Battle to save endangered Green MP

CANBERRA - Supporters are rallying around Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown in a bid to prevent his political career going the way of the Swift parrot, the Wielangta stag beetle and the Tasmanian wedgetailed eagle.

All are now firmly on the endangered species list: Brown by a huge legal bill, and the others by the logging he tried to block in the Wielangta cool temperate rainforest in southwestern Tasmania.

Unless Brown can find A$239,368 ($306,000) to pay court costs awarded to the state-owned Forestry Tasmania by June 29, he will be declared insolvent or bankrupt and face expulsion from the Upper House seat he has held for almost two decades.

Under the constitution, bankruptcy or any other agreement of the kind offered to insolvent debtors would disqualify him from Parliament, and his seat would be declared vacant.

It is believed that this would be the first time the section had been invoked since federation.

Brown's expulsion could shift the delicate balance of power in the Senate, at present held by the Greens' five seats, independent Senator Nick Xenophon, and Family First Senator Stephen Fielding.

It would also be a blow to Australia's environmental movement.

Brown has been a leading activist since the 1970s, when he was jailed during the campaign that saved Tasmania's Franklin River from the effect of hydro-electric damming, helped bring down Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and led to a High Court ruling handing a powerful environmental weapon to the federal government.

This time the High Court turned against Brown.

In 2006 Brown began an independent bid to prevent logging in Wielangta Forest by establishing in a Federal Court hearing that Forestry Tasmania was not protecting endangered species.

After state and federal governments altered the agreement under which logging was permitted, Forestry Australia successfully appealed against the decision in a move that was later upheld by the High Court.

Forestry Australia was awarded costs and, following unsuccessful negotiations, told Brown to pay the money by the end of June or face bankruptcy.

His possible fate attracted the sympathy of fellow parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who told Sky News: "I've actually got a lot of time for Bob."

Brown told ABC radio that his office had been inundated with offers of help, including a woman offering a A$50,000 interest-free loan, another person offering the A$900 tax bonus handed out in Rudd's economic stimulus package, and someone who sent a cake he could raffle.

"It's about the forests and it is a wonderful and warming response," he said.

Brown's biggest boost has come from entrepreneur and adventurer Dick Smith, who made his fortune in the electronics retail chain and who has previously supported environmental campaigns in Tasmania.

Smith told the Australian newspaper that many people would be upset by the action taken by "bullies" against Brown. "If necessary I'll come up with the money," he said.

Brown is adamant he will be able to pay the bill. "I'm a long way from raising it at the moment, but I will raise it," he said.