Latest news with #DrewHutton
ABC News
15 minutes ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Greens co-founder Drew Hutton slams party as 'authoritarian, aggressive, unlikeable'
Green's co-founder Drew Hutton has responded to his expulsion from the party, saying the Greens have lost focus on environmental issues and become "authoritarian and aggressive". He claimed the party had become "unlikeable" and there was evidence it was impacting their support amongst voters. Mr Hutton was expelled from the party at the weekend for refusing to delete transphobic comments made by others commenting on a Facebook post he made in 2022. In an interview with 7.30, Mr Hutton claimed the party refuses to allow frank debate on its transgender policy, which states people have "the right to their self-identified gender". "What I disagree with vehemently is the way that anybody who actually voices any dissent with that policy and do so from a credible position, that there is such a thing as biological sex and there are two sexes, is forced out of the party," Mr Hutton said. "That's extremely authoritarian. And what I worry about is that there is a very doctrinaire mentality developing in the Greens, especially with regard to this issue." Mr Hutton accused the Greens of being run by a "cult" intently focused on identity politics and showing a "disdain" for free speech. "There is a clear need for a party like the Greens … But there is also this fairly authoritarian and aggressive and unlikeable element to the Greens that I think people in the community are responding to," he said. According to an internal Greens' party account of the events leading to the expulsion, the comments on Mr Hutton's Facebook page were brought to the Greens' attention by "distressed" party members. Some of the comments seen by 7.30 used transphobic language, including claims that trans women pose a threat in women-only facilities. Mr Hutton refused to remove the comments, claiming they were "free speech". He told 7.30 he supports transgender rights but opposes what he calls an attempt to stifle debate. Greens leader Larissa Waters said she had not read the documentation about Mr Hutton's expulsion. "I haven't read the documentation because here I am in parliament hoping to talk tomorrow about introducing a climate trigger into our environmental laws and fixing the gender inequalities in our tax system," Ms Waters told 7.30. She rejected Mr Hutton's claim, however, that internal debate about transgender issues was stifled. "Our members are involved in formulating those very policies and those debates happen on a regular basis … And we love involvement in the democratic process," she said. Ms Waters said Mr Hutton did not debate "respectfully". "I believe that's the basis for which the party upheld the decision." Mr Hutton told 7.30 that former Greens leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne had lent their support in an email. The email says: "Bob and Christine say that any member may hold a view different from Greens' policy. Consensus decision-making is the hallmark of Greens policy-formulation making … We oppose Drew Hutton's expulsion … and advocate that his membership be restored." Asked to comment on the request by the former leaders, Ms Waters said: "Like me, they respect his environmental achievements … But this was a decision that was reviewed by the party, taken by volunteer party members, many of whom uphold the code of conduct on a regular basis. "It's not hard to uphold the code of conduct." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
News.com.au
13 hours ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Greens co-founder expelled from party after ‘trans and queer cult' claim
The co-founder of the Australian Greens has been officially expelled from the party after warning the party has been taken over by a 'trans and queer cult' that is attacking free speech. Drew Hutton's life membership of the Greens was terminated by delegates of the state branches on Sunday, with party officials releasing a statement insisting that 'trans rights are non-negotiable human rights.' But the 78 year old has hit back warning the Greens have been taken over by an intolerant cult. 'The fact is that the Greens in a number of states have been taken over by a cult,'' he said. 'A transgender and queer cult – that has come to control key decision-making positions in the party, such as disciplinary and preselection committees and administrative positions, that give them enormous power, and they use this to influence preselections and expel those who disagree with them,'' he said. 