Booted from party, Greens co-founder vows to fight on

The Greens co-founder booted from the party on the weekend has hit back, accusing the organisation of becoming “too weird and unlikeable” for electoral success and urging the federal leader to intervene.

Drew Hutton, who helped found the Greens in 1991, was expelled from the party on Sunday in part for refusing to delete comments made by others on his Facebook page deemed to be transphobic.

Hutton, 78, told this masthead he was considering his legal options and urged new federal party leader Larissa Waters to intervene.

Drew Hutton (front), pictured with Friends of the Earth campaigner Cam Walker in 2013.Credit: Damian White

“She should be using her stature to say to the Australian Greens, no more expulsions, no more bullying of green people who have given sometimes decades to the party over this gender issue,” he said.

“And secondly, she should be calling for inquiry into all of the processes of the Greens and to ensure that the principle of democracy is embedded in them.

“Now she’s got to show that she’s got the character and the courage to do that – if she doesn’t do it, the Greens risk becoming, in the view of most Australian electors, just weird and unlikable.”

Waters backed her party’s processes, which she said showed “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,” she said.

“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.”

Queensland Greens convenor Gemmia Burden.

Hutton said trans people should have the same rights as any other Australian and be treated with civility, but as a “retired, burnt-out old greenie” he thought the Greens had strayed from its roots, particularly since the mid-2010s.

“The party that I founded felt that it had a historic mission,” he said.

“Then, that mission was not to attack the whole notion of biological sex – it was to help move the planet towards ecological sustainability and I think that key objective is in the process of being lost.”

Queensland Greens convenor Gemmia Burden said Hutton’s expulsion reflected the party platform than trans rights were non-negotiable human rights and that nobody should be subjected to violence of hate speech.

“Comments made and enabled by the former member went beyond respectful and robust discussion – they were harmful to the safety and wellbeing of people within the party and the broader community,” she said.

Burden said Hutton had been unwilling to abide by party processes, or work with the Greens to recognise the harm caused by both his commentary and the comments posted on his page “which he continues to platform”.

Former Queensland Greens senator Andrew Bartlett, who was not at Sunday’s meeting and therefore not privy to the evidence presented, said the trans issue was a “shibboleth” for the modern party.

“Personally, some of the things I’ve seen [Hutton] say himself on his Facebook page in more recent times I’ve been uncomfortable with and it is up to any organisation, particularly political parties, to decide where their red lines are and what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he said.

Bartlett said members with whom he had spoken about Hutton had two distinct issues in their minds – the party’s approach to transgender rights and the best process for dealing with differences of opinion.

On that second issue, Bartlett said the Greens had a way to go.

Andrew Bartlett during his time as a Greens senator for Queensland.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“As a general comment, I don’t think the Greens handle opinions that are different from the controlling group in the party very well,” he said.

“They react very defensively a lot of the time, and I don’t think that’s helpful for the organisation.”

If the Greens were ever to evolve to a party of government, Bartlett said it would need to better deal with internal debate.

“You can’t, by definition, be a broad-based party if you put in a lot of barriers,” he said.

“People are complex and diverse, and they don’t all hold 10 issues and they don’t all agree with the 10 issues. Often they’re sympathetic to the same issues, but when it comes down to detail, you’ll have differences of opinion, because that’s how a society should work.

“To me, it all boils down to the fact that the Greens have a core pillar to make a lot about being a participatory grassroots democracy and, if you actually believe that, then you’ve got to hear, you’ve got to listen.

“Even when you think people are wildly wrong, you’ve got to listen to them and take on board and explain and justify why it is, rather than just put up a wall.”

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