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Australian Greens
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The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is a Green Australian political party.
The party has its eastern Australian origins in the Franklin River Dams campaign in Tasmania in the 1980s, and in Western Australia arising from concerns about nuclear disarmament. Its political platform now extends beyond environmental concerns to issues of the peace movement, grassroots democracy and social justice.
The party's history can be traced back to the formation of the United Tasmania Group (UTG), the first Green party in the world, which first ran candidates in the 1972 Tasmanian State election. Many people involved in that group went on to form the Tasmanian Greens, in 1992, with five State MPs.
Tasmanian Greens Senator Bob Brown and Western Australian Greens Senator Dee Margetts went on to form the first Australian Greens following the 1996 federal election. The party's parliamentary leader became Bob Brown, with the eight state and territory Greens parties becoming a national confederation.
In the 2007 federal election the Greens received more than one million votes in the Senate for the first time with a national swing of 1.38 to 9.04 percent, and a net gain of one senator to a total of five. Sarah Hanson-Young (SA) and Scott Ludlam (WA) were elected while Senator Kerry Nettle (NSW) lost her seat.
Structure The Australian Greens, like all Australian political parties, are federally organised with separately registered state parties signing up to a national constitution, yet still retaining considerable policy-making and organisational autonomy from the centre. The national decision-making body of the Australian Greens is the National Council, consisting of delegates from each member body (a state or territory Greens party). The National Council arrives at decisions by consensus. There is no formal executive of the national party. However, there is an Australian Greens Coordinating Group (AGCG) comprised of national office bearers including the National Convenor, Secretary, Treasurer, and delegates from each State and Territory. There is also a Public Officer, a Party Agent and a Registered Officer.
The following portfolio responsibilities (incomplete) are divided between the five Greens Senators:
Bob Brown, Senator for Tasmania, elected 1996 - Parliamentary Party Leader of the Greens
- Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Treasury, Finance and Administration
- Foreign Affairs
- Trade and Aid
- Defence and Veterans’ Affairs
- Finance and Administration
- Health
- Justice, Customs
- Communications, Information, Technology and the Arts
- Environment - Forests and wildlife
- Global Greens
- Gambling
Rachel Siewert, Senator for Western Australia, elected 2004 - Party Whip
- Employment and Industrial Relations
- Welfare
- Indigenous affairs
- Natural resource management
- Sustainable agriculture
- Marine environment
- Family and community services
- Disabilities
- Housing
- Uranium mining in WA
- Genetically Modified Organisms
- Environment – Fisheries & Animals
Christine Milne, Senator for Tasmania, elected 2004
- Climate change and Energy
- Transport and Regional Services
- The new economy and small business
- Regional services
- Transport
- Tourism
- Corporate ethics
- Asia-Pacific Region
- Local government
- Science
- Environment - World heritage & Bio-security and invasive species
Sarah Hanson-Young, Senator for South Australia, elected 2007
Scott Ludlam, Senator for Western Australia, elected 2007
This structure has replaced the previous system, under which specific spokespersons were appointed by the National Council.
A variety of working groups have been established by the National Council and these are directly accessible to all Greens members. Working groups perform an advisory function by developing policy, reviewing or developing the party structure, or by performing other tasks assigned by the National Council.
All policies originating from this structure are subject to ratification by the members of the Australian Greens.
On Saturday 12 November 2005 at the national conference in Hobart the Australian Greens abandoned their long-standing tradition of having no official leader and approved a process whereby a parliamentary leader could be elected by the Greens Parliamentary Party Room. On Monday 28 November 2005, Bob Brown - who had long been regarded as de facto leader by many inside the party, and most people outside the party - was elected unopposed as the Parliamentary Party Leader.
Political ideology
The Australian Greens are part of the global "Green politics" movement. Former Tasmanian Greens member of the House of Assembly Lance Armstrong summed this position up as, "... neither left nor right but forward."
