Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 22 March 2023
Brown disowns ACF life membership
Former Greens leader Bob Brown and founder of the Bob Brown Foundation is giving back his life membership of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He said he did not want to be part of the Labor-backed lobby to have the Greens vilified for wanting more action against the climate crisis than the Albanese government’s ‘tread water’ Safeguards legislation.
“Like the United Nations and global scientific opinion, Adam Bandt’s Greens are calling on the Australian government to allow no new coal mines or gas fracking. Yesterday’s IPCC was a clear call for an end to more coal and gas. That’s the Greens’ honourable position. I cannot remain part of the undermining of that stand for the future of Australia and the planet.”
Speaking at the National Community Legal Centres Conference in Hobart today, Brown said he was appalled that instead of backing the Greens stand to the hilt, the ACF and Climate Council were out in the public arena calling for the Greens to ignore yesterday’s alarming IPCC report and cave in to Labor’s sell-out policy.
Response – ACF CEO Kelly O’Shanassy, 22 March 2023
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“Bob Brown is a living legend of Australia’s environment movement.
“We hope he reconsiders the decision to give back his ACF life membership.
“ACF has been very clear about our position on the safeguard mechanism and on no new coal and gas.
“We are calling on the Albanese government, the Greens and the crossbenchers to strengthen the safeguard mechanism, then pass it, then keep going with the task of ending new coal and gas in this term.
“The safeguard mechanism is a start, not an end, to climate policy in Australia – it covers just 28% of Australia’s domestic emissions but the volume of emissions in the coal and gas Australia exports is far, far greater.
“There is absolutely no place for new or extended coal mines or gas projects in the third decade of the 21st century.
“ACF is running a court case trying to stop Woodside’s massive Scarborough gas project which, if it goes ahead, would cause an estimated 1.37 billion tonnes of greenhouse pollution over the next 25 years.
“We would welcome Bob back so we can work together to make this beautiful planet safer.”
