Latest news with #DrewHutton
AU Financial Review
11 hours ago
- Politics
- AU Financial Review
Why the Greens are in real trouble
In an exquisite piece of political timing, the Queensland Greens chose the weekend before the new 2025 parliament resumed to expel Drew Hutton, the man who in 1992 co-founded the federal party with Tasmanian Bob Brown. This is the same Drew Hutton who was the Greens standard bearer in Queensland for decades, until his 'retirement' from politics in 2010, when he set up the Lock-the-Gate movement with farmers to slow the encroachment of mining and gas exploration on prime farming land.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Greens founder Drew Hutton lashes party's transformation into 'cult', says he was 'punished ruthlessly' for expressing different views
Greens co-founder Drew Hutton has claimed the party is now "the definition of a cult" after he was expelled for refusing to delete a social media post criticising the expulsion of a Victorian Greens member who had expressed dissenting views on trans rights. Mr Hutton was expelled from the party he co-founded last month, despite eventually agreeing to delete the post and comments from others on the issue. The former Greens member has noted the party committee which oversaw his expulsion at no point accused him of transphobia and he was instead effectively punished for refusing to censure comments made by others. Mr Hutton was expelled from the party he co-founded last month, despite eventually agreeing to delete the post and comments from others on the issue. Photo: Claudia Baxter Speaking to Sky News host Chris Kenny on Tuesday, Mr Hutton said fairness and diversity of opinion was non-existent in his former party – which he claimed had lost sight of its original mission of environmental protection. 'I said: 'Well, I'm not here to censor other people's views'." 'I put a couple of posts up and a large number of people responded to it and some of them were arguing that there is such a thing as biological sex… those comments were from people who weren't even members of the Greens for the most part, were regarded as transphobic and they said that I was responsible for that. 'All I did was have a couple of posts which basically agreed with the Greens' policy on gender. I don't agree with it now, but I did at that stage because I was happily in retirement. I was a burned out old Greenie who was retired and didn't know any of all this that was going on,' he said. Mr Hutton said dissent was 'simply not tolerated' in the Greens after he was booted from the party. "This is part of the definition of a cult," he said. "A cult has a closed section of ideas that it understands but nobody else does. They've got some language that they understand, but nobody else does and anybody within their ranks who deviates from the standard set of beliefs that they have is punished ruthlessly. "Any dissent is just simply not tolerated and that's what's happened here." 'Not on this issue anyway,' he said. Asked if the he had been treated fairly and whether there was any democracy within the Greens party, Mr Hutton said: 'No.' 'Right around Australia, trans activists and zealots, extremists, have taken over the key committees in the Greens, including and most importantly in the disciplinary committees, so that anybody who says something they disagree with, immediately a complaint goes in. 'The committees themselves are controlled by these trans-activists. As was the case with me, all five members of that committee were activists. They were part of a Facebook site which was called Turf TERFS from the Greens."
ABC News
3 days 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
4 days 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
4 days 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.
