27 Facts About Australian Greens

1.

Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia.

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2.

Origins of the Australian Greens can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group, one of the first green parties in the world, but the nuclear disarmament movement in Western Australia and sections of the industrial left in New South Wales who were inspired by the Builders Labourers Federation Green bans in Sydney.

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3.

The Australian Greens opposed the Howard Government's Pacific Solution of offshore processing for asylum seekers, and opposed the bipartisan offers of support to the US alliance and Afghanistan War by the government and Beazley Opposition in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks in 2001, describing the Afghanistan commitment as "warmongering".

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4.

On 19 October 2002 the Australian Greens won a House of Representatives seat for the first time when Michael Organ won the Cunningham by-election.

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5.

The Australian Greens received a four percent swing to finish with 13 percent of the vote in the Senate.

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6.

The Australian Greens won a seat in each of the six states at the election, bringing the party to a total of nine senators from July 2011, holding the balance of power in the Senate.

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7.

The Australian Greens won their first House of Representatives seat at a general election, the seat of Melbourne with candidate Adam Bandt, who was a crossbencher in the first hung parliament since the 1940 federal election.

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8.

Almost two weeks after the election, the Australian Greens agreed to support a Gillard Labor minority government on confidence and supply votes.

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9.

The Australian Greens won four Senate positions, increasing their Senate representation from nine to ten Senators.

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10.

In December 2015, the Australian Greens struck a deal with the Coalition Government, passing a law requiring multinational private companies with a turnover over $200 million to disclose their tax arrangements and making it mandatory for multinational companies with a global turnover of $1 billion or more to have to prepare "general purpose" financial statements, which disclose greater tax details than previously occurred in Australia.

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11.

Australian Greens lost one Senate position in South Australia, decreasing their Senate representation from ten to nine Senators, to a total of ten Green members in the Parliament of Australia.

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12.

The Australian Greens have proposed plans to boost jobs and apprenticeships in the construction of public housing units as further economic stimulus as well as to address rising homelessness in Australia.

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13.

Australian Greens oppose tax cuts that solely benefit the top bracket of income earners and lead to economic inequality.

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14.

The Australian Greens believe that all essential services need to be adequately funded to suit community needs; and argue for the recreation of a publicly owned bank.

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15.

Australian Greens are often known for their outspoken advocacy on numerous social issues, such as the legalisation of marriage equality, the right to seek asylum and gender equality.

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16.

The Australian Greens are in favour of phasing out live animal exports, instead favouring investment in the domestic chilled meat industry.

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17.

The Australian Greens have campaigned on banning greyhound racing, whaling and animal-tested cosmetics.

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18.

On Saturday 12 November 2005 at the national conference in Hobart the Australian Greens abandoned their long-standing tradition of having no official leader and approved a process whereby a parliamentary leader could be elected by the Greens Parliamentary Party Room.

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19.

Australian Greens MPs are each assigned their own portfolios, or specific areas of responsibility.

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20.

Australian Greens is federally organised with separately registered state parties signing up to a national constitution, yet retaining considerable policy-making and organisational autonomy from the centre.

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21.

The national decision-making body of the Australian Greens is the National Council, consisting of delegates from each member body, two members of the federal party room, a representative of the Greens' First Nations network, and the national office bearers including the National Convenor, Secretary and Treasurer.

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22.

Australian Greens are a federation consisting of eight parties from each state and territory.

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23.

In New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, the Australian Greens hold seats in the Legislative Councils, which are elected by proportional representation.

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24.

Australian Greens generally draw support from younger voters with higher than average educational attainment.

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25.

Much like the Democrats, the Australian Greens have a higher proportion of supporters who are university educated, under 40, identify as professionals in their field, are small business owners, and earn above the national average wage.

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26.

In 2019, Ian McAllister in an analysis of class voting patterns found that Australian Greens voters are distinguished as being high in cultural capital, such as a university education, but tend to be in asset poverty due to not owning their own home.

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27.

Senators Vallentine, Chamarette and Margetts were all elected as Greens senators and served their terms before the Greens WA affiliated to the Australian Greens, meaning that they were not considered to be Australian Greens senators at the time.

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