Australian Greens

The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party. The party was formed in 1992 and is today a confederation of eight state and territory parties. Other than environmentalism the party cites four core values: ecological sustainability, social justice, grassroots democracy and the peace and non-violence.

Party constituencies can be traced to various origins - notably the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group (UTG), one of the first green parties in the world, but also the nuclear disarmament movement in Western Australia and sections of the industrial left in New South Wales. The UTG first ran candidates in the 1972 Tasmanian state election. Co-ordination between environmentalist groups occurred in the 1980s with various protests including one of the most significant environmental campaigns in Australian history against the proposed damming of the Franklin River and the subsequent flooding of Lake Pedder. Key people involved in these campaigns included the party's former leader Bob Brown and current leader Christine Milne who went on to contest and win seats in the Tasmanian Parliament and eventually form the Tasmanian Greens.

The Greens (WA) won the first Green Senate spot when anti-nuclear campaigner Jo Vallentine in 1990. Bob Brown entered the Senate in 1996 and Greens Senators have remained in the upper house ever since. The Party briefly held a House of Representatives seat following a 2002 by-election, but did not win a seat in the lower house at a General Election until 2010. The number of elected representatives in the Federal Parliament has grown, currently the Greens party has nine senators and one member in the lower house of the Parliament of Australia, 24 elected representatives in state and territory parliaments, more than 100 local councillors and according to Bob Brown close to 10,000 party members.

At the 2010 federal election the Greens received a four percent swing to finish with 13 percent of the vote (more than 1.6 million votes) in the Senate, a first for any Australian minor party. The Senate vote throughout the states was between 10 and 20 percent. The Greens won a seat in each of the six states at the election, again a first for any Australian minor party, which brought the party to a total of nine senators from July 2011 and gave the Greens the sole balance of power in the Senate. The Greens also won their first House of Representatives seat at a general election, the seat of Melbourne with candidate Adam Bandt. He is one of several crossbenchers providing confidence and supply to the Gillard Labor minority government. The Greens also support a minority Labor government in the A.C.T. Legislative Assembly and govern in formal Coalition with Labor in Tasmania.