The , commonly known as "The Greens," is the national
Greens Party in
Australia . The party has its origins in the
Franklin River dams campaign in
Tasmania in the 1980s, but its political platform now extends beyond the concerns of
Ecology to embrace issues of the peace movement, grassroots democracy and social justice.
The Australian Greens identify themselves as a "
New Politics " party. Former
Tasmanian Greens member of the
House Of Assembly Lance Armstrong summed this position up as, "...neither left nor right but forward." Members of other Australian political parties invariably cast Greens policies as "radical". A strong perception exists that the Greens are
Left Wing .
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:
Growing voter support for the Greens has led to increased attention from the major parties and the media. Despite the party's left-wing reputation, high primary votes for the Greens have been recorded in seats that are traditionally conservative such as
Kooyong and
Bennelong , as well as progressive ones such as
Melbourne and
Sydney .
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 as the treatment of asylum seekers, for example, they have shaken off their reputation as a
Single Issue Party concerned solely with ecology.
]]
The Australian Greens, like all Australian political parties, are
Federally organised with separately established 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 (AGCOG) 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 are divided between the four Greens Senators:
- Parliamentary Party Leader of the Greens
- Defence and Treasury
- Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Foreign affairs and communications
- Party Whip
- Industrial relations
- Welfare and Indigenous affairs
- Immigration
- Health and Education
- Climate change and energy
- Transport and Regional Services
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 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.
The Green movement in 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 Greens 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, joined the party.
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 some time. 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.
The most successful Greens group during this period were the Western Australian party, 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 Green Senator.
The
2001 Federal Election (the "
Tampa election") saw the re-election of Brown 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.
In the
2004 Federal Election , the Greens' primary vote rose by 2.3%, to 7.2%. This won them two additional Senate seats (taking the total to four), but the success of the Howard Government in winning a majority in the Senate meant that the Greens' influence on legislation decreased.
Michael Organ was defeated by Labor in Cunningham.
Additionally, the 2004 election saw an intense media campaign from the Christian-oriented conservative
Family First Party , including a television advertisement labelling the Greens the "Extreme Greens". Competitive preferencing strategies prompted by the nature of Senate balloting (see
Australian Electoral System ) saw the Australian Labor Party and the Democrats rank Family First higher than the Greens on their Senate tickets, resulting in the Greens losing preferences they would normally have received from the two parties. Consequently, although outpolling Family First by a ratio of more than four to one first-preference votes, Victorian Family First candidate
Steve Fielding was elected on preferences over the Australian Greens'
David Risstrom , an unintended consequence of these strategies. In Tasmania,
Christine Milne only narrowly gained her Senate seat before a Family First candidate, despite nearly obtaining the full required quota of primary votes. It was only the high incidence of "below the line" voting in Tasmania that negated the effect of the preference swap deal between Labor and Family First.
The Australian Greens fielded
Candidates in nearly every House of Representatives seat in Australia, and for all State and Territory Senate positions.
In August
2004 , the
Melbourne Newspaper the ''
Herald Sun '' published a cover story entitled “Greens back illegal drugs." The article received extensive media attention and was disseminated widely by groups opposed to the Australian Greens. In response to the article Brown made a complaint to the
Australian Press Council , which ruled that the article made a number of false claims, and stated that “The Council views this article as irresponsible journalism.”
{Link without Title} 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".
The Greens do not have formal links to
Environmental Organisations commonly labelled by the media as "green groups" such as the
Australian Conservation Foundation ,
The Wilderness Society and
Greenpeace , all of whom claim to be non-political. However, a significant number of Greens members are also members of one or more of these organisations. During elections, there is sometimes competition between The Greens and one or more of these groups on who is negotiating "greens preferences" with either Labor or the Liberals. In practice, The Greens tend to concentrate on preference negotiations with Labor in an attempt to get Greens Senators elected, and to get policy outcomes on issues like Tasmanian forests. The outcome is that more Greens preferences go to Labor than the Liberals , but it is generally believed that this has not affected federal election outcomes in 2001 and 2004.
Many supporters of the Labor Party and trade unions see the Greens' policies as destructive of employment in industries like mining and forestry. Left-wing trade unionists and some members of Labor's
Socialist Left faction often identify more readily with the Greens, feeling sold out by Labor and sympathising with the Greens' social policies. Some unionists, such as
NTEU members, have even run for parliament under the Greens ticket. One Labor MP,
Kris Hanna , the member for
Mitchell in
South Australia , defected to the Australian Greens in 2003. Hanna left the Greens in February 2006 and ran again for Mitchell as an independent in the
South Australian State Election held on
18 March ,
2006 {Link without Title} .
However, these Green sympathies are not universal within Labor's left; the similarities between the two groups often see them competing for the same voters, making the Greens' growing popularity a threat to Labor
In 2002, prominent Socialist Left member in Victoria was thought to be under serious threat by the Greens[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/04/1094234079670.html?from=storylhs&oneclick=true ; during that campaign, Tanner described Greens policies as "mad". In the end, Tanner held the seat comfortably on primary votes (51.78%, +4.35 swing), and was not even forced to preferences[http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-12246-228.htm].
Relations 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
Fascist s 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 , 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".
The Australian Greens have much political common ground with the
Australian Democrats , particularly on environmental and social issues, a fact that has led to regular suggestions of a merger between the two parties. 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 Democrat support), and on the Democrats' willingness to co-operate with the government of the day.
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 are less willing to compromise on issues of policy. This difference, and the fact that the Greens and Democrats compete for votes from people looking for an alternative to the Liberal and Labor parties, has led to rivalry between the two parties.
In this context, the decline of the Democrat's 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 Democrat's former vote has gone to the major parties.
The various
Australian States And Territories have different
Electoral Systems , some of which allow the Greens to gain representation. In New South Wales and Western Australia the Greens hold seats in the Legislative Councils (upper houses), which are elected by
Proportional Representation . The Greens gained their first upper house seat in South Australia with the election of Mark Parnell at the
2006 State Election . The Greens also have seats in the
Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly . In Queensland, Victoria and the
Northern Territory , the single-member electoral system has not allowed the Greens to gain representation. From
2006 , however, the
Victorian Legislative Council will be elected proportionately, and the Greens are expected to win seats for the first time.
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 since 1986. 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 despite a 1.5% fall in votes and considerable early media speculation that two seats would be lost.
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.
