Bob Brown has resigned as Leader of the Australian Greens Parliamentary Party. He will also resign from the Senate, after 16 years' service, when his Tasmanian replacement is available in June.

Senator Brown, who is 67, made the announcement to his Greens Party Room colleagues this morning at 10am.

"I am sad to leave but happy to go. It is good knowing that the Greens have such a depth of talent and experience lined up for leadership - I could only dream about that a decade ago.
It is prime time to hand over the reins. I offer a huge 'thank you' to the 1.7 million Australian voters who elected our Green team, and to my 9 colleagues: they have made each Green year in this parliament better than the year before - though the best is yet to come.
Senator Brown said.

I know, like me, everyone on the Forum will be saddened by the news of Bob's departure from the Australian political scene. But are we not blessed to have such wonderful talent to take over. The new Greens leadership team of Christine Milne and Adam Bandt no doubt will do a splendid job

Dear Paul,

Thanks for this thread. It's a great tribute to
a great man. Ben Eltham has written an excellent
article which summs things up very well:

http://newmatilda.com/2012/04/13/bob-brown-resigns

It is a sad day and a great loss. And I fully
agree with Eltham when he tells us that Bob Brown
"has conducted himself with a decency and courtesy
sadly rare in modern politics. Australian public
life will be poorer for his departure."

He shall be greatly missed.

Bob Brown will be missed but I am sure he will continue with other projects close to his heart. What a great inspiration from his early days as an environmental protestor and doctor to leading the Greens to where it is today.

Equally, Christine Milne will no doubt rise to the role with her usual commonsense and no nonsense approach.

I wish them both well.

Why would you resign at the peak of your political nemisis and not see your vision being realised? The Greens and labor are finished.

Bob Brown is an enigma. A great environmentalist, but never able to put the whole environmental picture together.

Not a sustainabilityist! Which really is quite bizarre given his background and the apparent charter of the party that he has led for so long.

Not interested in lobbying for a stable population in Australia, despite us having very high population growth, predominantly due to record high immigration.

The Greens have good policies on this, but they just don’t act on them.

They have been extremely remiss when it comes to the overwhelming environmental issue of the ever-increasing pressure on our resource base and environment. This is the way it has been for years under Bob Brown.

Now hopefully (although I don’t see much sign of it), the Greens can start to become a truly green party.

Bob Brown is a leader of rare integrity. We will be poorer for his exit from political life.

Arjay,

The onus is on leaders to prepare the next generation to take up the reins - and to hand over at the appropriate juncture.

This is something that the likes of John Howard failed to realise - his "ego" being his prime motivator, and his "party" a secondary consideration.