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Expelled Australian Greens co-founder Drew Hutton will have his life membership reinstated under a deal proposed by the party’s Queensland division recognising that he was wrongly marched for questioning its pro-transgender platform.
In a humiliation for the Queensland Greens, their own lawyers found the 78-year-old had been denied natural justice on four occasions during the internal disciplinary proceedings that led to his expulsion – a process backed by federal leader Larissa Waters, Mr Hutton’s one-time friend and a Brisbane-based senator.
Ironically, the Greens’ capitulation on Mr Hutton will need to be endorsed by their state council, the body that ratified the decision to boot him in July over complaints that he had breached its code of ethics.
But a settlement is still some way off, with Mr Hutton renewing his demands for a public apology and reimbursement for his hefty legal costs from Supreme Court action he launched in September.
Mr Hutton also wants changes to the complaints and disciplinary processes that were used against him.
Mr Hutton set up the Queensland Greens before co-founding the national organisation in 1992 with Bob Brown, the party’s first federal leader.