"The departure of Christine Milne came quickly but it wasn't really a surprise as she has been a snarling, negative leader of a party that likes to promote itself as one committed to love and cuddles for people and creatures."

Notable Adam Bandt apparently has also been demoted, and with characters like part-time rapper Scott Ludlam, Sea Patrol fan Sarah Hanson-Young and former Soviet-aligned communist Lee Rhiannon along with the usual motley crew, it will be interesting to see whether the Greens will attempt to put together actual policies rather than their usual wish lists of populist slogans.

Dear Shadow minister,

I think the best example of snarling and negative came from that absolute shocker of a minister one Kevin Andrews.

“Does it really matter who will lead the freedom hating Greens? Their anti-family & community destroying policies remain.”

Come on. Here is someone who moving aside after 25 years in politics to rightly spend more time with her family and we get this from an actual Minister? Pathetic!

Top shelf tosser and a generally nasty piece of work.

It would have been quite a shock to the number of Greens who were not informed and found out from the news reports.

It was expected in a way, because Milne has been under threat within the Greens, being blamed for the lacklustre popularity of the Greens since Brown departed the scene.

There is obvious factional tension.

It is remarkable that Bandt got the bullet. The elevation of Larissa Waters was most strange, not being announced earlier. Waters was apparently an afterthought of factional dealing, resulting in two deputies.

The way ahead will be interesting. There are those with ambition, Sarah Hyphenated and Rhiannon for instance, who would be very unhappy the career they thought they had in their pocket has been stymied and for a long time too.

SteeleRedux,

"Top shelf tosser and a generally nasty piece of work."

Couldn't agree more.

In fact a prime example of the odious, puerile and ungracious attitude of this govt in general.

Does this mean The Greens are a real Part now
With you guys arguing over them ?

Shadow is looking for a bite, anything to divert attention from the rancid economic managers we have in Canberra at the moment in the shape of 'Team Abbott'.
Our resident expert on everything OTB, truly amazing what this bloke can see in his minds eye from that dingy basement in Tempe Sydney, which is party HQ for the ultra right Australia First mob. It must be said this pair never let their ignorance stand in the way of them presenting the "facts".

Christine Milne, who will be 62 in a weeks time, chose the time and place to appropriately announce her resignation. Party members received an email from Christine yesterday at 10.52am.

"Dear Paul,

I’ve just stepped out of a meeting with my Party Room colleagues to send you this note." etc etc

Best wishes and thanks to you all,

Christine.

Very few party leaders get to choose their time and place to depart. Take the Liberal racists Little Johnny Howard, who was unceremoniously kicked out of parliament by the people, no beg pardon's there. No politician in their right mind wants to suffer the political humiliation of a Howard.

Dr Richard Di Natale will offer a different style of leadership to that of Christine Milne, and that is to be expected. Already Richard has offered the government an olive branch on good legislation. The Greens are also considering supporting the Coalition in their quest for a 4% rule being applied to Senate voting, something Labor and micro party members are most unlikely to support.