By Nick Newling
A co-founder of the Australian Greens who was removed from the party over an online debate on trans people has accused the party of tolerating no dissent on the issue that has caused the expulsion of dozens of “good environmentalists”.
Drew Hutton, 78, co-founded the national Greens alongside Bob Brown in the early 1990s, but was formally ejected from the party at the weekend in part for refusing to delete comments made by others on his Facebook page that the party organisation deemed to be transphobic.
Drew Hutton was key to the formation of the Queensland Greens, Australian Greens and the anti-fracking Lock the Gate Alliance.Credit: Robert Rough
“Over the last decade or so, it would seem that some people have come into the Greens with the determination to take it over,” Hutton told ABC 7.30 on Tuesday night. “To convert it into the sort of party whose, one of whose, main preoccupations is with transgender rights.
“They’ve got an absolutely rigorous determination to stop any dissent from occurring to the things they think are important. The main things they think are important are we get rid of the notion of biological sex and replace it with gender identity.”
While Hutton said he did not have an issue with transgender rights, he criticised campaigners for having “a closed set of beliefs. They have a closed language, which they understand but nobody else does”.
On one side of the debate within the party are members who believe allowing people to self-identify as another gender, with full legal rights, is a critical step to protect the dignity and health of trans people. Others are more critical and argue there should be safe spaces for cisgender women and greater safeguards on the transition process.
Brown, the first federal leader of the Greens, and his successor Christine Milne, both opposed Hutton’s expulsion from the party.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the situation was “really sad” given Hutton’s history of environmental activism, but she defended its administrative wing and its stance on trans issues.
Waters noted the expulsion process was run by party members, and the Greens “are a safe party for trans people … and will always be”.
Waters dismissed claims of an authoritarian bent within the party, saying there was room for “robust debate” and differences of opinion within the party code of conduct.
But she admitted she had not read the documents that underpinned Hutton’s expulsion, saying she was busy with work in Canberra, advancing the Greens’ policy priorities. “I haven’t read the documentation because here I am in parliament,” Waters said.
The Greens’ party platform features a section on sexually and gender diverse people that reads “LGBTIQA+ people in Australia deserve to live safe, respected and valued lives, free from discrimination and hate … equality is non-negotiable”.
Hutton said that a “fairly authoritarian, and aggressive, and unlikeable element” within the Greens was pushing out dozens of “good environmentalists”, many of them women, over their stance on trans issues.
“I’ve been contacted by 40 former members of the Greens. Now, about half of them have been expelled and the other half have been forced out by being subjected to massive complaints. They’ve weaponised the complaints’ system, this faction; this cult, that I call them, has taken over all the key committees in the party, including the disciplinary committees,” Hutton said.
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