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Greens founder Drew Hutton faces expulsion over bitter gender feud

The man who launched the Greens with Bob Brown faces expulsion from the party because of a bitter feud over their gender policy.

Drew Hutton is in a fight with the party he helped create. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)
Drew Hutton is in a fight with the party he helped create. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

The man who helped found the Greens with former Senator Bob Brown faces expulsion for refusing to delete Facebook comments about the party’s gender policy.

Retired activist Drew Hutton, a life member of the Greens, will front the party’s state council on July 20 in a stoush he said was really about the right to free speech.

Mr Hutton, who stepped down as founder of the Lock The Gate gas mining protest group in 2017, has been fighting the disciplinary action since he was first suspended in July 2023.

The dispute was sparked a year earlier when the then Victorian Greens convener, Linda Gale, left after suggesting the party should look into whether its gender policy was problematic.

Mr Hutton sprang to her defence, arguing it was a breach of free speech to censor debate on the issue and that the Greens should be staunch defenders of free speech.

He published two Facebook posts on his personal page.

Drew Hutton at parliament. Pic Annette Dew
Drew Hutton at parliament. Pic Annette Dew

One read: “I believe in full human rights for trans people at the same time as supporting the right of women to be free from patriarchies’ oppression. I am also prepared to say these things publicly. Unfortunately in the Greens at present that would seem to make me a transphobe.”

But it was the hundreds of comments they unleashed which landed him in hot water with politically correct party leaders.

Many of the comments were “bitter’’ and opposed his views but he refused to delete them.

“My whole world fell in after those two posts,’’ he said.

“I tried to achieve a compromise. It went on for a week or two and I closed commenting.

“But a complaint was made to the Queensland Greens a couple of months later that I was a transphobe.

“I was quite naive. I didn’t even know what transphobe was.’’

There was no claims of transphobia against the posts themselves, and Greens committee ruled he had not breached the party’s code of conduct, but did find he was responsible for the comments and ordered him to delete them.

“I didn’t agree with a lot of the comments, many were quite bitter, but I refused and was suspended in July 2023.’’

The suspension hung over his head for about another 20 months before he complained to the party’s management committee.

Former Greens state leader Drew Hutton holding voting cards ahead of the 1995 Queensland election.
Former Greens state leader Drew Hutton holding voting cards ahead of the 1995 Queensland election.

In February this year the Constitution and Arbitration Committee, a powerful disciplinary group, ruled he could not be permanently suspended. Instead, it expelled him on May 30.

Ironically, suspensions could not be appealed but expulsions could be.

Queensland Greens convener Gemmia Burden said in a statement that the party rules applied equally to all members.

“Commentary that targets people on the basis of their gender identity is harmful, not respectful,” the statement, published by the Guardian, said.

“The Queensland Greens believes that trans rights are non-negotiable and we do not tolerate transphobia or trans misogyny.”

Mr Hutton, now 78, said he stopped taking an active role in the Greens in 2009 when he set up Lock The Gate.

Over the years he has unsuccessfully run in about eight elections and fought for tree clearing legislation, larger national parks and better environmental controls over mines.

He was also active in opposing the National Party government under former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Mr Hutton said he was taking a stand only to defend a principle in which he strongly believed.

“I’m not doing this for me. I’m an old man, I’m leading a lovely life,’’ the Sunshine Coast retiree said.

He said the Queensland Greens expelled only two people in his two decades actively leading the party.

But The Courier-Mail understands more than 40 members around the country have been expelled or suspended in the past three years alone, many for opposing the party’s gender policies.

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Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/greens-founder-drew-hutton-faces-expulsion-over-bitter-gender-feud/news-story/a35281450ed507c2d4db846c4cd7b232