Outgoing Australian Greens senator Bob Brown says his biggest political blunder almost saw him ban lesbian sex in Tasmania. Senator Brown, who stepped down as party leader in April, said a tactical play in 1986, when the Tasmanian parliament was making the state's criminal code gender neutral, almost backfired spectacularly. The 67-year-old's final speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday was littered with anecdotes about his political career, which ends in 10 days. The story that got the most laughs related to his time campaigning for gay rights as a Tasmanian MP in the mid-1980s. Senator Brown said he expected the then opposition Labor party to move to get rid of section 122 of the criminal code, which proscribed male homosexuality - but it didn't. "So, very nervously, I moved that it also be made gender neutral and thereby (unwittingly) made lesbian activity illegal as well and the house immediately passed it," the former GP and conservationist said. Senator Brown then rang a Liberal member of the state's upper house to say he'd made a "terrible mistake". He pleaded for his amendment to be overturned but was told it sounded reasonable. However, as luck would have it, at the same time Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared he wouldn't countenance banning lesbian sex. Senator Brown sent a press clipping outlining Sir Joh's position to members of Tasmania's upper house "and they duly voted down this innovation that I'd sent them and saved my skin". "So I'm grateful to Joh," he said. The former Australian Greens leader will formally resign from the federal Senate on June 15 after 16 years in Canberra. If all goes to plan, he'll be replaced by businessman Peter Whish-Wilson a week later. Senator Brown's decision to leave without fanfare is in line with his declaration that he won't be writing a comprehensive autobiography. "I prefer looking forward to looking back," he said. Senator Brown sought to clarify, once and for all, his role in the death of rock legend Jimi Hendrix in London in September 1970. Senator Brown was then a resident doctor at St Mary Abbot's hospital when Hendrix's body was brought in. "He had been dead for some hours," Senator Brown said. "He'd had a bit too much to drink and whatever else and had inhaled vomitus." He said another Australian doctor signed the musician's death certificate while he went off to look after a patient who'd fallen under a train but was still alive. During his final address to the press club, Senator Brown revisited his anger toward Rupert Murdoch's media empire. He said the loss of unbiased reporting and balanced commentary was a rot at the core of Australian democracy. "Diatribes" were shaped by ownership and the Australian newspaper was running a "vendetta" aimed at destroying the Greens, he said. "That's out there and not responsible in a functioning democracy." He plans to set up the Bob Brown Foundation to foster environmental and green causes. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/13872225/i-almost-banned-lesbian-sex-brown-says/ ============================================================== This is just another example of what this hilarious clown, and his hilarious clownlings are capable of. He isn`t capable of the simplest function without stuffing things up. Is it any wonder that they chose to nag for a living, rather than actually do anything? Gotta laugh though. Having witnessed too many half truths, untruths, and downright deception, comitted in the name of "Green", I hasten to add that genuine conservation of environment isn`t dead in this country, although the commercial brands are highly on the nose. Much can be learned about conservation form those with a deep love, and understanding of this country, eg. The National Farmer`s Federation, The SSAA, or any of the professional fishermen`s associations. Anyone actually interested in the well being of our flaura and fauna, should pressure their State and Federal Government representatives to take action to remedy the obscene mess that out National Parks are in. National Parks should NOT be breeding grounds for feral animals, and noxious plants, but they are. Any private landholder who acted as irresponsibly as the Dept of Sparks & Wild Fires would be heavily fined, or even gaoled, but the national parks just keep breeding feral pigs, rabbits, foxes, cats, goats, and all manner of noxious plants with barely a murmer from the greens.
Yeah, so glad he's gone. Unfortunately the Greens remain after him and are even gaining power. Those political idiots have managed to climb to 15% in the latest poll?!?
The Greens popularity has always been based around the "straight talking" attitude and sound policies of Christine Milne rather than the "kiss-arse" incoherent contradictory policies and attitude of Bob. Christine Milne always knew the targets set under the current carbon tax are useless in helping the environment, and that some people saw it as a "scam' tax with No objectives besides being a "scam' tax. She now has the unenviable task of trying to convince the people who have abandoned the Greens in droves over this "scam" tax (thanks to Bob stupid deal with the ALP) that the Greens are serious about wanting a higher carbon emissions target, and she will fight for that, now Bob has retired to toy-boy paradise. Thank f##k silly old Bob has retired, and the Greens now have a credible leader at the helm.
All i can say is i'm glad to see the rear end of poofter Bob LOL. How the hell can we have a self professed homosexual leading a poltical party. Now i cant wait to see the rear end of the Greens at the next election.
just a equality accident that gets laughed at ,but for the wiser ,the abolition of the Box of lesbian and its recognition as an equal Homosexual scientific female homosexual definition is a good thing and DEMOCRATIC ,laughing at democracy! typical middle class Green!
Oh sorry a bit not amazed at the callous contempt for scientific definitions amongst midle class phillistines like the Bob Brown,the LGBT and the GREENS ,the thinking that the Greens are some form of Nice middle class people is about to be burst ,extremely unstable Right-Wing form of liberalism. He never was a politican of note and his "Achievements are well ,exactly what again???/ oh he protested against Bush but not Obama,whoooppeee! Good riddence to bad middle Class trash from Tasmania,hey we have enough middle Class trash as it is in the ALP and Lib\Nats ,we don't need more ,in fact the class composition of parliament is most unrepresentative .Particularly on the question of Class. Gays and lesbians have more recognition then the working class in that upside down world of ,well just look at the thing and it screams the middle class gone batty!
Not even the greens, are silly enough to promise to hugely enrich the shallowest end of the gene pool.
This OP is retarded. The guy made one mistake in the 80s and all of a sudden he's the epitome of a terrible politician? I think Bob Brown was a good bloke, especially being a gay man willing to stand up to the huge prejudice and discrimination evident even on this thread.
The retards are those who can`t see that back door bob has done nothing but rort the system. All BDB ever did was to whine about what other people were doing, never throwing his own hat into the ring, it doesn`t take any balls or brains to bludge along as BDB has. Wake UP! You`ve been CONNED!
Apparently if you say that the Waffen SS wasn't the SS that guarded concentration/death camps you're a Nazi apologist who hates Jews. You know, if you state actual facts.
I thought it would be something as trivial as that. I once told a guy I was pro-freemarket and generally anti-war to which he responded "oh you cant be a libertarian - because you're a complete pacifist and only liberals do that!" Americans on this forum are quite retarded.
Bobby has been a political “beat-boy” for decades - living generously off the tax payers, and doing absolutely nothing in return, except flapping his lip and getting ignored. People claim Pauline Hanson was a political whore, well if that’s the case, then Bobby makes her look like a convent nun in this arena.
