"Some might call the predicted thousands of trucks descending on Canberra ending up as hundreds (ABC, 21/8/11) a ‘flop', but these Australians have every right to a peaceful presence on the parliamentary lawns," Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"It seems like the prime qualification to be there is to be angry about something - these are Abbott's angry people," Senator Brown said.

"But it seems their views on some issues are fairly shorted sighted, very ‘me-now'."

The US' elder statesman on finance, Dr Alan Greenspan has got it "completely wrong" in his new book asserting 'what everyone knows: the Iraq war is about oil', Australia's Minister for Finance told the Senate today.
 
Greens leader Bob Brown quoted Prime Minister Howard from 4 February 2003: "No criticism is more outrageous than the claim that US behaviour is driven by a wish to take control of Iraq's oil reserves."
 

 
The Howard Policy Agenda 1996 to 2006
 
Over the last 10 years the Howard government has repeatedly pushed climate change policy in the wrong direction. The economics of climate change are straight forward, we need to charge polluters for their emissions and give people and companies incentives to increase efficiency. The politics of climate change, however, has encouraged the Howard Government to spend billions of dollars pushing the economy in the wrong direction. The biggest mistakes of the last decade are:
 

Perverse policy measure

The Democrats have already conceded a massive subsidy for diesel users, benefiting mining, transport and logging corporations but penalising ordinary Australians with huge health and environmental costs, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

Senator Brown described Senator Lees" assurances on the environment as "double-talk".

"On the one hand she says "diesel fuel is not negotiable" (Sunday, Ch.9, today), but on the other says "absolutely everything we took to the election is on the table!