Polls now show an Abbott Coalition government is likely after August 21. That will make Eric Abetz government leader in the Senate, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown warned in Hobart today.

"A vote for the Greens in the Senate is the essential safeguard against an Abetz dominated Senate. Australians have to know that if the conservatives pick up one more Senate seat Eric Abetz will control the Senate," Senator Brown said.

At the launch of Greens Deputy Leader, Christine Milne's campaign for her Tasmanian Senate team in Hobart today, Senator Brown said that Abetz, as Minister, was responsible for robbing young people of their right to vote until his unconstitutional bill was overturned by the High Court on Friday.

The Greens are now the only party with a credible plan to tackle climate change, the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef, said Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown.

In Brisbane today to launch the campaign of Australian Greens Queensland Senate candidate Larissa Waters, Senator Brown said without fast action to tackle climate change and acidification of the reef, as well as dangers from oil spills and water pollution, the Great Barrier Reef would die.

"Julia Gillard's plan to delay for another three years endangers the reef, and Tony Abbott's inaction is worse," said Senator Brown.

Senator Brown announced a new plan to tackle the biggest threats to the Great Barrier Reef, including:

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says that panda diplomacy has a new twist, after Adelaide Zoo pandas Funi and Wang Wang seemed to favour the Greens for Election 2010.

"When I visited the Wolong panda sanctuary in China in 1998 (since wrecked by the 2008 earthquake) I struck up a very good vibe with these iconic fellow mammals.

"Now, in this age of extinction, I'm doing all we Greens can to save the Earth's species - pandas, koalas, wedgetailed eagles and all. I think they're thankful for that," Senator Brown said.

Media Contact: Peter Stahel 0459 133 597 / 02 6277 3618

www.greensmps.org.au

A breakthrough in the decades-old community campaign for Tasmania's wild forests should follow the logging industry's hard times, Leader of the Australian Greens Bob Brown said in Hobart today.

"The industry and forest campaigners have had weeks of talks. Both the state and federal governments are in the box seat to help get industrial logging out of native forests and to give national parks protection to the highest conservation-value forests and wildlife habitats. The Australian Greens are right behind an historic outcome like Geoff Gallop's Labor government achieved in Western Australia in 2004," he said.