Greens South Australia

Australian Greens SA
Founded	1995
Headquarters	7/291 Angas St Adelaide SA 5000
Ideology	Green politics Progressivism
Political position	Left-wing
National affiliation	Australian Greens
South Australian Legislative Council	2 / 22
Australian Senate	2 / 12 (SA seats)
Adelaide City Council	1 / 12
Port Adelaide Enfield City Council	1 / 18
Unley City Council	2 / 13
Mount Barker District Council	1 / 11
Website
greens.org.au/sa
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

Australian Greens SAis agreenpolitical party located in the Australian state ofSouth Australia.It is a member of the federation of theAustralian Greensparty.

The party has four members in the federal and state parliaments:Sarah Hanson-YoungandBarbara Pocockin theSenate;andTammy FranksandRobert Simmsin theSouth Australian Legislative Council.

Electoral history

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 timeMark Parnellcalled 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 byBob Brownin late 1995 provided the necessary impetus to register the new party.

The Australian Greens (SA) first ran in the1996 federal electionand the1997 state election.In both elections they received around two percent of the statewide upper house vote.

Since that time, the Greens SA have steadily built up a support base at state and federal elections, partly due to the demise of theDemocrats.The Greens SA now have two MLCs and two senators, with polling since the2013 federaland2014 stateelections byNewspollshowing the Green vote consistently above 10 percent.

2002 Labor defection

Kris Hanna,the member forMitchell,was elected as aLabormember 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.

2006 state election

At the2006 state election,Environmental lawyerMark Parnellbecame the first Green candidate to be elected in South Australia, securing a position in theLegislative Councilon a primary vote of 4.3 percent. A vote of 6.5 percent was achieved in theHouse of Assembly,an increase of 4.1%.

The best lower house result was in theelectoral district of Heysen,on a primary vote of 17.7 percent. Heysen was also theDemocratsclosest lower house win, coming as close as 1.9 percent at the1997 state electionon a primary vote of 29.2 percent, finishing at 48.1 percent after preferences.

2007 federal election

Fourth on the 2006 state ticket,Sarah Hanson-Youngwas first on the ticket at the2007 federal election,and became South Australia's first GreensSenator.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 fromAdelaide,BoothbyandMayo.

2008 Mayo federal by-election

Sparked by the resignation ofLiberal PartyMPAlexander Downer,aMayo by-electionwas 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.

2010 state election

Prior to the2010 state election,the Greens had gone from four to ten percent and above instate Newspolls.In the lower house, the vote increased to 8.1 percent, with the upper house vote to 6.6 percent which elected Tammy Jennings (nowTammy Franks).

2010 federal election

At the2010 federal election,polls showed a similar substantial increase. The Greens SA received a swing of 6.8 percent in South Australia for theAustralian Senate,to finish with 13.3 percent of the statewide vote.Penny Wrightwas subsequently elected, joining Hanson-Young and 7 other Green Senators from July 2011.

2013 federal election

Hanson-Young was re-elected at the2013 federal electionwith a statewide primary vote of 7.1 percent. The Greens polled strongest in the seat ofMayowith over 14 percent of the primary vote.

2014 state election

15 of 47 electorates in South Australia had a Green vote of above 10 percent at the2014 state election.At the2013 federal election,of 11 seats, the Green vote was above 10 percent inAdelaide,BoothbyandMayo.

Parnell was re-elected at the2014 electionwith the upper house statewide primary vote at 6.5 percent. The lower house statewide primary vote was 8.7 percent.

Lynton Vonow contested the seat ofHeysenfor the Greens and came second after preferences with a 39 percent two-candidate preferred vote from a 19.7 percent primary vote. The Greens have consistently polled strongest in Heysen but with preferences overtook the Labor candidate. The Greens also polled well in seats such asKavelandDavenportwith primary votes over 15 percent.

2015 Senate casual vacancy

Penny Wright resigned from theSenatedue to family reasons in September 2015. Later that month,Robert Simmswas appointed to thecasual vacancyby ajoint sittingof theParliament of South Australia.

2016 federal election

WhenPrime MinisterTurnbullannounced in March 2016 that adouble dissolutionwould be taking place in May and an election in July,the party was forced for the first time to choose between their two senators, and preselected Sarah Hanson-Young to the number 1 preference on the Senate ballot, with Robert Simms at number 2.Only Hanson-Young was reelected, being assigned a 3-year term.

