1. Electoral history
    Parliament of Australia  Parliament of Queensland   Local government areas  

2. Structure
    State Council  Branches  Working groups  Queensland Young Greens  Other working groups 

3. Members of Queensland Parliament
    Current  Former 

4. References

5. External links

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 Queensland state election, 1989.^[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 and again at the 2010 federal election, in which she became the first Greens candidate elected in Queensland.

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

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.^[11]

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

Parliament of Queensland

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),^[12] and to 8.37 per cent in 2009 (from 89 seats).^[13] The 2012 election saw a fall of 0.85% in the primary vote to 7.52%.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

Sri is the first Greens candidate to win a seat in local government anywhere in Queensland.^[18]

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

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.^[20]

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.^[21][22]

The Youth Wing's main focus is on election campaigning; skills training; policy development and hosting a number of different social events.^[19]

The goals of the Queensland Young Greens are as follows:^[22]

• 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^[23] approach in organising members. The youth wing also shares the same policies as the Queensland Greens^[24] based around the four guiding principles of non-violence, social justice, grass-roots democracy and ecological sustainability.^[25]

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

• Michael Berkman MP; electoral district of Maiwar (2017–present), leader of the Queensland Greens in the Queensland Legislative Assembly. First Greens MP to be elected to the Queensland Parliament.

Former

• Ronan Lee MP; electoral district of Indooroopilly (2008–2009), elected in 2001 as a Labor Party MP, defected to the Greens in 2008.

References

External links

• Queensland Greens official website
• Australian Greens official website
• Green Up Brisbane
• Queensland Young Greens Details
• Australian Young Greens official website

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