF has been very clear about our position on the safeguard mechanism and on no new coal and gas,” Ms O’Shanassy said.

“We are calling on the Albanese government, the Greens and the crossbenchers to strengthen the safeguard mechanism, then pass it, then keep going with the task of ending new coal and gas in this term.”

“There is absolutely no place for new or extended coal mines or gas projects in the third decade of the 21st century.

Originally published as Bob Brown quits Australian Conservation Foundation