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Queensland Greens

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Queensland Greens
ConvenorGemmia Burden[1]
Founded22 September 1991; 33 years ago (1991-09-22)
HeadquartersMilton, Brisbane, South East Queensland
Youth wingQueensland Young Greens
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left[4] to left-wing[5]
National affiliationAustralian Greens
Colours  Green
House of Representatives
3 / 30
(Queensland seats)
Senate
2 / 12
(Queensland seats)
Legislative Assembly
1 / 93
Brisbane City Council
2 / 26
Local government
2 / 562
Website
greens.org.au/qld

The Queensland Greens is a Green party in Queensland, Australia, and a state member of the Australian Greens. The party is currently represented in all three levels of government, by Larissa Waters and Penny Allman-Payne in the federal Senate; Stephen Bates, Max Chandler-Mather, and Elizabeth Watson-Brown in the House of Representatives; Michael Berkman in the state Legislative Assembly; and Trina Massey and Seal Chong Wah in Brisbane City Council.

History

[edit]

The Greens were first founded in Queensland as the Brisbane Green Party in 1984, contesting four wards and for mayor in the 1985 Brisbane City Council elections. Following the collapse of the Brisbane Greens in 1986, the party began to re-form as the Queensland Greens under a national initiative, today's Australian Greens.[6] The Queensland Greens were officially founded as a political party on 22 September 1991 as part of the national Greens alliance.[7]

Federal Parliament

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Queensland Greens co-founder Drew Hutton ran in the 1993, 1998 and 2004 federal elections as the party's lead Senate candidate.[8] In 2004 the party received 5.4 per cent of the Senate vote, with Hutton narrowly losing the race for the final two Senate seats to Coalition candidates Barnaby Joyce and Russell Trood.[9] This gave the Howard government a Senate majority and control of both parliamentary houses.

The party's Senate vote continued to grow in subsequent elections, reaching a high-water mark of 12.76 per cent at the 2010 federal election, which resulted in Larissa Waters becoming the first Greens representative elected to office in Queensland. Waters was re-elected to a three-year term in the 2016 election, but resigned in 2017 after discovering she held dual Canadian citizenship. The High Court ruled that her election was therefore invalid, and appointed Andrew Bartlett, convenor of the Queensland Greens and former leader of the Australian Democrats, as her successor in the Senate.[10] A year later, Bartlett resigned his Senate seat to run for the lower house seat of Brisbane, allowing Waters to return as a Senator. While Waters was re-elected to the Senate in the 2019 election,[11] Bartlett was unsuccessful in Brisbane, despite gaining a 3 per cent swing towards him.[12]

The 2022 election was a major success for the Queensland Greens, as they went from having no federal lower house representatives to three, with Max Chandler-Mather winning in Griffith,[13] Elizabeth Watson-Brown in Ryan,[14] and Stephen Bates in Brisbane.[15] In addition, Waters was joined by a second Queensland Greens Senator, Penny Allman-Payne. This string of victories was dubbed a "Greenslide" by federal party leader Adam Bandt,[16] while some media commentators nicknamed the state "Greensland" in their coverage of the results.[17][18]

Queensland Parliament

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The Queensland Greens have received steadily increasing support in state elections, increasing their vote from 2.5 per cent at the 2001 election to 9 per cent in the 2020 election.[19]

The party gained its first state parliamentary representative in 2008 when the Member for Indooroopilly, Ronan Lee, defected to the Greens from the Labor Party. Lee ascribed his move to the Greens to his dissatisfaction with the Bligh government's environmental policies.[20] Responding to Lee's change of party, Labor's Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Andrew McNamara rejected his claims, calling the Bligh government "the greenest government that this state has ever had".[21] Australian Greens leader Bob Brown praised Lee's decision saying, "Ronan Lee's move will give the Queensland Parliament a strong and intelligent Greens advocate to lead debate on the best social and economic way forward in an age of environmental and economic crisis... Now there will be a responsible voice free to challenge those old Labor and National-Liberal policies which, for example threaten the death of the Great Barrier Reef and tens of thousands of jobs dependent on it within a generation".[22] However, Lee lost his seat to LNP candidate Scott Emerson at the 2009 election.[23]

