Speaker 1: Honorable Members, honorable Senators, the President of the United States
Speaker 1: of America. Way back there at the start of the
Speaker 1: two thousands of long Cane, President Bush, and he was
Speaker 1: to address the Joint Houses of Parliament. Well, of course, earlier,
Speaker 1: just months earlier, President Bush and his so called deputy sheriff,
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, decided to invade Iraq.
Speaker 1: And I determined that I couldn't allow that to go
Speaker 1: by without speaking up about this global breaking of the
Speaker 1: law by America and Australia. Leeis and gentlemen, Lauren and
Speaker 1: I are honoured to be in the Commonwealth of Australia.
Speaker 1: We went in and sat in the middle of the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives. I was internally in meltdown. My heart
Speaker 1: started beating. I thought it was going to come out
Speaker 1: of my chest. However, I knew if I didn't get up,
Speaker 1: I was going to forever regret it. It's the Taliban today.
Speaker 1: Saddam's regime is gone, and no wonders.
Speaker 2: Senator Brown, I warn you, Senator Brown will excuse himself
Speaker 2: from the house. Senator Brown will excuse himself from the house.
Speaker 1: I said to him, President Bush, if you abide by
Speaker 1: international law instead of breaking global r the world rule.
Speaker 1: Respect you. If you don't, it won't And three our
Speaker 1: two Australians from Guandanamo Bay.
Speaker 2: Mister speaker, I moved at Sunata's Brown and that'll be
Speaker 2: suspended from the service of the House. Questions that most
Speaker 2: would be agreed to.
Speaker 1: All those that opinions say hi.
Speaker 3: When Bob Brown spoke out against the invasion of Iraq
Speaker 3: in two thousand and three, at the height of the
Speaker 3: War on Terror, he was widely derided, mocked in the
Speaker 3: press and even abused by a young Queensland MP Peter Dutton.
Speaker 1: What you did today was a complete embarrassment, not only
Speaker 1: to yourself between Australian.
Speaker 3: People, but looking back, he says it was one of
Speaker 3: his proudest moments. Now at eighty years of age, Bob
Speaker 3: argues that speaking up in public and in private is
Speaker 3: crucial to pushing back against the strong man leaders of
Speaker 3: the day with the assaults at democracy and on the planet.
Speaker 3: From Swartz Media, I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM today.
Speaker 3: Lifelong activist and former Green's leader Bob Brown and how
Speaker 3: he takes a stand and why he's still optimistic. It's Monday,
Speaker 3: February seventeen. Bob, thanks so much for speaking with this.
Speaker 3: You've been an activist for your entire life. You've lived
Speaker 3: through different political eras. What are we facing in this
Speaker 3: moment here in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Well, at the time of the greatest destruction of the
Speaker 1: global biasphere upon which we all depend for life. What
Speaker 1: we're facing is not just a mass extinction event due
Speaker 1: to climate change, but also the destruction of habitats and
Speaker 1: the increasingly evident inability of the planet to host the
Speaker 1: cause of that destruction, which is a single species, homosapiens.
Speaker 1: That's us. And it seems that given the troubles that
Speaker 1: the world faces, and that people feel individually, they want
Speaker 1: to vote for strong men, Donald Trump being the most
Speaker 1: notable outcome of a democratic poet, although not by any
Speaker 1: means the only one in history. They want to vote
Speaker 1: for strong men they mainly are men because they feel
Speaker 1: that in some way that transfers authority for what is
Speaker 1: happening and hopefully the fixing up of the situation to
Speaker 1: an individual in a position of greater power. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's nonsense.
Speaker 3: How do you think we got to this point?