'They have abandoned the historic mission I believed they had when I founded the party, a mission to help bring about an ecologically sustainable world.' The long-running saga that led to the termination of Mr Hutton's membership began in June 2022 when he took to Facebook to discuss moves in Victoria and New South Wales to expel members over 'transphobic' comments. After an internal complaint against him, the Greens governing body found that Mr Hutton had not personally demeaned trans women, he had provided a platform. As a result, the party suspended his membership until he deleted a Facebook post criticising the Greens and removed the offending comments made by others. His original Facebook post, on June 21, 2022, spoke of balancing trans rights with the rights of women. The post read: 'I believe in full human rights for trans people at the same time as supporting the right of women to be safe from patriarchal oppression.' He then condemned 'authoritarian and anti-democratic' disciplinary action that had been taken against feminists for voicing their concerns within party forums. 'I'm a retired, old, burnt-out greenie activist, and I hadn't been keeping up with all this stuff. I just responded to what I thought was a really stupid situation and an abuse of power by some people,'' he told The Saturday Paper. Mr Hutton said he did not intend to 'say anything about the transgender issues themselves' but was 'concerned about party democracy and the need for discussion and debate in the Greens that is both open-minded and respectful of other views'. 'Like many other party members, I have become a victim of this cult,'' he wrote in The Australian. 'I was expelled from the party, not because I made statements that opposed key beliefs of the Greens but because I refused to censor comments on a couple of Facebook posts that asserted that men were biological males and women were biological females. 'The cult position is that people are whatever gender they define themselves as and anyone who disagrees with that position must be expelled or, if they are not party members, they should be otherwise cancelled. I was, therefore, told I had to censor all such comments from my Facebook posts. I refused on free speech grounds and so my membership was suspended, and then I was expelled when I continued to refuse. 'I join at least 40 other members that I know of who have been expelled or forced out of the party over the gender issue. Many of those expelled have been great environmental campaigners with decades of loyal service to the party. It is a purge of 'green' Greens. 'People in the community are beginning to sense that something is not right in the Greens, and the party will need to work hard to calm this disquiet. The first thing the Greens need to do is analyse where their vote comes from.' Mr Hutton said the marriage equality referendum demonstrated that Australians are 'open, tolerant and inclusive.' 'They did not, at any point, vote for the rights of children and women to be overridden,'' he said. 'How can the Greens avoid the same sort of demise that befell the Australian Democrats? It will be very difficult. The extreme transgender/queer faction is well entrenched in the key decision-making centres of the party and those Greens who maintain a more traditional view of what green politics is all about are ignoring this and getting on with what they do in their local areas or they are keeping their heads down so they don't become another victim of the purges.' Mr Hutton said Greens leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne supported his push for free speech to be restored. 'Leadership is needed. Both Bob Brown and Christine Milne, the two former great leaders of the Australian Greens, had the character and courage to tackle the issue head-on,'' he said. 'I believe they would have demanded an end to the purges and an inquiry into how the party could better implement the green politics principle of democracy in its processes,'' he said. 'The question is: Does the current Australian Greens leader, Larissa Waters, have the same character and courage to get the Greens out of this mess?.' In March, 2025, Mr Hutton spoke to the several media outlets about the dispute and published more posts on Facebook that criticised what 'trans extremists' in the Greens. In the wake of these comments, Mr Hutton's membership in the Greens was terminated amid claims his Facebook posts breached the Queensland Greens code of ethics. 'Throughout this process the former member has refused to engage fairly with the party, sought and expected special treatment and used the media to prosecute his case,' Greens convener Gemma Burden said. 'No member is above the need to treat others with respect, and seeking to weaponise internal processes to pursue personal grievances does not advance the Queensland Greens' work on environmental, climate, economic and social justice.' Greens leader Larissa Waters backed the expulsion stating that 'trans rights are human rights' and insisting the move was backed by the membership. 'Greens members have been working hard to resolve this matter through the party's governance processes, and to ensure that the party's important work on environmental, climate, economic, and social justice doesn't stop because of one man's focus on how other people identify,' she said in a statement.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
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. '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. Loading '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.
