The Australian Greens will push for a sovereign wealth fund to help fund the needs of future generations, as well as seek to improve budget measures in the immediate budget cycle, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"A sovereign wealth fund could underpin Australia's move into a low-carbon future, serving as a source of funding for long-term projects such as high-speed rail and metro light rail," Senator Brown said in Hobart.

While the Greens believe more labour-intensive industries like education, tourism, farming and speciality manufacturing deserve priority, the Treasurer Wayne Swan should target Labor's proposed corporate tax cut and not the proposed carbon pricing mechanism if he is going to prop up the steel industry against the high Australian dollar, Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Sydney today.

"It's logical to look at the record profits of the big miners and banks and ask if they need a tax break costing Treasury $18 billion over the next decade.

Australians prefer a polluters’ tax by a margin of 3-1 over a Tony Abbott-style plan to pay polluters, a Galaxy poll released by Greens Leader Bob Brown shows.

“Each dollar given to polluters is taken off householders and reduces money available for the investment that is needed to develop a cleaner, safer, healthier economy,” Senator Brown said in Canberra.

The Galaxy Research telephone poll of 1,036 people across Australia, conducted for the Australian Greens on 18-20 March as part of a Galaxy Omnibus, found overwhelming support for a polluters’ tax.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown held a press conference where he discussed the UN Security Council's vote on a no-fly zone over Libya.

Questions on the situation in Bahrain, the issue of asylum seekers on Christmas Island, and Professor Ross Garnaut's report about pricing pollution and compensating households were also answered.

Greens Leader Bob Brown joined Australian Agenda's Peter Van Onselen and Paul Kelly in the Sky News studio in Sydney on March 13, 2011.

You can read the transcript after the link:

Peter Van Onselen: Welcome to Australian Agenda. I'm Peter Van Onselen. Well we've got a big program for you. Shortly we'll be speaking to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown. Paul Kelly, thank you. Without further ado, we are joined here in the studio by the Leader of the Australian Greens, as I mentioned earlier, Bob Brown. Thanks for your company.

Tony Abbott has become the big polluters' pin-up, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"His new description of proposed compensation for households under the carbon tax proposal as 'slush' will offend many Australians but delight the big corporations who want the same money for themselves," Senator Brown said in Hobart.

"Of course, when talking about giving money to the same polluters Mr Abbott calls it 'incentives'."

Senator Bob Brown appeared on the ABC's 7:30 Report, discussing the Carbon Tax with Heather Ewart.

You can read the transcript of the interview here, or watch the video here.

The Australian Greens have attacked Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plan to publicly fund a 5 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

"We say let the polluters pay. Abbott says he'll get the $3.2 billion for his plan by cutting the budget - that cut is equivalent to sacking 10,000 Australians, including nurses and teachers," Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today.

"Abbott says plant more trees while he backs the destruction of Australia's great forests - the biggest carbon bank in the land."

Greens Leader Bob Brown discusses the carbon tax, mining tax and constitutional issues with Paul Bongiorno on Meet the Press.

Click the more link for the transcript.

PAUL BONGIORNO, PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to Meet The Press. Nature, the destroyer, made another unwanted appearance in 2011. New Zealand's deadly earthquake dominated the week, dwarfing the concerns of Canberra. As with our own natural disasters, the scale of destruction and human suffering in Christchurch was a powerful unifier in the normally fiercely combative forum of parliament.