Bob Brown

is a former leader of the Australian Greens.

By this author

podcast July 19, 2021

Bob Brown on the fight to save Tasmania’s wilderness from a toxic waste dump

The Tarkine rainforest, in Tasmania's north west, is Australia's largest temperate rainforest and home to some of the country’s most endangered species. But now a mining company has started clearing the Tarkine, to build a new dam.

Opinion August 22, 2020

The end of the environment

“The prime minister’s post-Covid-19 plan is to roar ahead with a slate of mega-projects that would be delayed by any proper consideration of their environmental and Indigenous heritage impacts. While the EPBC Act rarely leads to any project being given …”

Opinion July 17, 2021

Saving Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest

“Bob Hawke’s first act as prime minister in 1983 was to save the Franklin River in Tasmania. In 1987, he over-rode Queensland’s bull-headed premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to save the Daintree wet tropics. These rainforests faced death by a thousand …”

Opinion July 20, 2019

The Robbins Island wind farm debate

“The Australian moved in for the kill last week. Back-to-back front pages, on Monday and Tuesday, after I sounded the alarm about the impact on endangered birds if the Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania’s north-west goes ahead. Backed up by …”

Opinion February 09, 2019

The Stop Adani Convoy

“I am 74 and acutely aware that our planet is hotter than when I was a boy, due to the burning of fossil fuels. Storms, droughts and bushfires are all the worse, as predicted 30 years ago. Yet the rate of burning of fossil fuels is still growing in 2019, …”

Opinion September 02, 2017

Malcolm Turnbull caves in to Tasmanian loggers

“Turnbull effectively signed the death warrant on forests in a whole brace of reserves. He also endorsed logging of 159 forest coupes already listed by Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman for clear-felling in other Tarkine forests, including in the headquarters …”

Opinion March 25, 2017

In defence of civil disobedience

“Where the bounds of acceptable civil disobedience in a democracy lie is a debate that will be with us so long as times change and society transforms. Implying, as The Australian does, that civil disobedience against bad laws has no place at all …”

News March 19, 2016

Bob Brown’s arrest in Lapoinya under new anti-protester laws

A High Court challenge to Tasmania’s controversial anti-protester laws follows their use to arrest conservationists in the Lapoinya forest.