2018 state election

Tammy Franks was re-elected to the Legislative Council with a statewide vote of 5.87% in the upper house.

2019 federal election

Sarah Hanson-Young was re-elected to the Senate with a statewide upper-house swing of +5.03% and a total vote of 10.9% despite a modest swing of +3.4% in the lower house.The party polled strongest in the seat of Adelaide, where Barbara Pocock received 15.7% of first preference votes.

2019 Cheltenham and Enfield by-elections

Steffi Medrowreceived 14.6% of first preferences with a swing of +8.3% in the2019 Cheltenham state by-election.

Sebastian Konynreceived 8.3% of first preferences in the2019 Enfield state by-election,a result unchanged fromCassie Alvey'sresult in the 2018 election

2021 casual Legislative Council vacancy

Robert Simms was preselected to contest the2022 South Australian state election,but when Mark Parnell resigned from Parliament on 9th April, Simms was appointed to the state upper house on 4 May 2021. Tammy Franks became the parliamentary leader of the party.

2022 state election

Simms was re-elected to the state's upper house with a statewide Legislate Council vote of 9% and a swing of +3.2%.Sean Cullen-MacAskillreceived 14.5% of first preference votes in the seat ofAdelaide.

2022 federal election

With Hanson-Young not requiring re-election in the middle of her six-year term, the party sought to double its upper-house representation. With a Senate swing of +0.99% and a total vote of 11.9%,ProfBarbara PocockAMwas elected as SA's newest senator.The party polled strongest in theDivision of Adelaide,whereRebecca Galdiesreceived 20.1% of first preference votes.

2022 Bragg by-election

To fill the seat vacated byVickie Chapman,the party preselectedJim Bastirasas the candidate for theBragg by-election.

State election results

Legislative Assembly

Election	Seats won	Total votes	%	Position	Parliamentary Leader
1997	0 / 47	1,910	0.21%	Not in chamber
2002	0 / 47	22,332	2.36%	Not in chamber
2006	0 / 47	60,949	6.49%	Not in chamber
2010	0 / 47	79,535	8.11%	Not in chamber	Mark Parnell
2014	0 / 47	88,600	8.70%	Not in chamber	Mark Parnell
2018	0 / 47	69,826	6.66%	Not in chamber	Mark Parnell
2022	0 / 47	99,534	9.1%	Not in chamber	Tammy Franks

Legislative Council

Election	Seats won	Total votes	%	Position	Convenor
1997	0 / 22	15,377	1.72%	Not in chamber
2002	0 / 22	25,725	2.8%	Not in chamber
2006	1 / 22	39,852	4.3%	Crossbench
2010	2 / 22	63,358	6.6%	Crossbench	Mark Parnell
2014	2 / 22	65,215	6.5%	Crossbench	Mark Parnell
2018	2 / 22	61,610	5.86%	Crossbench	Mark Parnell
2022	2 / 22	98,324	9%	Crossbench	Tammy Franks

Structure

State Council

The party's State Council meets once a quarter to deal with the party's administrative matters. The party also has a Policy and Campaigning Council, which includes representatives from branches and member action groups and meets every two months to shape the party's strategic priorities

Branches

Branches 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.

Member action groups

A variety of member action 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, conducting issues-based campaigns, or by performing other tasks assigned by the State Council. These groups include:

• Indigenous Issues
• Animal welfare
• Greenhouse, energy and nuclear
• Queer Greens
• Young Greens

Members of Parliament

Federal Parliament

• 
  Sarah Hanson-Young,Greens SASenatorelected in 2007.
• 
  Barbara Pocock,Greens SASenatorelected in 2022.

Former federal members

• Penny Wright(2011–2015)
• Robert Simms(2015–2016)

State Parliament

• 
  Robert Simms,Greens SAMLCappointed in 2021 to replaceMark Parnell.
• 
  Tammy Franks,Greens SAMLCelected in 2010.

Former state members

• Kris Hanna(2003–2006), elected in 1997 for theLabor Party,defected to the Greens in 2003 and sat as anindependentuntil 2010.
• Mark Parnell(2006–2021), Greens SAMLCelected in 2006.

See also

• 2008 Parnell–Bressington filibuster