Speaker 1: Well, look it seems to me that what's happened in
Speaker 1: America that the majority of the community there decided to
Speaker 1: allow their instinct for self to vote for Trump and
Speaker 1: bring him into power against all the things that we
Speaker 1: knew could go wrong and which are now unfolding. And
Speaker 1: heaven forbid anybody whoever supported Trump coming to me and
Speaker 1: saying I didn't know this was going to happen. It
Speaker 1: was done what eyes wide open, But it was also
Speaker 1: done in the secrecy of a ballot box where perfectly
Speaker 1: respectable people found themselves very easily able to vote for
Speaker 1: a president who was a criminal. I think also we
Speaker 1: have to not say, oh, you know, he's just trying
Speaker 1: it on. He'll fall back to some other position. There's
Speaker 1: a very big mistake in thinking that a narcissist and
Speaker 1: a bully and a personal lacking empathy is not meaning
Speaker 1: what he says. The only constraints will come from within
Speaker 1: his own camp, and they're very limited because such bullies
Speaker 1: do surround themselves with seekerphants and toadies and yes people.
Speaker 1: You see the billionaires Australian as well as American at
Speaker 1: Mara Lago.
Speaker 3: We have shades of Trump in terms of his style
Speaker 3: of leadership and politics sort of infiltrating Australia at the moment.
Speaker 3: Where do you see the threats to Australian democracy.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because we've had our democracy corporatized and the
Speaker 1: two parties getting together to pass legislation to make it
Speaker 1: harder for Independence and Greens etc. To get elected is
Speaker 1: a show of how that corporate power works.
Speaker 3: It's been described as a protect racket for the major
Speaker 3: political parties. The Labor's clinched to deal with the coalition
Speaker 3: to overhaul electoral laws in Victoria.
Speaker 1: These kinds of laws have in effect knocked Independence out
Speaker 1: of the game. It also works through the media current
Speaker 1: company accepted of course, where we see the impact that
Speaker 1: the Murdoch media has had planet wise. And there's Rupert
Speaker 1: on inauguration Day sitting next to Donald Trump in.
Speaker 2: Business publishing and probably every other Rupert is Larry pretty
Speaker 2: much in a class by himself, right, I mean, although
Speaker 2: you may have a couple of bucks more, I don't know,
Speaker 2: but what Rupert is in a class by himself is.
Speaker 3: An amazing.
Speaker 1: You just see this arrogant belief that if you're rich,
Speaker 1: you must be a good manager, and therefore you must
Speaker 1: be a person who's somehow, with biblical references thrown in,
Speaker 1: able to run the world better than the other people
Speaker 1: who you see around. And if there's one thing these
Speaker 1: folk despise, it's wisdom, a greater wisdom than their own,
Speaker 1: and compassion, a feeling of sympathy and empathy for people
Speaker 1: who are not doing as well. They don't have it,
Speaker 1: they don't want it, and they arrogate to themselves the
Speaker 1: power to run other people's lives. And that's not what
Speaker 1: a democracy is about.
Speaker 3: So how to be an optimist in the face of
Speaker 3: all of this? That's after the break, Bob. You're an
Speaker 3: optimist by nature, but given everything we're facing in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five, how do you retain that optimism?
Speaker 1: Well, it's easier than being pessimistic, and it really is
Speaker 1: an empirical choice. I mean, it's a determined choice. I
Speaker 1: spent a decade clinically depressed as a young followed because
Speaker 1: of the Cold War and in personal circumstances, but realized
Speaker 1: towards the end of that that it was getting me nowhere,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't doing much for the people around me either.
Speaker 1: So hauling out of that by looking at what you
Speaker 1: can change for the better within your own orbit of
Speaker 1: power if you like, or influence and going for that
Speaker 1: put the bigger troubles you can't fix on the shelf.
Speaker 1: You can't, of course take them out of your mind,
Speaker 1: but get on with the things that you can change.
Speaker 1: And we have to be optimistic that there is time.
