‘Crazy Bob Brown’ pillorying continues

Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane continues the Government’s misrepresentation of the Australian Greens’ position on coal exports.

“Greens leader Bob Brown wants to shut down the coal export industry in the next term of government,” writes Macfarlane (who is not the former Reserve Bank governor of the same name) in The Australian today.

Brown actually said, “Australia should develop a plan, in the next three years, to reduce and phase out coal exports...”

Brown’s position has been misquoted and pilloried by the Government, Opposition, the Murdoch press and many others since it was announced last week.

Sure, Brown’s is a radical, and perhaps unworkable, proposal; but is it too much to ask that public discourse on the vexed topic of climate change be grounded in fact and good faith?