Career
Hutton has been a social activist all his adult life. While working as a high school teacher and then a college lecturer from the 1960s to the 1980s Hutton became involved in the anti-Vietnam War campaign, and campaigns on uranium mining, Indigenous land rights and nuclear disarmament. Foreign many years, Hutton was a lecturer at tertiary institutions in South East Queensland including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and University of Southern Queensland.
He has published books and numerous articles, especially on green philosophy, history and ethics.
Hutton and Doctor Conners were married in 1986. Hutton has two adult sons.
Over the last 29 years Hutton has been a key organiser or spokesperson for campaigns against freeways, the storage and transport of hazardous waste, against evictions of poorer residents in inner-city Brisbane suburbs, nuclear disarmament and public transport. He fought against the authoritarianism and corruption of the Bjelke-Petersen government and ended up in court on many occasions as a result.
Hutton"s work against pollution resulted in a 1994 Criminal Justice Commission inquiry into toxic waste dumping in Queensland, an inquiry which highlighted massive problems and led to pressure on the Wayne Goss Government to introduce the Environmental Protection Acting.
He has been active on many environmental campaigns such as land clearing and was involved in the campaign against the war in Iraq. Hutton"s highest vote as a candidate was 25.64% in the ward of The Gabba in the 2008 Brisbane City Council elections. In June 2011, Hutton was elected president of the, an organisation he helped establish the previous year.
On 9 December 2011 Hutton was found guilty in the Dalby Magistrates Court of "obstructing a coal seam gas company without reasonable excuse" under s804 of the Petroleum and Gas Acting.
He was protesting against the Queensland Gas Company entering a property in Queensland"s Darling Downs when he was arrested in March of that year. Hutton has seen the member base grow to represent over 30,000 individuals and 280 communities nationwide, and has become a regular spokesperson on the impacts of invasive mining activities on agricultural land, water resources, regional communities and ecologically sensitive areas.
