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Queensland Greens

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Queensland Greens
ConvenorPenny Allman-Payne
Founded1991
Headquarters52 Douglas Street
MILTON QLD 4064
IdeologyGreen politics
International affiliationGlobal Greens
Asia-Pacific Green Network
Queensland Parliament
1 / 93
House of Representatives
0 / 30
(Queensland seats)
Senate
1 / 12
(Queensland seats)
City of Brisbane
1 / 26
Website
qld.greens.org.au

The Queensland Greens is a Green party in the Australian state of Queensland, and a member of the federation of the Australian Greens. The Greens were first founded in Queensland as the Brisbane Green Party in late 1984 about a month after the Sydney Greens. The Brisbane Green Party contested the March 1985 Brisbane City Council elections with four ward candidates and Drew Hutton as mayoral candidate. Hutton received 4 per cent across the city and the ward candidates received approximately 7-10 per cent.[1][2] Some time after the collapse of the Brisbane Greens, a Green Independent campaign stood a further range of candidates in the 1989 Queensland state election.[3]

The Queensland Greens were founded on 22 September 1991[4] and made its electoral debut in this form at the 1993 federal election. Larissa Waters was the party's environment and justice system spokesperson. She was the lead Senate candidate at the 2007 federal election, again at the 2010 federal election, in which she became the first Greens candidate elected in Queensland, and the 2019 federal election.

Electoral history

The party has been represented: locally by Councillor Jonathan Sri since 2016; at a state level by Ronan Lee MP from 2008–2009 and Michael Berkman MP since 2017; and federally by Senator Larissa Waters from 2011–2017 and her replacement Senator Andrew Bartlett since 2017.

Parliament of Australia

Federal election results

Qld Primary Vote (HOR)

The Queensland Greens' Senate vote at the 2007 federal election increased by 2.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent. It increased further to 12.77% at the 2010 federal election with Queensland Greens' Senator Larissa Waters elected to serve a six-year term, becoming the party's first elected representative. She 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.[12]

Candidates from the Queensland Greens have not been elected to the lower house of federal parliament.

Parliament of Queensland

State election results

The Queensland Greens enjoyed growing support in state elections, increasing their vote from 2.5 per cent at the 2001 election (when they contested 31 of the Parliament's 89 seats), to 6.76 per cent in 2004 (from 72 seats), to 7.99 per cent in 2006 (from 75 seats),[13] and to 8.37 per cent in 2009 (from 89 seats).[14] The 2012 election saw a fall of 0.85% in the primary vote to 7.52%.[15]

The Greens in Queensland have traditionally polled strongest in the usually Labor-held seats of Mount Coot-tha and South Brisbane, as well as the usually Liberal National-held seat of Noosa, polling over 20% of the primary vote in these seats at the 2015 state election.

Uniquely of Australian state parliaments, the Queensland Parliament is unicameral and has no allowance for proportional representation. The party achieved its first state parliamentary representative on 5 October 2008 when Indooroopilly MP Ronan Lee defected to the Greens from the Labor Party, due to his belief that the Bligh government was not paying enough attention to environmental issues.[16] He lost his seat at the 2009 state election to the Liberal Nationals.

In 2017 the Queensland Greens won their first state seat in Maiwar, formed from the abolished districts of Mt Coot-tha and Indooroopily, once held by Ronan Lee. Michael Berkman won the seat in a narrow contest against the Liberal Nationals's Scott Emerson, a former cabinet member in the Newman Ministry.[17]

The Queensland Greens also received strong swings in the nearby seats of South Brisbane and McConnel of 11.7% and 7.8% respectively. In McConnel however a swing to the Labor Party (from the LNP) meant that the swing was insufficient to overtake Labor whilst in South Brisbane Liberal National preferences heavily favoured Labor.

Local government areas

Greens candidate Jonathan 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%. Sri finished in second place behind LNP candidate Sean Jacobs, but was able to win on mostly Labor preferences.[18] Sri is the first Greens candidate to win a seat in local government anywhere in Queensland.[19]

At the 2020 Brisbane City council elections, the Greens were the only party to have a swing in their favour, at 3.3%.[20] Jonathan Sri retained his ward with a 12.4% swing in primary vote and an overall two-party preferred vote of 65.5%.[20] 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.[20]

Structure

State Council

Decisions affecting the state party are made through the State Council, a meeting that consists of a delegate from each local branch. The State Council is the highest decision-making body, and controls election campaigns, sets the policy for the state party and decides on admitting new local branches to the Queensland Greens.

