Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown held a press conference to discuss giving the Commonwealth Ombudsman the same access as the Auditor-General to the Publc Accounts and Audit Committee to overcome the roadblock on the Ombudsman reporting back to parliament.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says he will move to give the Commonwealth Ombudsman the same access as the Auditor-General to the Public Accounts and Audit Committee to overcome the roadblock on the Ombudsman reporting back to Parliament on his office's performance.

"A similar facility is offered the Ombudsman under NSW and New Zealand law and it was a blunder for no report-back mechanism to be built into Australia's Commonwealth law," Senator Brown said today in Canberra.

Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher gives evidence to the Finance & Public Administration Legislation Committee (Senate Estimates)

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown and Immigration Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-young respond to the government's asylum seekers announcement.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown and Immigration spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young spoke to journalists in Canberra today about the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the public’s right to information, Migration Act amendments, and the passage yesterday of the carbon package legislation.

Following a request from the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has released extensive documentation about the Ombudsman's role, activities and outcomes, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown and Immigration spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said today.

Greens Leader Bob Brown today urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to make good on her promise to have an annual debate on Australia's military commitment to the war in Afghanistan and, amid an increasingly ugly debate on asylum seekers, urged all sides to respect the right of people fleeing that war to seek asylum in this country.

"Australian soldiers should be brought home, without delay. As Professor Hugh White said this morning, the government should consider that we might lose as many as another 40 Australians there over the next three years, Senator Brown said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's glib defence of the Howard era's "protection" of asylum seekers as "upholding basic human rights" highlights how low, self-serving and myopic his race to the bottom with the Gillard government has become, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

Bob Brown speaks in Hobart about the Gillard government's changes to the Migration Act to allow offshore processing and comments on concerns that the Tasmanian parks service won't have enough money to manage the new forest reserves.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown and Immigration spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young today met with Immigration Secretary Andrew Metcalfe, department officials and Senator Kate Lundy.

"A robust discussion ensued," Senator Brown said in Canberra. "I explained that comments as reported had been very damaging."