The Greens New South Wales is the state Greens party in New South Wales. It is a member party of the Australian Greens. The Greens NSW have one Senator, Kerry Nettle, and three members of the New South Wales Legislative Council, Ian Cohen , Lee Rhiannon and Sylvia Hale .
History
The first Greens party was registered in 1984, but the Greens NSW did not take its current form until 1991, when six local groups in New South Wales federated as a state political party. Greens candidates have run in every federal election since 1984, when a single candidate ran in the federal Division of Sydney .
New South Wales elections
The party first came close to electing a candidate in 1991, when Ian Cohen was the last candidate to be excluded in a contest against Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile, which was dubbed as a contest between 'heaven and earth' by the media, for the last seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council.
In 1995, Cohen was successfully elected to the NSW Legislative Council, the first Greens member in NSW. In 1999 Cohen was joined by Lee Rhiannon. In 2003, Cohen was elected for a second term and joined by Sylvia Hale, a Marrickville local councillor, bringing the number of Greens in the NSW Parliament up to three. At the 2003 Election the Greens also established themselves as the third force in NSW politics, becoming the only minor party to win more than one seat at an election to the Legislative Council ever since it became directly elected.
Federal Elections
The Greens elected their first ever New South Wales Senator, Kerry Nettle, at the 2001 election, only the second Australian Greens senator elected ever, joining Senator Bob Brown of Tasmania, who was elected to a second term at that election.
In 2002, Michael Organ was elected to the House of Representatives for the Wollongong seat of Cunningham at a by-election. Organ was the first, and is still the only, Greens member to be elected to a single-member electorate in Australia.
At the 2004 Federal Election, the Greens ran John Kaye as their lead Senate candidate, since Nettle's term did not expire until the 2007 election. The Greens also targetted a number of House of Representatives electorates, particularly Sydney , Grayndler, and Organ's seat of Cunningham. While Organ was defeated and the Australian Labor Party retained both Sydney and Grayndler, the Greens polled over 20% in all three of these seats, the only times that the Greens have achieved that in a general election.
In the Senate in 2004, the Greens increased their vote to 7.3%, but due to less favourable preference flows, Kaye was not elected to join Nettle and Brown.
Structure
The Greens NSW retain the same basic structure which was created in 1991, with the formation of the state-wide party.
The party is made up of 'local groups', who cover a specific geographical area. Local groups have complete responsibility for elections held in their area, particularly elections for the House of Representatives, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly or Local Government. There is currently 45 affiliated local groups in NSW.
Each affiliated local group make decisions affecting the Greens NSW through the State Delegates Council. The SDC consists of a delegate from each local group. The SDC is the highest decision-making body, and controls election campaigns for state-wide candidatures (such as the Senate and Legislative Council) and in areas with no local group. It also decides on admitting new local groups as members of the Greens NSW.
Decision-making at the SDC, in local groups and in other bodies of the Greens NSW is conducted according to the principles of Consensus decision-making.
See also
External Links