In the 2017 state election, the Queensland Greens achieved their first ever state electoral victory. Following the abolition of the seats of Mt Coot-tha and Indooroopilly, environmental lawyer Michael Berkman narrowly won the newly-formed seat of Maiwar from the shadow treasurer Scott Emerson, a former cabinet member in the Newman government, who had defeated Ronan Lee in Indooroopilly eight years earlier.[24]

In the 2020 state election, the Greens gained an additional seat in parliament, bringing their total to two. While Berkman retained his seat of Maiwar, Amy MacMahon won the seat of South Brisbane from Labor's former deputy premier Jackie Trad. The Greens also had significant success in Cooper, with candidate Katinka Winston-Allom receiving 30 per cent of first preference votes, but losing to Labor's Jonty Bush after preferences were allocated.[25]

Local government

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Greens candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan (then known as Sri) was elected to represent The Gabba Ward in Brisbane City Council at the March 2016 local government elections. He achieved a primary vote of 31.72%, a positive swing of approximately 13.8%. Sriranganathan finished in second place behind LNP candidate Sean Jacobs, but was able to win on mostly Labor preferences.[26] Sriranganathan is the first Greens candidate to win a seat in local government anywhere in Queensland.[27]

At the 2020 Brisbane City Council election, the Greens were the only party to have a swing in their favour, at 3.3%. Jonathan Sriranganathan retained his ward with a 12.4% swing in primary vote and an overall two-party preferred vote of 65.5%. The Greens additionally entered the two-party preferred vote in 4 other wards where the party came close to unseating the Liberal candidates, including Central (45.2%), Paddington (49.6%), Pullenvale (40.6%) and Walter Taylor (47.7%). 21 out of the 26 wards registered swings towards the Greens.[28]

In 2024, former Labor party state MP Rob Pyne was elected to Division 5 in the Cairns Regional Council as an independent councillor. He later resigned from Socialist Alliance and joined the Queensland Greens.

Leaders

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The Queensland Greens do not currently have a parliamentary leader. The Queensland Greens constitution provides the method for an election of the leadership by a ballot of all party members when the party has three or more members elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly.[29]

Queensland Young Greens

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Queensland Young Greens logo

The Queensland Young Greens are the youth wing of the Queensland Greens and is open to all members under the age of 31 across the state of Queensland.[30] The Young Greens' main focus is on election campaigning, skills training, policy development, and hosting a number of different social events.[31] The youth wing maintains a grassroots approach in organising members.[32] The youth wing also shares the same policies as the Queensland Greens based around the four guiding principles of non-violence, social justice, grass-roots democracy and ecological sustainability.[33][34]

Electoral history

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Queensland

[edit]
Election Legislative Assembly of Queensland
Votes % +/– Seats +/–
1995 51,748 2.87% -
0 / 89
 Steady
1998 45,709 2.36% Decrease 0.51%
0 / 89
 Steady
2001 51,630 2.51% Increase 0.15%
0 / 89
 Steady
2004 145,522 6.76% Increase 4.25%
0 / 89
 Steady
2006 175,798 7.99% Increase 1.23%
0 / 89
 Steady
2009 198,475 8.37% Increase 0.38%
0 / 89
 Steady
2012 184,147 7.53% Decrease 0.84%
0 / 89
 Steady
2015 221,157 8.43% Increase 0.90%
0 / 89
 Steady
2017 270,263 10.00% Increase 1.57%
1 / 93
 Increase 1
2020 271,514 9.47% Decrease 0.53%
2 / 93
 Increase 1
2024 307,178 9.89% Increase 0.42%
1 / 93
 Decrease 1

