Greens leader Larissa Waters backs expulsion of party co-founder Drew Hutton

Larissa Waters has defended the party’s decision to expel Drew Hutton and hit out at the 78-year-old activist after he denounced the Greens as an intolerant ‘cult’.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Australian Greens leader Larissa Waters has defended the party’s decision to expel co-founder Drew Hutton for questioning its pro-transgender platform, saying: “Social justice doesn’t stop because of one man’s focus on how other people identify.”

Senator Waters hit out at the 78-year-old activist, who set up the party in 1992 with Bob Brown, after he denounced the Greens as an intolerant “cult” and warned his case was a test of Senator Waters’ nascent leadership.

She said Sunday’s decision by the party’s state council in Queensland to uphold the termination of Mr Hutton’s membership was in keeping with the rules.

“This was an independent decision of the party, via the governance processes established by the membership, and with a clear outcome,” Senator Waters said in a statement. “Nobody is above the rules.

“Good governance means that people can put their case forward, including the right to appeal a decision. In this case the appeal was unsuccessful.

“Greens policies are determined by thousands of party members - and pretty much all of us are able to have those discussions respectfully, even when we disagree.

“Trans rights are human rights, and the Greens believe that no one should be attacked for the basis of their gender, race, religion, sexual identity or ethnicity. That’s been the position of our members for years, and it’s a position which has been backed again and again.”

In an apparent dig at Mr Hutton, she said Greens members had “been working hard to resolve this matter through the party’s governance processes.”

Social justice didn’t “stop because of one man’s focus on how other people identify,” she said. “The rest of us are just getting on with the job.”

Mr Hutton was marched on Sunday by the Greens’ state council in Queensland after being sanctioned over posts and online comments made by others on his private Facebook page about the party’s pro-trans rights platform.

Renewing his call for Senator Waters to intervene on his behalf, Mr Hutton said on Monday the case was a test of her leadership.

Senator Waters took the helm after former Greens leader Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne at the federal election in May.

Speaking on ABC radio, Mr Hutton called on the Greens Senator “to grapple with this issue”, adding it was “a crisis point in the party”.

“(Ms Waters) knows very well what’s going on. In fact, she’s the only one who could actually do anything about this,” he said.

“But she’s preferring to just look the other way and not take any role in it.

“The Greens are rapidly becoming an authoritarian, doctrinaire, unlikeable party, and people are waking up to this more and more.”

Mr Hutton said if the Greens were to have a viable role in Australian politics, then “she needs to say to the party you need to fix this up – no more expulsions on this gender issue at least”.

“Let’s have an inquiry into how the party is embedding democratic values into the processes the party pursues and who are these people who have taken over the party and what’s their real agenda,” he said.

Reflecting views he told The Australian, Mr Hutton said the Greens had become a very different party to the one he founded.

“I fought 20 years against the Bjelke-Petersen government in this state to have freedom of speech and we won in the end, but now find I’m on the losing end in my own party on that same issue,” he said.

“It’s a different Greens party to what it was when I founded it. It’s been taken over by a cult basically. It’s a transgender cult or queer cult.”

The man he helped establish the Greens, foundation leader Bob Brown, has called for Mr Hutton’s membership to be restored. Dr Brown was supported by another former leader in Christine Milne.

But Queensland Greens convener Gemmia Burden was adamant that Mr Hutton deserved to go, saying he had “prioritised his perceived right to free speech over the safety of others”.

Senator Waters’ office has been contacted.