Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown, speaking to reporters in Hobart, congratulates the Gold Coast on winning the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown today wished all the Australian athletes a successful 2008 Olympic Games.
 
"Australia has a fantastic team of athletes and for the next two weeks I'll be cheering them on like millions of other Australians," Senator Brown said.
 
"After years of hard work, training and sacrifice I wish all our athletes every success and hope they have a terrific time."
 
Senator Brown also congratulated rower and six-time Olympian James Tomkins on being chosen to lead the Australian team at the opening ceremony.
 

 
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should phone President Hu Jintao and have him stop the police-state censorship of the internet before the Olympics begin, Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Melbourne today.
 
"In Beijing Mr Rudd said he wanted to be China's 'zhengyou' or straight-talking friend.  It's time for straight talk.  'Drop the internet bans or I won't be coming,' Mr Rudd should tell Mr Hu.
 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dumped Tibet and will be at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with leaders who have Tibet clamped under military control, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
"It was so predictable," Senator Brown said today. "But it raises the question: why has he kept Australia waiting so long? What, if anything at all, has this government done since the bloodshed in Tibet in March, to lift Beijing's suppression of the 7 million Tibetans? Nothing at all is the answer," Senator Brown said.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown will meet with the Dalai Lama tomorrow afternoon in Sydney.
 
"I will be discussing a range of issues with His Holiness when we meet, including the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games and any progress on dialogue between China and representatives of His Holiness," Senator Brown said.
 

Catching up on videos that I have meant to post here for some time, putting firmly the Greens' position on Tibet.

Bob Brown speaking at the rally coinciding with the Olympic torch relay in Canberra here and here, and Christine Milne's speech to the Senate on the question of suspending standing orders to even allow discussion of the issue.

The huge influx of Chinese nationals has given Canberra echoes of the feeling of being overwhelmed which prevails in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said today.
 
Senator Brown visited Lhasa in 1998.
 
The saturation of Communist China's flags in Canberra has swamped Australian flags and those of the small Tibetan protest group.
 
"When the Olympic torch is run through Lhasa next month it will be Beijing triumphalism trampling over the broken hearts of the Tibetan people in their own country," Senator Brown said.

Pro-Beijing protestors going to Canberra for the Olympic torch relay should reflect on which country they are in, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
 
Senator Brown has called on the organisers to explain what they mean by arranging "strong men" to protect the torch (see pg 1, today's Sydney Morning Herald).
 
"If there were busloads of Tibetans heading from Lhasa to Beijing to protest about the military occupation of their country they would go straight to jail," Senator Brown said.
 

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if the Chinese authorities ignore global calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Canberra today.
 
"To give him due credit, Mr Rudd has made good his commitment to put Tibet on the agenda during his visit to Beijing. But Beijing has had a media blackout on Mr Rudd's call and seems to believe that if it does nothing the issue will go away. Meanwhile, Tibet is effectively under martial law," Senator Brown said.