Brown strikes back at bankruptcy claims

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has hit back at coalition claims he misled the
public when he declared he was at risk of bankruptcy.
Senior Liberal Eric Abetz on Tuesday night said Senator Brown was more likely to be
"ethically bankrupt" than genuinely bankrupt.
The Greens leader had said he could be forced into bankruptcy and out of the Senate
if he didn't pay $240,000 in court costs following a legal dispute over logging in
Tasmania's Wielangta forest.
Senator Brown lost a High Court battle to stop the logging in early 2008.
He now says Senator Abetz should repay $436,000 the commonwealth spent intervening
in the case.
"That money was primarily spent while Senator Abetz was minister for forests (in the
former Howard government) and that should never have happened," Senator Brown said
on Wednesday.
"That intervention by the commonwealth on behalf of the loggers rather than the
forests and the nationally endangered species was wrong and he (Senator Abetz)
should raise the money and pay it back."
Senator Brown said the former coalition government's intervention made "no
difference" to the case but cost taxpayers.
"Senator Abetz should take responsibility for that," he said.
"He's been very critical of me raising money to pay the costs I've been ordered to
pay but he should look at his own failure to serve the public interest as minister."
Senator Brown is relying on the financial assistance of his supporters to pay nearly
$1 million in costs from the Wielangta case.
That includes around $640,000 for his own legal costs and the $240,000 he's been
ordered to pay Forestry Tasmania.