The Charter of the Australian Greens identifies the following as being the four key pillars underlining the party's policy:
In pursuit of these principles the Greens have adopted (often controversial) positions on issues such as:
- opposition to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 Iraq War
- opposition to uranium mining and nuclear power
- promotion of renewable energy
- promotion of a sustainable approach to water resource management
- support for refugees (including opposition to the Coalition's handling of the MV Tampa, SIEV X, and 'Children overboard' incidents)
- support for independence movements around the world, including East Timor, Tibet, and West Papua
- support for human rights in countries such as China, and Burma
- qualified support for voluntary euthanasia,
- increased corporate taxation
- support for same-sex marriage
- opposition to a Goods & Services Tax (the Greens opposed the introduction of a GST during the 1998 Federal Election, but then, during the 2001 Federal Election, indicated that they would oppose the Australian Labor Party proposal to remove the GST from gas and electricity bills)
- regulated use of Cannabis for medical purposes
Despite the party's left-wing reputation, some of their better performances (as measured by percentage of primary votes) have been in seats that are traditionally Liberal such as Kooyong, Curtin, Wentworth, Higgins and Bennelong, as well as Labor seats such as, Adelaide, Brisbane, Grayndler, Melbourne Ports, Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne which went maverick in 2007, the first time a division has done so for the Greens in a general election. In contrast to this, many lower income safe Labor seats in deprived areas usually poll very small primary votes for the Greens. From 1997-2003 in Western Australia, the majority of Greens WA seats were held in rural and remote seats (Mining, Pastoral, South-West).
The Greens have differentiated themselves from the major parties in a number of high-profile policy positions. By taking a strong public stand on issues such international politics and the treatment of asylum seekers, for example, they claim to have shaken off their reputation as a single issue party concerned solely with environment: ecology embraces the human as well as the natural, and so human rights, fair processes and peace are integral to Green practice.
History Origins The Green movement in eastern Australia emerged out of environmental campaigns in the state of Tasmania. The precursor to the Tasmanian Greens (the earliest existent member of the federation of parties that is the Australian Greens), the United Tasmania Group, was founded in 1972 to oppose the construction of new dams to flood Lake Pedder. The campaign failed to prevent the flooding of Lake Pedder and the party failed to gain political representation. One of the party’s candidates was Bob Brown, then a doctor in Launceston.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, a public campaign to prevent the construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania saw environmentalist and activist Norm Sanders elected to the Tasmanian Parliament as an Australian Democrat. Brown, then director of the Wilderness Society, contested the election as an independent, but failed to win a seat.
In 1982 Norm Sanders resigned from Parliament, and Brown was elected to replace him on a countback
During her 1984 visit to Australia, West German Greens parliamentarian Petra Kelly urged that the various Greens groups in Australia develop a national identity. Partly as a result of this, fifty Greens activists gathered in Tasmania in December to organise a national conference.
The Green movement gained their first federal parliamentary representative when Senator Josephine Vallentine of Western Australia, who had been elected in 1984 for the Nuclear Disarmament Party and later sat as an independent, was part of the formation of and joined Greens (WA), a party formed within the state boundaries of Western Australia, and not affiliated to the Australian Greens at that time.
In 1992, representatives from around the nation gathered in North Sydney and agreed to form the Australian Greens, although the state Greens parties, particularly in Western Australia, retained their separate identities for a period. Brown resigned from the Tasmanian Parliament in 1993, and in 1996 he was elected as a Senator for Tasmania, the first elected as an Australian Greens candidate.
Initially the most successful Greens group during this period was Greens (WA), at that time still a separate organisation from the Australian Greens. Vallentine was succeeded by Christabel Chamarette in 1992, and she was joined by Dee Margetts in 1993. But Chamarette was defeated in 1996 and Margetts also lost her seat in the 1998 federal election, leaving Brown as the sole Australian Greens Senator.
2001 Election In the 2001 federal election (the "Tampa election"), Brown was re-elected as a Senator for Tasmania, and the election of a second Greens Senator, Kerry Nettle of New South Wales. Brown took a strong stand against the government's policy on asylum seekers, leading to a rise in support for the Greens from disaffected Labor voters. This played an important role in defining the Greens as more than just a single-issue environmental party. In 2002 the Greens won a House of Representatives seat for the first time when Michael Organ won the Cunningham by-election.
Dispute with the Herald SunOn 31 August 2004, the Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun published a page three story by journalist Gerard McManus entitled "Greens back illegal drugs" in the lead up to the 2004 Australian election. In response to the article Brown lodged a complaint with the Australian Press Council. After the election, the Press Council upheld Brown's complaint:
"The Council views this article as irresponsible journalism... Given the sweeping and unqualified nature of the claims, the newspaper ought to have checked the veracity and currency of the policy claims. Prior to the publication of the article, the reporter rang Sen. Brown's office asking for the Greens' policies. He was informed 'that all current policies were available on the website'. There is evidence that, as well as any use made of the Party's website in writing the article, the reporter preferred other statements of Greens' policies, some erroneous and hostile to the Greens."
An appeal by the Herald Sun was dismissed and it was ordered to publish the Press Council’s adjudication. Brown said:
"This was no accident or mistake. The aim was to attack the Greens, not through the editorial column, but through the news pages. The outcome of the false concoction of the Greens policies was to lose our party tens of thousands of votes and, in my calculation, seats in parliament".
