Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would expect the honourable senator to say I was an apologist because I say what I think, I say what I mean and I say what I hear. Maybe he could learn from taking the same direction.

That said, with regard to the feedback, you have to ask: why is that? The fact is that if this year has been an annus horribilis—and I hope there are no Latin scholars here—it follows anni duodecum horribilis maximus, 12 particularly dreadful years. The unforgettable thing about those years, the mark of those years, was the locking up of little children, defenceless kids, as well as their mothers and fathers, behind razor wire in the deserts of Australia. That mark, that stain, of the horrible years will always remain with the Howard government. Despite the economic largesse of the period, we have so gladly moved on. The Prime Minister’s expression of sorrow to the stolen generation was indeed an important milestone in Australian politics, where often there is so little heart and everything is too frequently measured by dollars and budgets, but many of the things that make Australia and Australians great are outside the simple parameters of finance, money and dollars.

The Greens are also celebrating a year of five senators, and I want to pay tribute to the new senators who have joined Senator Siewert, Senator Milne and me—that is, Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Ludlam. We are a team that is adding to this parliament, particularly in the areas of heart, the areas of humanity and the areas of environmental debate and progress—a much needed component in any parliament around the world when we look at the cataclysmic situation that the human population, of now some 6.7 billion people, faces not in coming centuries but in our own lifetimes and those of our children and grandchildren.

Here is the challenge to this government: will this country—the wealthiest country on the face of the planet per capita when it comes to resources and one of the world’s four oldest continuous democracies—take a lead in a world which badly needs leadership globally as well as at home? The big challenge there, of course, will be in tackling climate change. We look forward to this government measuring up to the Greens minima of a 40 per cent reduction—over 1990 levels—in greenhouse gas pollution of the atmosphere from this country by the year 2020 when the Prime Minister and his Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, make that announcement in the coming weeks. Short of that, we will be short-selling this wonderful country of ours.

On nuclear issues, not least uranium mine expansion and Australia’s support for US weapons of mass destruction programs, including so-called missile defence programs around the world, the government has yet to show the independence that is needed in a world lead to get us away from the nuclear madness and insecurity of the last century. There are great challenges before the country, which I cannot speak to in five minutes, but, finally, I would say: what a pity that the pulp mill in Tasmania, this environmental disaster, is going down the chute not due to government action but due to the financial crisis. (Time expired)