Greens co-founder Drew Hutton’s expulsion from party could be overturned after legal advice

Greens co-founder Drew Hutton could have his life membership of the party’s Queensland branch reinstated in what he says is a “hollow” victory, following debate over his comments on “transgender ideology”. The Queensland Greens have flagged that a vote on his possible return would be held next week, after they received advice from lawyers that the party had denied him natural justice when revoking his membership. Hutton co-founded the state party and the national Australian Greens in the early 1990s. He was expelled from the party in June, with the Greens considering his pursuit of debate harmful to trans people, citing comments made by others which appeared under some of his social media posts. Arguing the matter was an issue of free speech, Hutton challenged the decision in court in September. On Sunday, the party emailed him to inform him the party’s state council would meet on Monday to consider a proposal to withdraw the July decision that confirmed the termination of his membership “for want of procedural fairness”. Related: Drew Hutton helped found the Australian Greens. So why has the troubled party booted him from its ranks? According to an attached memo, the party’s lawyers had concluded the Greens had denied Hutton procedural fairness during the two-year process. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Hutton told the Guardian that he’s not satisfied with only being readmitted as a life member. He said he also wants an apology, his legal costs paid and an undertaking that he won’t be kicked out again for any previous actions. He said he had won a “hollow” victory, and would continue to pursue the court case even as a member if his demands weren’t met. “It’s taken me three years to get the Greens to see sense on this,” he said. But he said it wasn’t certain that he would be reappointed. “There’s a lot of this transgender ideology which permeates the Queensland Greens, and it all depends how ideologically fixated they are on their determination to get rid of anybody who says otherwise,” he said. Hutton estimated that his legal costs have run to the tens of thousands of dollars, but the final amount hasn’t been tallied. A spokesperson for the Queensland Greens said the party’s “longstanding position that trans rights are non-negotiable has not and will not change”. “The Greens are a member-driven party, and many significant decisions are made by the membership, including member delegates at state council,” she said. “It would be inappropriate to comment further on a matter before the court”. In the attachment to the letter sent to Hutton, lawyers for the party said it had repeatedly failed to provide him with information used to justify their decision, and had given him insufficient time to consider evidence before the matter was heard at various hearings. Both amounted to a denial of natural justice, the lawyers said. “Failure to afford natural justice means that the decision is no decision at law, and as far as possible should be treated as though it was never made,” the lawyers said in the memo. It’s unclear whether the effect of Monday’s motion will be to immediately reinstate Hutton’s lifetime membership, because it only refers to the appeal hearing at the state council in July. A former high school teacher, Hutton first became involved in green politics in the 1980s. He was a perennial candidate for the party, running for Brisbane lord mayor, for a state seat and as an aspiring federal senator. In 2011 he founded the Lock the Gate Alliance, an environmental organisation that opposes the expansion of the coal seam gas industry in Queensland and New South Wales.