Vale Vaclav Havel

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says Vaclav Havel, who died yesterday, was one of the great inspiring politicians of the 20th Century.

"His activism melded with a recognition that democracy, not guns, will prevail as civilisation advances. His philosophy of equality and decency towards all others was as persistent in his lifetime as it will be enduring into the future," Senator Brown said.

"In a simple, local example, his inspiration which guided the Czechoslovakian revolution in 1989, inspired the quick reaction to Gunns' SLAPP writ on 20 environmentalists here in Hobart in 2004."