Ronan Lee defects from Queensland Labor to join the Greens. The official word from the Greens is here.

Indooroopilly Labor MP Ronan Lee joins Greens. Lee has been something of a maverick during his time in Parliament, causing both Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh a few headaches, and having switched factional allegiance from one right wing faction – the Old Guard (”Labor Unity”) to the other – the AWU (”Labor Forum”). — Larvatus Prodeo

Ronan Lee leaves: is it a canary in Bligh’s coalmine? Lee is a savvy Labor politician – holding a seat which has historically been a safe Liberal electorate by clever and strategic marketing of his various messages – and he knows there is a volatile Green vote in inner-city Brisbane. — Party Games, Courier Mail

Ronan Lee joins the Greens. Citing the Bligh government’s lacklustre performance on environmental issues (the Traveston Dam for one) Lee maintains that his environmentalism is well known and the voters of Indooroopilly are not getting a raw deal. — Public Polity

Qld Labor MP joins the Greens. The seat of Indooroopilly, in Brisbane’s leafy western suburbs, used to be Liberal Party heartland, until Ronan Lee managed to win it in the Beattie landslide of 2001. He’s done well to hold it in two subsequent elections. I’ve run into Ronan, a migrant from Ireland, at a range of events around Brisbane over the years and he has seemed to me to be a bit more prepared to show some individual opinions than many major party MPs, even after he was promoted to a Parliamentary Secretary position.– Andrew Bartlett