In April 2006, McManus was invited to speak at a Family First Party dinner.
On 13 April 2007, the Herald Sun published a story titled "Greens tone down election policies" on changes to Greens policies for the 2007 federal election.
Since 2004The Australian Greens primary vote has generally continued to grow with their primary vote increasing by 4.1% in the 2006 election in South Australia, 1.2% in the 2006 election in Queensland, and 0.7% in the 2007 election in New South Wales.
The results for the 2006 election in Victoria, were mixed, with an improved vote for the Greens in the lower house, but a fall in their upper house vote.
Contrary to the upward trend, was a swing of 1.5% away from the Greens in the 2006 election in Tasmania.
Conservative groups and partiesRelations between the Greens and conservative parties are almost uniformly poor. During the 2004 federal election the Australian Greens were branded as "environmental extremists" and even "fascists" by members of the Liberal-National Coalition Government. Christian Democratic leader Fred Nile and John Anderson (former leader of the National Party of Australia) described the Greens as 'watermelons', being "green on the outside and red on the inside". John Howard, former Australian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, stated that "The Greens are not just about the environment. They have a whole lot of other very, very kooky policies in relation to things like drugs and all of that sort of stuff".
Former Federal Conservation Minister Eric Abetz criticised Australian Greens Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle for spending most of their time on non-environmental issues
.
In a similar vein to the Family First television advertisements in 2004, Country Alliance also ran television advertisements in the lead up to the 2006 Victorian state election claiming that the Greens policies were "extreme".
DemocratsThe Australian Greens have some political common ground with the Australian Democrats, particularly on environmental and social issues. For example the Atmosphere Protection Bill was introduced by Mike Elliott which was the first climate change legislation to be introduced in Australia, and probably the world, was introduced by the Australian Democrats into South Australia. However, the Democrats and Greens often differ on economic issues (such as the goods and services tax which was enacted by the Liberal Government with partial Democrat support), and on the Democrats' willingness to co-operate with the government of the day. Suggestions of a merger between the two parties have been made on several occasions since the early 1990s, but none have received significant joint support.
The Democrats have long seen and positioned themselves as charting a course between the two major parties in Australian politics, and thus 'keeping the bastards honest', whereas the Greens' long term objective is to elect members into the lower house and ultimately form government rather than being a balance between the two larger parties. This difference, and the fact that the Greens and Democrats appear to compete for votes from people looking for an alternative to the Liberal and Labor parties, has led to perceived rivalry between the two parties.
In this context, the decline of the Democrats' vote is regarded by some as a contributing factor to the increased vote (both primary and preferred) for the Greens. However, the decline in Democrat's vote has been greater than increases in Greens votes, which indicates that much of the Democrats' former vote has gone to the major parties. The party's original support base was disaffected middle-class Liberal voters from the latter's socially liberal wing.
State and territory politicsThe various Australian states and territories have different electoral systems, some of which allow the Greens to gain representation. In New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, the Greens hold seats in the Legislative Councils (upper houses), which are elected by proportional representation. The Greens also have a seat in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. In Queensland and the Northern Territory, the single-member electoral system has not allowed the Greens to gain representation.
The Greens' most important area of state political activity has been in Tasmania, which is the only state where the lower house of the state parliament is elected by proportional representation. In Tasmania, the Greens have been represented in the House of Assembly from 1983, initially as Green Independents, and from the early 1990s as an established party. At the 1989 state election, the Liberal Party won 17 seats to Labor's 13 and the Greens' 5. The Greens agreed to support a minority Labor government in exchange for various policy commitments. In 1992 the agreement broke down over the issue of employment in the forestry industry, and the premier, Michael Field, called an early state election which the Liberals won. Later, Labor and the Liberals combined to reduce the size of the Assembly from 35 to 25, thus raising the quota for election. At the 1998 election the Greens won only one seat, despite their vote only falling slightly, mainly due to the new electoral system. They recovered in the 2002 election when they won four seats. All four seats were retained in the 2006 election.
ParliamentariansFederal Current
Former
Senators Vallentine, Chamarette and Margetts were all elected as Greens (WA) senators and served their terms before the Greens WA affiliated to the Australian Greens, meaning that they were not considered to be Australian Greens senators at the time.
State
Vic
- Nick McKim, 2002-Present
- Kim Booth, 2002-Present
- Tim Morris, 2002-Present
- Bob Brown, 1983-93
- Gerry Bates, 1986-95
- Lance Armstrong, 1989-96
- Christine Milne, 1989-98
- Di Hollister, 1989-98
- Peg Putt, 1993-2008
- Mike Foley, 1995-98
Other notable members
See also
External linksOfficial
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