| The Australian Greens SA | |
|---|---|
| Convenor | Craig Wilkins |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | PO BOX 10483 (239 Wright St) ADELAIDE BC SA 5000 |
| Ideology | Green politics, Social progressivism |
| International affiliation | Global Greens Asia-Pacific Green Network |
| Website | |
| sa.greens.org.au | |
| Politics of Australia Political parties Elections |
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Greens South Australia is a Green Party located in South Australia, a member of the federation of the Australian Greens party.
The party has four members currently elected to parliament, Mark Parnell and Tammy Franks in the South Australian Legislative Council and Sarah Hanson-Young and Penny Wright in the Australian Senate.
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Prior to 1995, a very small local Green party not connected to the emerging Australian Greens contested a number of State and Federal elections. This party was more or less non-functioning by the time Mark Parnell called the first meetings to establish a new Green Party in 1995. It took a number of attempts to get the new party off the ground, however a visit to Adelaide by Bob Brown in late 1995 provided the necessary impetus to register the new party.
The Australian Greens (SA) first ran in the 1996 federal election and the 1997 state election. In both elections they received around two percent of the statewide upper house vote.
Since that time, the SA Greens have steadily built up a support base at state and federal elections, partly due to the demise of the Democrats. The SA Greens now have two MLCs and two Senators, with state and federal Newspoll showing the Green vote consistently above 10 percent.
Kris Hanna, the member for Mitchell, was elected as an ALP member in 1997, but changed to The Greens in 2003. Hanna left the party in February 2006, citing constituents' wishes for him not to be bound to any party.[1]
At the 2006 state election, Environmental lawyer Mark Parnell became the first Green candidate to be elected in South Australia, securing a position in the Legislative Council on a primary vote of 4.3 percent. A vote of 6.5 percent was achieved in the House of Assembly.
The best lower house result was in the electoral district of Heysen, on a primary vote of 17.7 percent. Heysen was also the Democrats closest lower house win, coming as close as 1.9 percent at the 1997 state election on a primary vote of 29.2 percent, finishing at 48.1 percent after preferences.
Second on the 2006 state ticket, Sarah Hanson-Young was first on the ticket at the 2007 federal election, and became South Australia's first Greens Senator. She won the sixth and final South Australian Senate position with a primary vote of 6.5 percent. The strongest Green votes in the Senate came from Adelaide, Boothby and Mayo.[2]
Sparked by the resignation of Liberal Party MP Alexander Downer, a Mayo by-election was held in 2008. Labor chose not to contest the by-election. Greens candidate Lynton Vonow finished second, on a primary vote of 21.35 percent amongst a field of 11 candidates, a swing of 10.39 percent, and finished on a final vote of 46.97 percent after the distribution of preferences, falling narrowly short of taking the seat from the Liberals.
Prior to the 2010 state election, the Greens had gone from four to ten percent and above in state Newspolls.[3] In the lower house, the vote increased to 8.1 percent, with the upper house vote to 6.6 percent. The Greens were successful in electing upper house candidate Tammy Jennings (now Tammy Franks),[4] joining current Greens MLC Mark Parnell who will be up for election in 2014.
At the 2010 federal election, polls showed a similar substantial increase. The SA Greens received a swing of 6.8 percent in South Australia for the Australian Senate, to finish with 13.3 percent of the statewide vote. Penny Wright was subsequently elected, joining Hanson-Young and 7 other Green Senators from July 2011.[5][6]
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