The Age
a day ago
- Politics
- The Age
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. '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. Loading '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.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Greens founder is booted from his own party as he takes a parting shot: 'I knew I was gone'
A founder of the Greens has been expelled from the party for expressing opinions critical of transgender ideology on social media. Drew Hutton, who established the Australian Greens in 1991 with future parliamentary leader Bob Brown, has been kicked out of the Queensland branch he had established following a state council meeting on Sunday. The 78-year-old environmental activist said the state branch he set up 35 years ago had been taken over by extreme transgender activists, who he argued had downplayed the dangers of puberty blockers and the need for biological women to have separate change rooms from biological men. 'The QLD Greens state council has just expelled me from the party,' he said. 'I knew I was gone the moment I walked into the room.' Hutton, who also set up the Lock The Gate alliance in 2011 to campaign against coal seam gas mining on agricultural land, said environmentalists were now outnumbered in the party he set up. 'Not one environmental activist in the room. The only issues the Greens are really interested in are queer and transgender,' he said. 'When people learn what they are really on about, the Greens will be lucky to ever win a seat again.' Queensland Greens convener Gemmia Burden said delegates had voted to expel Hutton for breaching party rules on transgender issues. 'Delegates from Queensland Greens branches have upheld the Constitution and Arbitration Committee's (CAC) ruling to expel Drew Hutton for breaching the Queensland Greens Code of Ethics,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'This decision reflects the Greens' position as endorsed by its membership - that trans rights are non-negotiable human rights, a position publicly reaffirmed in 2022. 'No one should be subjected to violence or hate speech on the basis of their gender, nor their race, sexual identity, ethnicity, or religion. 'Respectful debate is the fundamental basis upon which members of the Queensland Greens make decisions, and the vast majority of members do so without breaching party rules.' Burden said Hutton's comments 'went beyond respectful and robust discussion - they were harmful to the safety and wellbeing of people within the party and the broader community'. Greens leader Larissa Waters, who hails from Queensland, is declining to intervene to save Hutton's membership. 'This was an independent decision of the party, via the governance processes established by the membership, and with a clear outcome. Nobody is above the rules,' she said. The 78-year-old environmental activist said the state branch he set up 35 years ago had been taken over by transgender activists who had downplayed the need for biological women to have separate spaces from biological men (he is pictured protesting in 1983) 'Good governance means that people can put their case forward, including the right to appeal a decision. In this case the appeal was unsuccessful.' But former Queensland Greens senator Andrew Bartlett, who was previously also a party campaign convener, said Hutton's expulsion highlighted how Greens members were now self-censoring their opinions on transgender issues. 'I don't think the party has a good capacity for self-reflection and for handling differences of opinion that are seen as critical for those that are in control,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'Most political parties have a core group of people that have the main control and power over things, and I don't think they take criticism of them very kindly and that leads to people not speaking at all when they do have concerns; I think is unhealthy for any organisation. 'If they have some general concerns, they feel like they've just got to keep their mouths shut.' Bartlett said former Greens leader Adam Bandt, who said trans rights were 'non-negotiable', had set the tone of the party nationally. 'It's not unique to Queensland - it's a view amongst the wider party that we need to be unequivocal,' he said. He added Hutton's membership status should have been dealt with two years ago. 'It's been sitting there for like two years bubbling away - I think it's better if there's significant concerns about a serious difference of opinion that's seen as important enough, then it's better to try and bring it to the surface quickly,' Bartlett said. Hutton had a series of Facebook posts in April criticising the transgender movement in the UK, arguing biological women needed safe spaces from biological men and that puberty blockers were a bad idea. 'A recent YouGov survey in the UK showed huge majority opposition to biological males, self-identifying as females, having access to women's sport and change rooms,' he said. 'Also majority support for biological sex as the defining element of woman and almost universal opposition to giving puberty blockers to children. 'Any political party supporting the extremist trans agenda will be lucky to make double figures once their position is widely known.' Hutton said a Greens member of Chinese ancestry had written to him comparing his treatment to something out of the Chinese Communist Party. 'I'm getting many messages from Greens members expressing support for my appeal against suspension,' he said last week. 'Here is a particularly moving statement this Chinese-Australian member has sent to his branch reminding us that this is an issue about real people as well as principle.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government won a landslide majority in the lower house of Parliament but needs the Greens in the Senate to pass legislation opposed by the Coalition. The Greens lost three of their four lower house seats at the last federal election in May, including the Queensland electorates of Brisbane and Griffith, as voters also kicked out former leader Adam Bandt in Melbourne.
