“Count me out:” Barnaby Joyce backed anti-renewables rally tries to co-opt Bob Brown

Australian Greens founder and award winning environmentalist Bob Brown has slammed the organisers of an anti-renewables rally planned for outside federal parliament next week, and demanded they stop using his name and image to promote a protest he says has been “hijacked by the coal lobby.”

Brown, who established and lead Australia’s first national environmentalist political party, issued a statement on Thursday saying he had written to the organisers of the “Barnaby Joyce-rant rally” to ask them to remove any inference that he endorses the February 6 event.

Brown’s “cease and desist” message to the organisers of the rally follows the use of an image of the former politician on its Facebook page, posted alongside statements Brown has made in opposition to the proposed Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania.

Brown, who currently heads up the not-for profit Bob Brown Foundation, has opposed the 900MW Acen Australia project for the environmental impact it threatens to have on the island, which is home to a population of the critically endangered orange bellied parrot, as well as to wedge-tailed eagles and Tasmanian devils.

But he says he has nothing in common with the organisers of next week’s rally, who have lately taken to feigning concern for wildlife and the environment to support their anti-renewables agenda.

Recent tactics have included senior National Party members pedaling false and inflammatory claims that koalas are being killed to make way for solar farms, and that used wind turbine blades are being dumped in national parks.

The tactics have been called out as the cynical exploitation of community concerns by politicians who had zero interest in matters environmental when plugging the development of new coal and gas mines.

“For me, joining Barnaby Joyce at a rally for farms and wildlife would be like joining Vladimir Putin at a rally for peace or Donald Trump at a rally for respecting women. Count me out,” Brown said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

“It is dishonest for the organisers to be using my image when I did not take up their request that I attend or agree to any promotion.

The National Rally Against Reckless Renewables claims to be a “coalition of grassroots community groups united under the National Rational Energy Network” and established in support of “diverse regional communities” directly and adversely affected by the rollout of rollout of “unreliable, unaffordable, and environmentally destructive wind, solar, limited \”firming\” batteries, and high-voltage transmission lines.”

In promotional flyers for the rally, emailed to RenewEconomy, the group says it is calling for an urgent Senate Inquiry into the “technical veracity” of renewables – and for the suspension of all renewables projects in the meantime – and for a lift of the ban on nuclear power.

A list of politicians expected to speak at the rally include Senator Matt Canavan, Senator Malcolm Roberts, Senator Pauline Hanson and, of course, Joyce.

“The rally against renewables, including solar power, has been hijacked by the coal lobby as proclaimed by Joyce who puts mining ahead of farming,” says Brown.

“This is using people genuinely opposed to wind farms or powerlines as de facto supporters of the fossil fuels which are causing such fire and flood havoc in rural Australia.

“There must be no more coal or gas projects. Energy efficiency is the best and cheapest alternative. And though renewable energy is essential for Australia, this rally has Joyce spouting for coal.

“However renewable projects deserve scrutiny on a case by case basis to ensure they are not at the expense of the nation’s natural heritage including rare and endangered wildlife.”