The following is an article by Australian Financial Review Chief Political Correspondent David Crowe that first appeared in the paper on Friday May 6 2011

Greens leader Bob Brown has warned against a "punitive" federal budget that forces people off welfare, declaring yesterday he and his colleagues would amend reforms if necessary to offer rewards instead of penalties for those who get jobs.

Federal Greens MPs held a conference call last night to finalise their budget strategy, opening the discussion to senators-elect who are to join the upper house from July 1 and will vote on budget bills.

Dear Editor,

As The Australian’s National Affairs Correspondent, readers may expect Jennifer Hewett to be factually correct on key legislative commitments made in Canberra.

However, her statement (26 March) that ‘Bob Brown is promising to oppose the [mining tax] bill in the Senate’ is wrong.

At the Parliament House press conference on Friday, I made it clear that the Greens will not oppose the bill because to do so would leave us in Tony Abbott’s position of raising no tax from the mining super profits at all.

That would lose $145 billion from the 10-year forward estimates, with a commensurate inability to fund public health, housing, education and transport such as high-speed rail.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Brown

Senator Brown sent the following letter to the Prime Minister today:

Greens Leader Bob Brown discusses the carbon tax, mining tax and constitutional issues with Paul Bongiorno on Meet the Press.

Click the more link for the transcript.

“No Australian official ever saw Mr Habib in Egypt,” the Australian government says. What do you think?

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown, speaking in the Senate, last week asked the Government if it was aware of Egypt’s General Omar Suleiman’s reputation as a torturer and a murderer. He also asked whether the Australian Government or members of its intelligence service had met General Suleiman and whether there was involvement in the illegal detention of Australian Mr Mamdouh Habib in Egypt.

In the Senate, the next day, Senator Conroy replied:

“In his question, he asked : Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. It is known by the government that Mr Habib was detained in Egypt. Has any member of the government or its intelligence services met Mr Suleiman? Were they involved in the detention and torture of Mr Habib in Egypt?”

“I can now furnish further information: Mr Habib’s allegations are not new. In 2005 the Australian Government asked Egypt to investigate Mr Habib’s claims of mistreatment.”

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has advised that during 2001-2002 Department officials made several attempts at senior levels to confirm Mr Habib’s detention in Egypt and to obtain consular access.”

“Egypt never confirmed that Mr Habib was in custody and consular access was never granted. No Australian official ever saw Mr Habib in Egypt,” Senator Conroy said.

“Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials have met Mr Suleiman, in particular in his capacity as a lead negotiator on Middle East peace process issues.”

Today, The Age reveals that an Egyptian intelligence officer has supported Mr Habib's claims that Australian officials watched as he was tortured in Egypt.

Mr Habib was detained in Afghanistan in 2001 and he says he was repeatedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay.

He was released in 2005 without charge and returned to Australia.

Dear Editor,

Andrew Bolt has blood on his hands. He stridently insisted on the invasion and killings in Iraq which led to millions fleeing. Some of those millions ended up in the ocean off Christmas Island on Wednesday.

Andrew Bolt’s call, while bodies were still in the ocean, for Julia Gillard’s resignation (but the Labor Party opposed the war in Iraq) lacked human decency. He should resign.

Senator Bob Brown

Aid groups have told us that donations from the public to the Pakistan flood crisis are well down on past disaster relief efforts. Bob is encouraging all Australians to make a small donation this weekend to help save Pakistan from hunger and disease.

The scale of crisis in Pakistan is unbelievable - more than 20 million people are affected. That's more than the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Kashmir Earthquake and the Haiti crisis combined. People are stranded across a vast area and now disease is a real threat as people are forced to drink dirty water to survive. Pakistan desperately needs clean water, emergency food supplies and sanitation for more than 1 million children and their families.

Bob is urging everyone to give to the Australian organisations providing relief in Pakistan. A full list of organisations and their contact details is available here:
www.acfid.asn.au/what-we-do/humanitarian-emergencies/appeals-pakistan-floods

Today in Canberra the Greens launched an ambitious plan to give the national capital a state-of-the-art light rail system, and called for better public transport planning across the country.

Did the Australian Government play a role in bringing down another nation’s tax on mining profits?

Following concerns raised by Mongolian Greens, Bob asked questions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs about what representations had Australia made to Mongolia regarding mining and the taxation of mining? The Minister provided the following answer in Hansard:

“The current Australian Government has made representations to the Mongolian Government that a stable regulatory environment is essential to attract foreign investment and would be beneficial to Mongolia’s economic development. Such representations have been made, for example, during visits to Mongolia by Australia’s non-resident Ambassador and in meetings with Mongolia’s Ambassador to Australia.

In a meeting held on 22 July 2009 between the Hon Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Damdin Tsogtbaatar, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Mongolia, Mr Smith said Australia would like to see an investment agreement for the Oyu Tolgoi mine progressed by the Mongolian parliament.”

Why was Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs so interested in this particular mine in being progressed?

The Oyu Tolgoi mine is located in the South Gobi region just north of the Chinese-Mongolian border. It is owned by Rio Tinto, Ivanhoe Mines as well as the Mongolian Government. Prior to proceeding with the development, Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe mines were lobbying intensely to remove the windfall profit tax. The tax had been introduced in 2006 on copper and gold amid a mining boom that saw metals prices hitting record highs.

In August 2009 the Mongolian Government cancelled the windfall profits tax clearing the way for a final investment agreement for the $US3 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project.

The question that remains unanswered is whether this was the outcome that the Foreign Minister had been hoping for when he spoke to the Mongolian Ministry in July, just one month before the tax was cancelled?

The Questions on Notice also revealed that Australia provides aid support for mining in this part of Mongolia.

In 2008 AusAID provided $100,000 to the World Bank to assist development of an Infrastructure Strategy for Southern Mongolia (where the Oyu Tolgoi project is located). Supporting the development of this strategy, a delegation including 11 senior Mongolian Government officials, four private sector officials and three World Bank representatives undertook a study tour to Australia in November 2008, focused on mining infrastructure in Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and Western Australia.  In 2008-09, Australia provided $500,000 to enable the start-up and capacity building of an independent mining sector policy think tank in Mongolia.

Link to an article in The Australian newspaper about this story