Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Seselja again does his Bill the Steam Shovel impression down there. I don't really care what Senator Seselja is saying, because it won't be relevant or make any sense to the discussion we're having here. But, once again, former Senator Brown demonstrated the courage of his convictions. He was arrested in Lapoinya forest while he was trying to shoot a video expressing his views about the logging of that forest. It's a forest that I've been to and I believe, Acting Deputy President Whish-Wilson, that you have too. I'm sure you'd agree with me that it's a beautiful little patch of forest that means so much to the local people there in terms of recreation and their wellbeing. Many local people in that area feel an almost spiritual connection to that forest, much of which has now been destroyed by the loggers in Tasmania.

So former Senator Brown, now Dr Brown, was arrested. I've lost count of the number of times Dr Brown has been arrested. It must be pretty close to double figures now. Every time, he's been arrested on behalf of the Australian people, standing up for what he believes—and I agree—are important issues, like the future of our planetary ecology and like the right that people hold in this country to express their political opinions.

The first humiliating backdown that happened in regard to this matter was when the charges had to be dropped by the Tasmanian government because, once they'd examined the circumstances closely, it turned out that Dr Brown wasn't in a workplace after all. In fact, it's highly likely he was standing in a nature reserve while he was arrested. That's the first point to make: humiliation No. 1 for Will Hodgman and Senator Eric Abetz, those extremists who brought in this law designed to silence political communication in this country, was that they had to drop the charges against the former Senator Brown. But the former Senator Brown, as he has done through his life and his political career, wasn't prepared to let the matter rest and he maintained his challenge against these draconian laws in the High Court.

There are some very big implications of this decision today. Firstly, extremists like Senator Abetz have got egg all over their face. But, secondly, and really importantly, the High Court's decision today can give confidence to the Australian people that they can take action on the ground to stop the proposed Adani coalmine. It is the Australian people who are going to stop this planet- and climate-destroying coalmine, this Great Barrier Reef-destroying coalmine. And they're going to stop it because they've been abandoned by the Coles and Woolworths of Australian politics—the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party—who in zombie lock step, as they so often are, are backing this climate-destroying mine. The Australian people can now have confidence that they can protest against this mine and peacefully blockade against this mine. Make no mistake, that is what is going to happen. As a result of the passion and conviction of the Australian people and not the passion and conviction of any of us in this place, not even such legends as the former Senator Bob Brown, this mine will not go ahead. It will be stopped by ordinary Australians exercising their democratic right to protest and their democratic and constitutionally enshrined right to freedom of political expression. That is the real value of the High Court decision today: to give confidence and impetus to the people's campaign to stop the climate-destroying Adani coalmine. That's what the High Court has done today. I congratulate those judges of the High Court who stood up for our Constitution and stood up for the implied right to political communication enshrined in our constitution.