Early Years
The Australian Greens - Victoria was formed in 1992, as a response to the formation of the Australian Greens which united pre-existing Green parties in Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT. The first election the Greens contested in Victoria was the 1993 federal election. The party contested the seat of La Trobe.
They first made an impact in 1994 with two outstanding by-election results: 21% in Coburg and 28% in Kooyong. They were among the best results ever achieved by a small party in Australian history.
With greatly increased membership after these successes, the Party tackled the 1996 federal election. Despite Peter Singer as a lead Senate candidate, they achieved only 2.9% of the vote statewide, largely because of a strong Democrats campaign led by Cheryl Kernot. Within a month of the federal election, the Greens took on both many local elections and a general state election.
The Greens had high hopes for their lead Senate candidate at the 1998 federal election. Charmaine Clarke would have been the first Aboriginal woman elected to any parliament in Australia, as well as the first out lesbian elected to Canberra. However, their vote slipped back to 2.5% in an election dominated by One Nation and GST.
Read more about this topic: Australian Greens Victoria
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