Australian Greens

The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is a Green Australian political party. The party has its eastern Australian origins in the Franklin River Dams campaign in Tasmania in the 1980s, and in Western Australia arising from concerns about nuclear disarmament. While originally founded to address environmental concerns, it now also involved in the peace movement, grassroots democracy and social justice. The party's history can be traced back to the formation of the United Tasmania Group (UTG), the first Green party in the world, which first ran candidates in the 1972 Tasmanian State election. Many people involved in that group went on to form the Tasmanian Greens, in 1992, with five State MPs. Today, nationwide the Australian Greens have five federal Senators, 21 elected representatives in State Parliaments, more than 100 local councillors and close to 10,000 party members. In the most recent federal election the Greens received more than one million votes in the Senate for the first time with a national swing of 1.38 to 9.04 percent, and a net gain of one senator to a total of five. Sarah Hanson-Young (SA) and Scott Ludlam (WA) were elected while Senator Kerry Nettle (NSW) lost her seat.