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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 91 of 131
Deni Greene 7 Oct 1939 – 2 Jun 2012 MEMORIES
by Elizabeth O’Brien, Vice President (Australia), The LEAD Group Inc, December 2024
It is with great sadness that I recently learned that Deni Greene passed away on 2nd June
2012.
I first met the brilliant Deni Greene in early 1993, when she was the main writer of the best
government plan for a lead safe Australia that’s ever been published by the Government:
Greene, Deni; Berry, Prof Mike; Garrard, Dr Jan (1993) Reducing Lead Exposure in
Australia, Funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC),
Commonwealth Environment Protection Agency (CEPA) and Dept of Health,
Housing, Local Government, & Community Services (DHHLGCS). Published by
Commonwealth Dept of Human Services and Health. Not web-published, copies
available at 33 libraries including The LEAD Group’s library.
Seven years after the above comprehensive strategy was published, IF all of its
recommendations had been acted on by state and federal government agencies in Australia, I
could have retired, but instead I wrote a scathing SCORECARD - NHMRC Recommendations
for A National Strategy Scorecard: Review of NHMRC Strategy - of government [in]action
in LEAD Action News vol 7 no 4, (March 2000) at https://www.lead.org.au/lanv7n4/L74-
19.html and I’m still working on getting Australian governments to act on lead-safety 24
years later!
In the Editorial for LEAD Action News vol 16 no 4, (June 2016) at
https://lead.org.au/lanv16n4/lanv16n4-2.html I wrote:
This issue of LEAD Action News begins with the best Australian article I’ve ever found
on “Effects Of Lead On The Environment”. It was put together by the inimitable Deni
Greene et al in 1993 and we published a draft version in LEAD Action News volume 1
number 2 [June 1993], at www.lead.org.au/lanv1n2/lanv1n2-8.html.
The article “Effects Of Lead On The Environment” comes from the books by Greene et
al “Reducing Lead Exposure In Australia” published in July 1993 – and still
important!
Many concepts of great value in my LEAD Action News vol 21 no 4 (LANv21n4) - Model
National Lead Safety Policy (Dec 2023) at https://leadsafeworld.com/lanv21n4-content/
were inspired by Deni Greene’s mastery of environmental health policy-writing.
When my friend Roger Green died on 4 Dec 2024, I was amazed to discover that both Roger
and Deni Greene had worked on the Franklin River campaign in the 1980s, after Deni moved
to Australia in March 1983, from the USA where she had worked for the former Californian
Governor, Gray Davis. And one of Roger’s eulogists, Vince Mahon (whose eulogy is included
in Roger Green’s obituary in this issue of LEAD Action News vol 22 no 4) by coincidence, was
a good friend of Deni Greene who he met while working on the Franklin River campaign.
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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 92 of 131
PHOTO: Deni Greene (white shirt) with Franklin River campaigners 1983, photo URL: https://theemperors-
clothes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/peter-homan-dave-neilson-deni-greenerudi-liz-1983.jpg ; link
accessible via https://theemperors-clothes.com/2017/12/08/the-law-of-the-land-and-other-legends-in-their-
own-lunchtimes/#more-5091
There are many wonderful tributes to Deni Greene at:
https://app.memories.net/memorials/deni-greene-94554 and
https://tributes.theage.com.au/obituaries/83330/deni-greene/
