Australian Greens leader Bob Brown today called on Prime Minister Howard and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull to explain a decision to bypass some of the world's top climate scientists in awarding a grant for climate change impacts studies earlier this week.
 
"Prime Minister Howard and Mr Turnbull must categorically state there was no political interference in this decision to award a $50 million grant to a bid from a marginal Coalition seat," Senator Brown asked.
 

 Launceston. Both Labor and the Coalition are promoting Gunns' Tamar Valley pulp mill which, together with two Gunns' export woodchip mills, will consume more than 200,000 hectares of native forests over the next 20 years.  The mill will increase national greenhouse gas emissions by up to two per cent.
 
The Greens' plan in Tasmania, launched in Launceston today by Greens leader Bob Brown, is to:

Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown has labelled the tax cuts and spending programs of the Coalition and the ALP as inflationary.
 
"Both John Howard and Kevin Rudd are spending to win the election, not to secure the nation's future," Senator Brown said.
 
"If you inject money in the form of tax cuts into an overheated economy you get inflationary pressure. It is far better to put that money into infrastructure and services such as health, education and public transport instead of tax cuts."
 

Greens Leader Bob Brown was at Sydney University today to launch the Greens Higher Education Policy for Election 07.
"The Greens policy recognises the urgent need to boost public investment in public universities, to support students and assist researchers to equip Australia to thrive in the 21st Century," Senator Brown said.

The Climate Institute report card on the parties' climate change policies shows a stark contrast between the successful Greens (90%) and failed Coalition (23%) and Labor (40%). The environment and climate change tops the economy as a voters' concern in 2007.

 
In a breakdown of proper political process Prime Minister Howard is insisting Cabinet approve Gunns proposed pulp mill in Tasmania despite growing scientific evidence against it, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
"Howard has a cosy relationship with Gunns' supremo John Gay. The two consulted closely before the ambush on Mark Latham in 2004. However, Howard has no similar contact with the Tasmanian winegrowers, fisheries, farmers, and tourist operators facing the $3 billion negative impact if Gay's pulp mill goes ahead in the Tamar Valley," Senator Brown said.

The first real test of Rudd Labor may come before this year's election if the team of scientists assessing Gunns' pulp mill gives it the expected bad report, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
 
"If Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull gives the mill the thumbs down, Peter Garrett can hardly say "don't expect me to decide until after the election"," Senator Brown said.
 

In a speech stunningly devoid of any description of the impact of climate change on Australia's environment, cities, agriculture or economic wellbeing, Prime Minister Howard today put off real action for at least another five years.
 
"John Howard simply doesn't understand climate change," Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
 
"His comment that it would be 'foolish indeed' to ignore the evidence on climate change condemns his own foolishness for the past 11 years in failing to tackle climate change."
 

Greens leader Bob Brown says he will be sitting ready with a bowl of organic popcorn when the ABC screens the "The Great Global Warming Swindle" in July.
 
'It's a repeat of Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in our time" speech in 1938. This show is in that Chamberlain tradition, when he claimed that Hitler was a peacemaker not a warmonger – this show claims that global warming is due to solar eccentricity not human stupidity. And it is simply as wrong as Chamberlain was.
 
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