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 established 'Green' party in the world), which first ran candidates in the 1972 election. Many people involved in that group went on to form the
Tasmanian Greens. Tasmanian Greens senator
Bob Brown and sitting
WA Greens senator
Dee Margetts formed the first Australian Greens senators following the
1996 federal election. The party now has four senators in the 76-member
Australian Senate.
The Australian Greens is a national confederation of eight state and territory Greens parties.
[1] The party's parliamentary leader is
Bob Brown and will be recontesting his seat along with
Kerry Nettle at the
2007 election.
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.
[2] 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:
'
Bob Brown, Senator for
Tasmania since 1996' - Parliamentary Party Leader of the Greens
★ Defence and Treasury
★ Prime Minister and Cabinet
★ Foreign Affairs and Communications
'
Rachel Siewert, Senator for
Western Australia since 2004' - Party Whip
★ Industrial Relations
★ Welfare and Indigenous Affairs
'
Kerry Nettle, Senator for
New South Wales since 2001'
★ Immigration
★ Health and Education
'
Christine Milne, Senator for
Tasmania since 2004'
★ 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.
[3]
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.
[4]
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:
★
social justice,
★
sustainability,
★
grassroots democracy and
★ peace and
non-violence
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
★ 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
ALP proposal to remove the GST from gas and electricity bills)
★ regulated use of ''
Cannabis'' for medical purposes
[5]
★ opposition to National Competition Policy
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 conservative such as
Kooyong,
Curtin,
Wentworth,
Higgins and
Bennelong, as well as progressive ones such as
Melbourne,
Grayndler,
Adelaide,
Melbourne Ports and
Sydney. 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). By contrast
Michael Organ won the industrial heartland lower house seat of
Cunningham in New South Wales in a by-election run off against Labor (although the seat reverted to Labor in the
2004 Federal election).
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[6].
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
[7].
In
1982 Norm Sanders resigned from Parliament, and Brown was elected to replace him on a countback
[8]
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
[9].
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
[10].
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
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.
2004 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 socially 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
[11]. 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
[12].
The Australian Greens fielded
candidates in every House of Representatives seat in Australia, and for all State and Territory Senate positions.
Dispute with the ''Herald Sun''
On August 31
2004, the
Melbourne Newspaper the ''
Herald Sun'' published a page three story by journalist Gerard McManus entitled "Greens back illegal drugs".
In response to the article Brown made a complaint to the
Australian Press Council. 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.
[13]
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".
[14]
In April 2006, McManus was invited to speak at a Family First Party dinner. His reported remarks indicated his broad support for that party's objectives.
[1]
On 13 April 2007, the Herald Sun published a story titled ''"Greens tone down election policies"''
[2] on changes to Greens policies for the
2007 federal election.
Since 2004
The 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, 0.1% in the 2006 election in Victoria and 0.7% in the
2007 election in New South Wales.
Contrary to this trend was a swing of 1.5% away from the Greens in the
2006 election in Tasmania[15].
Interactions with other political groups
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 negotiating "greens preferences" with other parties. The Greens preference negotiation objectives are to attempt to get Greens Senators elected, and to get policy outcomes on issues like Tasmanian forests, though these objectives may be to a greater or lesser extent in conflict. The outcome is that more Greens preferences go to Labor than the Liberals
[16], but it is claimed that this did not affect federal election outcomes in 2001 and 2004.
Labor Party and unions
Many supporters of the Labor Party and trade unions see the Greens' policies as destructive of employment in industries like mining and forestry. The forestry industry has been targeted by radical environmentalists who have chained themselves to machinery and who have been active supporters of the Greens. 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 sympathizing with the Greens' social policies. Some unionists, such as
NTEU members and AMWU member such as Bill weller of South Australia [Reynell in 2006 Kingston in 2007] have even run for parliament both federally and State 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[3].
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
[4]. In 2002, prominent Socialist Left member
Lindsay Tanner wrote "The emergence of the Greens... is already hurting the ALP's ability to attract new members amongst young people."
[5]. During the 2004 campaign Tanner's own seat of
Melbourne in
Victoria was thought to be under serious threat by the Greens
[6]; during that campaign, Tanner described Greens policies as "mad"
[17]. In the end, Tanner held the seat comfortably on primary votes (51.78%, +4.35 swing), and was not even forced to preferences
[7].
The 2006 Victorian state election saw increased bitterness between Labor and the Greens. Labor direct-mailed a letter from
Peter Garrett to voters in its threatened inner-Melbourne seats claiming that the Greens were preferencing the Liberal Party, in spite of Greens preferences being either for Labor or being open. The effectiveness of this tactic was confirmed when on 22 March 2007, The Age's Paul Austin wrote ''"Labor's campaign manager, state secretary Stephen Newnham, reckons he knows why the Greens' support fell away in the last days of the campaign. He has told cabinet and caucus members it was because of Labor's loud assertions that the Greens had done a secret preferences deal with the Liberals." ''
In April 2007, The Age reported
[18] that the Victorian Greens had published a poem titled ''The Battle of Jeff's Shed'' describing ALP officials and volunteers who scrutinised vote counting after the November state election as "the Labor Panzers and their hardened SS troops". The poem described the final vote count at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, which finished about 4am on December 14 and resulted in the election of three Greens MLCs. Labor had placed the
DLP higher on their upper house preference ticket than the Greens.
