From Seoul: In the streets of Myeongdong, freedom of speech is a practised art. Last weekend, thousands of protesters took to the streets. Some were protesting anti-labour laws. Some were waving both Korean and American flags, calling for the dismissal of the arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk-Yeol. Others were calling for the arrest of the former President. Still others were marching in support of the Chinese spiritual organisation, Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gong).

It was a busy weekend for protesters, and not just about local issues.

Other protesters were carrying billboards that read ‘Go back to China’. They claimed that the ‘Chinese Barbarian invasion of June 25, 1950’ was responsible for the division of the two Koreas, that China was the ‘culprit behind electoral fraud’, and that China has an ‘ambition to make Korea a vassal’.

Meanwhile, the civic group Anti-Japan Action ended their decade-long sit-in protesting the Korea-Japan agreement on wartime sex slavery.

Plurality of thought and action in Korea is part of the political landscape. Last time I was here the protests were about labour union and pro-Palestine issues. Politics in Korea is as diverse as the natural environment.

In Australia, however, free speech is no longer a given in politics. Over the weekend, the Queensland Greens gave co-founder Drew Hutton the boot. Despite support from co-founder Bob Brown and former leader Christine Milne, Hutton’s appeal to the Queensland Greens was rejected, with 75 votes opposing and 23 votes supporting.

The expulsion resulted from Hutton’s Facebook posts back in 2022 that referred to Greens officials in Victoria and New South Wales as ‘authoritarian and antidemocratic’. This was in response to official Greens’ actions to remove members with transgender views the party didn’t like.

Hutton had provided support for trans rights while also advocating for women’s rights to be free from ‘patriarchal oppression’. Greens officials later deemed his comments to be ‘hurtful and disrespectful’ to trans people.

A year later, the Queensland Greens’ Constitution and Arbitration Committee (CAC) suspended Hutton for 12 months, requiring him to delete the posts and associated transphobic comments, and to refrain from making public comment on the matter. Hutton refused, citing concerns about freedom of speech and describing the official move as a ‘crackdown’.

Over the two years following, Hutton spoke about his situation to the media, and he had also spoken at Woman Up Queensland rallies. He continued to share articles and opinions against what he called ‘trans extremists’.

Consequently, Hutton was expelled on June 24, 2025, and lost his appeal on July 20.

Female Greens members in NSW and Victoria have also been expelled for comments deemed to be ‘transphobic’.

Hutton claimed he was not critical of transgender people, stating:

‘At no stage did the CAC accuse me of transphobia. My “crime” was… an issue of freedom of speech, nothing else.’

He also stated that:

‘This is not the party people like Bob Brown and I set up.’

Many commentators have referred to the Greens’ increasingly radical trans and pro-Palestinian positions as moving away from protecting the environment. Interestingly, the party that was one of the first to jump on the ‘cancel culture’ bandwagon is starting to cancel itself.

History demonstrates that political movements that prevent freedom of speech tend towards irrelevance. Preventing political debate ultimately leads to compliant or disgruntled followers and an absence of new ideas.

The Greens, true to their recent form, have become so engrossed in their own irrelevance they are starting to cancel themselves. This is also a consequence of the Greens’ growing support for socialism, where individual thought gets in the way of the necessary groupthink.

South Korea’s young democracy, forged out of war, corruption, rebellion, and resilience, is inherently pluralistic. No single line of thinking dominates, and freedom of speech is not only valued but practised. So much so that Korean protests that block the streets of Seoul for hours on end are so frequent they rarely get any airtime in or out of Korea. Freedom of speech is part of daily life.

As I wandered the vibrant streets of Myeongdong over the weekend, where pluralism thrives amid a cacophony of competing voices, I couldn’t help but think of the Greens’ demise.

They might have taken a lesson from the natural environment defended so passionately by co-founders Hutton and Brown. Ironically, the contemporary, far-left version of the party may well become a wilted relic in a world that demands diversity to survive.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.