Australian Greens Leader Resigns

[Alkaloid]

So, Bob Brown has just resigned as party leader and will also resign from the senate.

Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens. He will also resign from the Senate.

Senator Brown made the shock announcement to his Greens Party colleagues this morning.

"I am sad to leave but happy to go. It is good knowing that the Greens have such a depth of talent and experience lined up for leadership - I could only dream about that a decade ago," Senator Brown said in a statement.
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"It is prime time to hand over the reins."

Greens deputy leader Christine Milne has just tweeted that she had been elected as the new leader.

"I'm honoured & excited to have been elected leader," Senator Milne wrote.

Senator Brown has been a senator for 16 years. He has lead the Australian Greens since the party formed in 1992, seeing the party's vote grow to double figures.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politi ... z1rsgNQ73b

Did anyone have an inkling this was coming? It seems really out of the blue, I'm half predicting some sort of scandal he is pre-emptively resigning to try and quell, but it's a bad news for the Greens even if not.

[weemadando]

Be interested to see how they swing - more moderate and aim for true third party status? Go towards the extreme side of the spectrum?

[Alkaloid]

Well Milne is replacing him, and she is very much in his mold, but I'm not sure she has the presence to hold the more disparate members of the party to what was more or less the party position the way Brown did. I wouldn't be surprised to see the more extreme environmentalist members move to the fringes or leave the party entirely and the social issues members consolidate, probably pushing it a bit more towards moderate. The big question is will they maintain their voter base?

[Stofsk]

I am not really all that shocked that he resigned. I mean I wasn't expecting it or had predicted it, but lately everytime I saw Bob Brown on the news I had the impression he was getting older and older.

[weemadando]

Heard an interesting few snippets of Milne's first speech as leader.

Seems to be trying to position The Greens as a pro-farmer party, probably trying to close the distance a bit on that front and show that they share a lot of interests which the Coalition doesn't with regards to protecting Australian agriculture and food security.

[Alkaloid]

Interesting to note the Adam Bandt has been made the new deputy leader rather than Sarah Hansen-Young. I don't mind because Hansen-Young gives me the willies for some reason, but Bandt is a much more moderate left winger. Was one of the first people calling for military intervention in Libya and all that. Strikes me as being one of the social issues greens rather than the environmentalist ones.

[Stofsk]

Interesting to note the Adam Bandt has been made the new deputy leader rather than Sarah Hansen-Young. I don't mind because Hansen-Young gives me the willies for some reason, but Bandt is a much more moderate left winger. Was one of the first people calling for military intervention in Libya and all that. Strikes me as being one of the social issues greens rather than the environmentalist ones.

You mean a watermelon?

[Alkaloid]

No, he's actually centre left. Just less focused on the environmental issues than most Greens and not so far left he wants to disband the military.

[weemadando]

Milne just made me happy.

Said that they will not move on the issue of tax cuts to big business and then wealthy that Labor wanted to tie to the mining tax.