Speaker 1: And I'm forever telling other folk, don't allow anxiety to
Speaker 1: overtake you. Take the time to have parties, to have fun,
Speaker 1: to travel, to get your certificate or your degree, to
Speaker 1: find good companions, because otherwise, if things are so urgent
Speaker 1: that you can't afford to do that, then I think
Speaker 1: we just could give up. And I'm not one for
Speaker 1: giving up. I am one for saying to people, use
Speaker 1: your intelligence to override this instinct for greed which is
Speaker 1: currently ruling the world, and which is leading us into
Speaker 1: such poor circumstances. It is for us to speak up
Speaker 1: and to be confrontational. I mean, after all, these brutes
Speaker 1: are confrontational. They're straight out I want this and I'm
Speaker 1: going to have this. Well they have to be told, well,
Speaker 1: you're not getting it, because we want something different, and
Speaker 1: we have to be all in our own little circle
Speaker 1: and in our own way standing up and making account
Speaker 1: because history depends on it.
Speaker 3: Can you explain what being confrontational looks like, what speaking
Speaker 3: out looks like.
Speaker 1: Confrontational means looking eye to eye, not being a seve best.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean being aggressive, it doesn't mean being violent,
Speaker 1: fact it's non violent. But it does mean asserting your
Speaker 1: equal authority with are they human beings, and in places
Speaker 1: of elected authority, asserting your equal authority all the way
Speaker 1: down the line with those other elected representatives. And we're
Speaker 1: schooled to be good, to be nice, to be decent,
Speaker 1: to listen, and that's fine in a working community. But
Speaker 1: these brutes of the extreme right now taking over the
Speaker 1: world and potentially this country, don't believe in any of that.
Speaker 1: They believe in repression. They believe in shutting up opponents,
Speaker 1: locking them up, jailing them and getting them off the
Speaker 1: streets and out of the way. And we can't allow
Speaker 1: that to happen. We cannot just stand by and allow
Speaker 1: that to happen. So being confrontational simply means saying what
Speaker 1: you think when the opportunity arises to those who are
Speaker 1: going the wrong direction, at whatever level they might be.
Speaker 1: It might be just people who want a vote for
Speaker 1: the extreme right. It might be in newspaper columns, it
Speaker 1: might be at the low church or sports club. Don't
Speaker 1: listen in silence to somebody saying, oh, well, it'll be
Speaker 1: good for us if we have a prime minister who's
Speaker 1: obsequius to Trump and does all the right trade deals
Speaker 1: and gets this more money. No it won't. The fractioning
Speaker 1: and loss of our hard for rights in Australia are
Speaker 1: more important than that. And let me tell you, Daniel,
Speaker 1: I look back at the almost unthinkable destruction of Aboriginal
Speaker 1: society in Tasmania in the eighteen twenties and thirties, and
Speaker 1: you know, a whole island of people destroyed within a
Speaker 1: couple of decades at the point of a gun and otherwise.
Speaker 1: And there were three landowners who kept writing to the
Speaker 1: papers who said this is wrong, we shouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 1: And I take great spirit from those because I knew
Speaker 1: they would be copying it back in their time. And
Speaker 1: now it's our time and we're challenged and it's up
Speaker 1: to all of us.
Speaker 3: Bob Brown, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: A great pleasure to thank you, Daniel.
Speaker 3: Also in the news today, Peter Dutton says he may
Speaker 3: replace US Ambassador Kevin Rudd if he wins the election.
Speaker 3: Prior to his time as ambassador, Rudd described Donald Trump
Speaker 3: as a trader to the West and the most destructive
Speaker 3: president in history. Anthony Alberanezi has maintained support for Rudd
Speaker 3: in the role, but Peter Dunton says if Rudd doesn't
Speaker 3: have access and influence in Washington, he would need to go.
Speaker 3: Dunton's comments follow a campaign in the Murdoch Press calling
Speaker 3: for Rudd to be recalled as ambassador. You can read
Speaker 3: about that campaign in the Saturday Paper. And temporary residents
Speaker 3: of Australia will be banned from buying existing homes. The move,
Speaker 3: which was unveiled by Housing Minister Clara O'Neil on Sunday,
Speaker 3: will take effect on April one and last until the
Speaker 3: end of March twenty twenty seven. It prohibits any foreign
Speaker 3: investor or foreign owned company from buying and existing dwelling.
Speaker 3: Peter Dutton unveiled a similar plan last year. I'm Daniel James.
Speaker 3: This is seven am. Thanks for listening.