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Daily Mail
2 days 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.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Queensland Greens founder considers legal action after being expelled from party
The founder of the Queensland Greens is considering both his legal and political options after being officially expelled from the party over what it considers his pursuit of debate harmful to trans people but that he frames as an issue of free speech. The decision to terminate Drew Hutton's life membership of the Greens was upheld by delegates of the state branches on Sunday, who voted to back the findings of the party's Constitution and Arbitration Committee (CAC) and reject Hutton's appeal. '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,' Queensland Greens convener Gemmia Burden said in a statement. 'No one should be subjected to violence or hate speech on the basis of their gender, nor their race, sexual identity, ethnicity or religion. 'It is disheartening to see that Mr Hutton has prioritised his perceived right to free speech over the safety of others.' Hutton issued his own statement declaring that the party he founded had 'lost its way'. '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,' he said. Hutton told the Guardian he was seeking legal opinion and also considering 'political options'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The official story of the termination of Hutton's membership began in June 2022 when Hutton took to Facebook with a series of posts and comments weighing into moves to annul the election of the state convener in Victoria and expel a member from the New South Wales party over what the Greens deemed to be their transphobic comments and writings. Hutton labelled these moves 'authoritarian and antidemocratic' and his post generated heated discussion, some of which he himself deemed 'hurtful and disrespectful'. After a complaint against him, the CAC found that while Hutton himself had not demeaned trans women, he had provided a platform for others to do so and it suspended his membership until such time as he deleted a post criticising the Greens and removed the offending comments made by others. A near two-year standoff ensued in which Hutton abided by the CAC's directive he remain silent but refused to delete the comments on the grounds of free speech, during which time he had no recourse to an appeal. The deadlock broke open in March 2025 when Hutton spoke to the Saturday Paper and later to the Guardian in July. In the interim, Hutton began increasingly sharing articles and opinions on Facebook that criticised what he called 'trans extremists'. These actions saw his membership terminated, enabling Hutton Sunday's avenue of internal appeal. Burden said Hutton's conduct had 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,' she said. 'The party maintained confidentiality in accordance with its rules.' The Queensland Greens convener said the weekend's decision confirmed 'that party rules apply to everyone' and that 'whether you're a new member or have been one for a long time', the Greens party was a place where everyone would be 'free from discrimination'. '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,' she said. Hutton said he believed his expulsion signaled 'a crisis point' for the Greens, who have seen their political gains erode in Queensland in recent state and federal elections. 'People are starting to see the Greens as weird and unlikable,' Hutton said.
