Greens leader Larissa Waters says she has not read documentation outlining why the party’s co-founder, Drew Hutton, was expelled because she has been busy preparing for parliament.
The decision to terminate Hutton’s life membership of the Greens was upheld by delegates of the state branches on Sunday, over what the party considers his pursuit of debate harmful to trans people but that he has framed as an issue of free speech.
Waters, a senator for Queensland, had backed the outcome of the appeal, saying it reflected “good governance” and sent the message that “nobody is above the rules”.
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday, Hutton doubled down on his position.
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He suggested some Greens members “over the last decade or so” had aimed to “convert it into the sort of party one of whose main preoccupations is with transgender rights”. He said he had “no problem with transgender rights” but accused the party of harbouring “an absolutely rigorous determination to stop any dissent”.
Hutton claimed he had been contacted by 40 former party members, “about half” of whom had been expelled, and the others “forced out by being subjected to massive complaints”. He suggested a faction within the party – which he described this week as “a cult” – had “weaponised the complaint system”.
Waters, appearing immediately after Hutton on the program, rejected his description of the party as “authoritarian, aggressive and doctrinaire”. She insisted people inside the Greens were free to express their opinions – and do.
“You can have a robust debate and there’s lots of differences of opinion when party members are actually debating and formulating our policies, but you can do that in a respectful manner,” she said.
When host Sarah Ferguson asked whether Waters took issue with Hutton’s views or the way he had expressed them – asking why Hutton had been expelled – Waters replied: “Look, I wasn’t part of that process, Sarah. That was a process that the party ran.”
Pressed on the reasons for the expulsion, Waters revealed she had not read the documentation, dismissing responsibility for the decision.
“I haven’t read the documentation because here I am in parliament hoping to talk tomorrow about introducing a climate trigger into our environmental laws and fixing the gender inequalities in our tax system amongst other things,” Waters said.
“This was a decision that was reviewed by the party, taken by volunteer party members, many of whom uphold the code of conduct on a regular basis.”
Any future decision on whether Hutton could return to the party was “not up to me”, she added.