The article states Federal Labor MP
Michael Danby has written to the Greens co-convenor Sean Hardy on behalf of the state ALP demanding a written apology. Mr Danby told the paper that the newsletter "was trying to convince Greens that Labor was evil".
Conservative groups and parties
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
fascists by members of the Liberal-National Coalition Government.
[19] Christian Democratic leader
Fred Nile[20] and
John Anderson[21] (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".
[22]
Federal Conservation Minister
Eric Abetz has criticised Australian Greens Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle for spending most of their time on non-environmental issues
[23]
.
In a similar vein to the
Family First television advertisements in 2004,
Country Alliance also ran television advertisements
[24]in the lead up to the 2006 Victorian state election claiming that the Greens policies were "extreme".
Green-Democrat rivalry
The Australian Greens have some political common ground with the
Australian Democrats, particularly on environmental 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 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 are less willing to compromise on issues of policy. Rather than being a balance between the two larger parties, the long term objective is to elect members into the lower house and indeed, one day, to form government. 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 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 Democrats' former vote has gone to the major parties. The party's original support base was disaffected middle-class traditional Liberal voters from the centre-right Liberal Party's socially liberal wing.
State and territory politics
The 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 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.
Federal parliamentarians
★ Senator
Jo Vallentine, 'Greens WA' (1990-1992) (originally elected in
1984 as
Nuclear Disarmament Party)
★ Senator
Christabel Chamarette, 'Greens WA' (1992-1996)
★ Senator
Dee Margetts, 'Greens WA' (1993-1999) (defeated in 1998 election)
★ Senator
Bob Brown (1996-Present)
★ Senator
Kerry Nettle (2002-Present) (elected in 2001 election)
★
Michael Organ MHR (2002-2004)
★ Senator
Christine Milne (2005-Present) (elected in 2004 election)
★ Senator
Rachel Siewert (2005-Present) (elected in 2004 election)
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.
Other notable members
★
Peter Singer
★
Andrew Wilkie
★
Kerrie Tucker
★
Drew Hutton
See also
★
List of Australian Greens parliamentarians by length of term
'State Greens parties'
★
ACT Greens
★
Greens New South Wales
★
Northern Territory Greens
★
Queensland Greens
★
Greens South Australia
★
Tasmanian Greens
★
Australian Greens Victoria
★
Greens Western Australia
References
1. The Australia Greens: State sites
2. Turnbull, N; Vromen, A. "Election 2004: Where do the Greens fit in Election 2004?", ''Australian Review of Public Affairs'', 17 September 2004.
3. "Organisational Framework of the Australian Greens", ''Sandgate Branch of the Queensland Greens''.
4. "Greens firm up party structure", ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation'', 29 November 2005.
5. Welcome to the Australian Greens Online - Policies: Drugs, Substance Use and Addiction
6.
Senator Bob Brown - Australian Greens www.bobbrown.org.au (PDF file)
7. Results in Denison for the election held on 15 May 1982, Tasmanian Parliamentary Library
8. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA
9. About us - The Greens, www.greens.org.au
10. Bob Brown, The Parliament of Tasmania since 1856
11. "How party preferences picked Family First", ''The Age'', 11 October 2004.
12. "Above or below the line? Managing preference votes", ''On Line Opinion'', 20 April 2005
13. Australian Press Council Adjudication No. 1270, February 2005
14. "Herald Sun Found Guilty of Irresponsible Journalism and Seriously Misleading Readers", Press Releases, ''Victorian Greens'', 4 March 2005. (archived copy of page)
15. "ABC Coverage of Australian Elections", ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation'', 31 March 2007
16. "Minor Party Preferences", Australia Votes, Federal Election 2004, ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation'', 9 October 2004.
17. "Commonwealth Election 2004", ''Parliamentary Library of Australia'', , Research Brief no. 13, 14 March 2005
18. "ALP rages at Greens Nazi joke", ''The Age'', 2 April 2007
19. Jennett, Greg. "PM revokes backbencher's comments", Programme Transcript, ''Lateline'', 29 October 2003.
20. "Fred Nile to stand for the Senate – a referendum on marriage", Media Release, ''Christian Democratic Party'', 11 May 2004.
21. "Anderson sees red over 'watermelon' Greens", ''The Age'', 7 September 2004.
22. "Bob Brown unfazed by conservative attacks", ''The World Today'', transcript, ABC radio, Tuesday, 5 October , 2004.
23. Cut & paste: Who says the Green Left represents the environment?, ''The Australian'', 5 July 2006
24. "Television advertisement on Greens policies", ''Country Alliance'', November 2006
External links
Official
★
Australian Greens official website
★
★
ACT Greens
★
★
NSW Greens
★
★
South Australian Greens
★
★
Tasmanian Greens
★
★
NT Greens
★
★
Victorian Greens
★
★
West Australian Greens
★
★
Queensland Greens
★
Senator Bob Brown's site
★
Senator Kerry Nettle's site
★
Senator Christine Milne's site
★
Senator Rachel Siewert's site
Other
★
Liberal Party comment on Green's policies: 2004 Election campaign interview with John Howard (see pp5 &6)
★
Democrats' views of the Greens: National Press Club speech by Senator Bartlett 28 September 2004
★
Press Council adjudication of Bob Brown's complaint against the Herald Sun
★
Greens media release about the complaint
★
Greens article about the failed appeal by the Herald Sun
★
Margo Kingston's Webdiary entry "Who’s afraid of The Greens?"
★
Green Bloggers
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