One interesting sidelight of the book is his detailed account of the circumstances in which Rudd finally pulled the plug on the Emissions Trading Scheme after the failed Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Rudd has claimed that Gillard and Swan forced him to drop the legislation, causing him great personal humiliation in light of his ‘over the top’ advocacy of it.
Swan says that Rudd was so disillusioned with Copenhagen that he wanted to banish it all from his mind and switch to another great project he felt the nation would remember him for — a Commonwealth takeover of hospitals. He fluffed that too and Nicola Roxon had to make some sense out of it.
A final comment on Swan: After being deposed as Treasurer on the same night as Gillard lost her job, he decided to run again for his seat of Lilley and become a hard working local member with no aspirations beyond that. While most ALP MPs either lost their seats or had their votes slashed, Swan increased his vote, doubling his small majority.
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BOB BROWN
Optimismis the title of Bob Brown’s book.
Many will find this title hard to comprehend as his image is that of being negative.
Nevertheless, I must say that this book, which is quite small compared with the efforts of Gillard, Swan and Kelly, is worth the time it will take you to read it. It consists of a couple of dozen chapters on significant incidents that occurred in his long environmental pilgrimage in public life.
Can I suggest that my readers, especially those on the far right, take a deep breath, overcome all prejudices against Brown, especially those that relate to him being atheist and gay, and make an objective assessment of what he tried to achieve.
Brown comes over as a genuine environmentalist who has lived for many decades in a small cottage in a remote, heavily-wooded valley in the mountain country of Tasmania, where he has a deep love and detailed knowledge of its flora, fauna, rivers, lakes and fish. His brand of economics is extreme and unworkable, but his concern for humanity, and the environment in which we live, is genuine.
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I got to know him well in many visits to Parliament. He was a strong backer of all advancements in the well-being of pensioners, and often told me that I was far too moderate in my requests to governments on their behalf. He also told me that he fervently backed my railway projects, so long as I didn’t transport the coal that would pay for them.
His fame was at its height when he interrupted the speech of President George W Bush to the Australian Parliament a decade ago, and he must be given credit for establishing a long-term place for the Greens in the political life of Australia.
Bob Brown will not easily be forgotten.
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