Bob Brown quits as Greens leader
In quitting as Australian Greens leader, Bob Brown batted away suggestions he was retiring due to near-constant criticism following his decision in 2010 to back Labor into government.Brown said the conservative backlash, which peaked with the passage of the carbon tax legislation late last year, was nothing compared with what he'd experienced as a gay politician in the 1980s."It's small beer compared to what I copped in the 80s in Tasmania, particularly as a gay member of the parliament," Brown told reporters on Friday, adding he was constantly abused in the street back then.
And then he put domestic battles into a broader perspective."We are not in Syria," he said, referring to the bloody crackdown there on pro-democracy campaigners.Brown is one of Tasmania's best-known exports but he was actually born, in 1944, in Oberon on the edge of the NSW Blue Mountains.After graduating from Sydney University's medical school he spent time working in hospitals in Canberra and then London.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Bob-Brown-retires-from-politics-pd20120413-TB3YY?OpenDocument&