Federal

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Election Queensland House seats Queensland Senate seats
Votes % Seats +/– Votes % Seats won Total seats +/–
1993 - -
0 / 25
 59,303 3.2
0 / 6
0 / 12
1996 - -
0 / 26
 Steady 46,285 2.4
0 / 6
0 / 12
 Steady
1998 47,440 2.4
0 / 28
 Steady 42,264 2.1
0 / 6
0 / 12
 Steady
2001 73,465 3.49
0 / 28
 Steady 71,102 3.31
0 / 6
0 / 12
 Steady
2004 111,314 5.06
0 / 28
 Steady 122,393 5.40
0 / 6
0 / 12
 Steady
2007 133,938 5.63
0 / 29
 Steady 177,063 7.32
0 / 6
0 / 12
 Steady
2010 260,471 10.92
0 / 30
 Steady 312,804 12.76
1 / 6
1 / 12
 Increase 1
2013 156,880 6.22
0 / 30
 Steady 158,150 6.04
0 / 6
1 / 12
 Steady
2016 235,887 8.83
0 / 30
 Steady 188,323 6.92
1 / 12
1 / 12
 Steady
2019 292,061 10.32
0 / 30
 Steady 288,320 9.94
1 / 6
1 / 12
 Steady
2022 382,900 12.94
3 / 30
 Increase 3 373,460 12.39
1 / 6
2 / 12
 Increase 1

Parliamentarians

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Federal Parliament

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House of Representatives

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Current
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Senate

[edit]
Current
[edit]
Former
[edit]

State Parliament

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Current

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Former

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  1. ^ Lee sat from 2001 to 2008 as a Labor Party MP before defecting to the Greens.

Councillors

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Brisbane City Council

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Current

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Former

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ "QLD Office Bearers and Party Contacts". Queensland Greens. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  2. ^ Smee, Ben (23 May 2022). "How knocking on 90,000 doors delivered Queensland Labor heartland to the Greens". Guardian Australia. Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022.
  3. ^
  4. ^ Williams, Paul D. (20 November 2006). "The Greening of the Queensland electorate?". Australian Journal of Political Science. 41 (3). Routledge: 325–337. doi:10.1080/10361140600848945.
  5. ^
  6. ^ Eddy, Elizabeth. "The green movement in Southeast Queensland: The environment, institutional failure, and social conflict, p.235". espace.library.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Queensland Greens — About Us". Greens.org.au. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  8. ^ Ludlow, Mark (12 October 2004). "Senate favourite heads for high ground". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  9. ^ "2004 Federal Election. Senate - QLD Results". ABC News (Australia). Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  10. ^ Belot, Henry (18 July 2017). "Larissa Waters, deputy Greens leader, quits in latest citizenship bungle". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Senators elected".
  12. ^ [1], Brisbane, QLD - Tally Room, Australian Electoral Commission.
  13. ^ "Grassroots Greens win the battle of Brisbane". Australian Financial Review. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  14. ^ "'Planet Greensland': Greens win in Ryan shakes up Queensland's electoral map". [[ABC News {Australia)]]. 21 May 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  15. ^ "'It's very surreal': Greens win third seat in Brisbane". ABC News (Australia). 28 May 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  16. ^ "GREENSLIDE SET TO GROW IN COMING DAYS GREENS TO HOLD SENATE BALANCE OF POWER ALBANESE WILL NEED GREENS AND CROSSBENCH". Greens.org.au. 22 May 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  17. ^ Wilson, Cam (21 May 2022). "Greensland: Greens shock the nation with historic showing in south-east Queensland". Crikey. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  18. ^ Atfield, Cameron (27 May 2022). "'Greensland' shocked the nation, but it was a long time coming". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  19. ^ "Total Formal First Preference Vote by Party". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  20. ^ Marszalek, Jessica (7 October 2008). "Greens MP says he's forcing govt change". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Green Lee's defection 'self-serving'". ABC News. 6 October 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  22. ^ "Ronan Lee is Queensland's first Greens MP". greensmps.org.au. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  23. ^ "2009 State General Election - Indooroopilly - District Summary". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  24. ^ "Greens claim first ever seat win at a Queensland election citing nationwide swing". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  25. ^ McKenna, Kate; Dasey, Jason (2 November 2020). "Queensland election results reveal the winners and losers in 2020". ABC News. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  26. ^ "The Gabba - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". abc.net.au. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  27. ^ "Greens win first Queensland local government seat". abc.net.au. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  28. ^ "Brisbane City Council 2020 Results - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  29. ^ "Register of political parties". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Electoral Commission of Queensland. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  30. ^ "Queensland Greens". Qld.greens.org.au. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  31. ^ "Young Greens Australia". Greens.org.au. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  32. ^ "Just Rights QLD". Justrightqld.org. Archived from the original on 22 May 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  33. ^ "Queensland Greens Policies". Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  34. ^ "Australian Politics". Australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
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