Former Greens leader Bob Brown on Adani, renewables, and electroshock therapy
Former Greens leader Bob Brown reflects on his electroshock therapy, the growth of the Greens, and why he’s outraged by Labor’s climate policies.
A successful campaign against the Franklin Dam in the 1980s led to the formation of the Greens and your career pivot from medico to politician. Is the planet now in better or worse shape than you expected?
Much worse. I thought after that campaign that we were in a new age of environmental awareness, but all that happened was the exploiters of nature regrouped, they brought in greenwashing, and Canberra is now filled with lobbyists for loggers, miners and developers. But the Franklin River is now host to one of the world’s great outdoor white-water rafting adventures.
You were arrested last year while protesting the logging of Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest. Is this your new Franklin?
Australia’s got outbreaks of environmental outrage all over the place, from the ring road through the Gelorup woodlands in WA to huge wind farms on bird-breeding sites like Robbins Island in Tasmania and in northern Queensland.
A new documentary, The Giants, interweaves your life story with that of old-growth forests. What is your hope for the film?
If it stirs just one young viewer into taking action, it will be worthwhile. Along with beautiful footage of forests, the film explores the new science showing how a community of trees interrelates and works together. That’s a potent message for our fractured human society.
Do you feel vindicated now climate change is high on the agenda?
Back in the 1980s I’d take someone with me to walk up the street because I’d be followed by people holding iron bars. People would come up and say, “You effing so-and-so, I’m gonna kick your shins in.” That’s totally gone. Everywhere now people stop and say, “Good on you Bob.” It’s not me that’s changed, it’s society.
You took the Greens from minor player to Senate force before retiring in 2012. What are your thoughts on the state of the party?
The record Greens vote at the last election speaks for itself: people appreciate what they’re doing. And the party’s going to become more important because I don’t think Labor or the Coalition are even faintly capable of changing to meet the threats of climate change.
Are you disappointed by the government’s attitude to fossil fuels?
I’m outraged. Global warming is going to wreck not just the environment for our kids but the economy and their job prospects as well. But the government’s captured by the corporate profiteers; it’s a very undignified myopia that’s allowing them to tick off on more coal and gas [projects].
The anti-Adani convoy made coal a 2019 federal election issue but failed to stop Queensland’s Carmichael mine. How do you view it in hindsight?
The Adani convoy will be seen more and more like the suffragettes – the majority thought them out of step but time has proved them right. That will happen not just with Adani but the school strikes for climate and Greta Thunberg’s challenges to global authorities.
You live with your long-term partner Paul Thomas, a farmer and activist, on Tasmania’s southeast coast. Does it feel like the edge of the world?
This little island is one of the most environmentally intact places of long-term human habitation left on the planet. From Paul’s farm up on the hill you look straight south to Antarctica. It’s a beautiful place.
In 1966 you underwent electroshock aversion therapy. It seems so primitive today…
The idea of aversion therapy in 2023 is abominable, but back then the whole of society was homophobic. Having no alternative, it was something I sought out. It absolutely didn’t work and we now know you can’t change human nature by applying electric shocks.
The Giants opens in cinemas on April 20