Branches

Branches are the engine-room of the Queensland Greens, and the entry-point for members to all other structures. They are where new members first meet other Greens, talk politics and policy, get involved in local campaigning and fundraising, and find out about what else is going on.

Working groups

A variety of working groups have been established by the State Council, which are directly accessible to all Greens members. Working groups perform an advisory function by developing policy, conducted issues-based campaigns, or by performing other tasks assigned by the State Council.

Queensland Young Greens

Queensland Young Greens (QYG)
HeadquartersBrisbane, Australia
Mother PartyAustralian Greens[21]
ConvenorsMark Clayton and Elena Quirk
IdeologyGreen Politics, Activism
Website
[1]

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.[22]

The Queensland Young Greens provide a forum for young people to express their opinions on political issues and contribute towards the shaping of party policies. The youth wing was established in order to draw new ideas from the youth community and provide an avenue for Queenslander's under the age of 31 to influence the political landscape within Queensland.[23][24]

The Youth Wing's main focus is on election campaigning; skills training; policy development and hosting a number of different social events.[21]

The goals of the Queensland Young Greens are as follows:[24]

  • To engage with young people across Queensland, who come from a variety of different backgrounds, and gain insight into their thoughts, ideas and feelings in relation to current political issues;
  • To provide an avenue for Young Greens members to influence and shape Greens policies;
  • To encourage all young members of society to engage with politics;
  • To assist and provide opportunities for Young Greens to develop their skills within the political arena.

At present the youth wing is run by a steering committee which engages with members under the age of 31 from the various Queensland Greens branches throughout the state, as well as the branches established at universities across Queensland.

The youth wing maintains a grassroots[25] approach in organising members. The youth wing also shares the same policies as the Queensland Greens[26] based around the four guiding principles of non-violence, social justice, grass-roots democracy and ecological sustainability.[27]

At present there are two University based clubs, with the University of Queensland Greens Club and the Griffith University Greens Club being the only clubs.

Other working groups

Queensland Rainbow Greens are concerned with advancing the party's position on LGBTIQ rights.

Members of Queensland Parliament

Current

Former

References

  1. ^ Jackson, Stewart. The Australian Greens: Between Movement and Professional Party. p. 48.
  2. ^ Communication from Drew Hutton, 15 October 2018
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Queensland Greens — About Us". Greens.org.au. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  5. ^ "AEC: When: Past Electoral Events". Results.aec.gov.au. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  6. ^ "First Preferences By Party". Results.aec.gov.au. 9 November 2005. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  7. ^ "First Preferences By Party". Results.aec.gov.au. 19 December 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  8. ^ "First Preferences By Party". Results.aec.gov.au. 29 September 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  9. ^ "First Preferences and Two Party Preferred By Division". Results.aec.gov.au. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  10. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "First Preferences and Two Party Preferred By Division". Results.aec.gov.au. 18 May 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  12. ^ Belot, Henry (18 July 2017). "Larissa Waters, deputy Greens leader, quits in latest citizenship bungle". abc.net.au. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  13. ^ Electoral Commission of Queensland. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 9 September 2006". Archived from the original on 16 May 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  14. ^ ECQ. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 21 March 2009". Archived from the original on 26 February 2011.
  15. ^ "Total Formal First Preference Vote by Party". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  16. ^ Lion, Patrick; Wardill, Steven (5 October 2008). "Blow to Anna Bligh as Ronan Lee quits Labor for Greens". The Courier Mail. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  17. ^ "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.
  18. ^ "The Gabba - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". abc.net.au. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  19. ^ "Greens win first Queensland local government seat". abc.net.au. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  20. ^ a b c "Brisbane City Council 2020 Results - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  21. ^ a b "Young Greens Australia". Greens.org.au. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  22. ^ "Queensland Greens". Qld.greens.org.au. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  23. ^ "Marxist Left Review". Marxistleftreview.org. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  24. ^ a b "Young Greens QLD". Facebook.com. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  25. ^ "Just Rights QLD". Justrightqld.org. Archived from the original on 22 May 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  26. ^ "Queensland Greens Policies". Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  27. ^ "Australian Politics". Australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 23 April 2011.

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