Australian Greens

The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a confederation of green state and territory political parties in Australia.^[10] As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and the fourth-largest by elected representation. The leader of the party is Adam Bandt, with Mehreen Faruqi serving as deputy leader. Larissa Waters currently holds the role of Senate leader.^[11]

This article is about the federal Greens party. For the state and territory parties, see List of member parties of the Australian Greens.

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Support[edit]

The Greens generally draw support from younger voters with higher than average educational attainment. The Greens absorbed much of the Australian Democrats' support base following its downfall as the third party in Australia and many of the social and environmental policies and issues that the Democrats advocated for have been taken up by the Greens. Much like the Democrats, the 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.^[98] Notably, there has also been a steady increase in working-class support for the Greens since the creation of the party.^[99]

In 2019, Ian McAllister in an analysis of class voting patterns found that 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.^[100] Political scientist Todd Farrell in an analysis in 2020 found that, unlike other minor parties in the past (such as the Australian Democrats), Greens supporters hold high levels of party identification and consistent durable vote, indicating a political realignment in Australian politics away from the major Labor and Liberal parties.^[101]

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The ACT Greens are currently in a coalition government with ACT Labor in the Australian Capital Territory, and have been consecutively since 2008.^[12] This represents the only jurisdiction in Australia where the Greens have a power-sharing agreement.

The party was formed in 1992 as a confederation of eight state and territorial parties. In their early years, the party was largely built around the personality of well-known Tasmanian politician Bob Brown, before expanding its representation substantially in the early part of the 21st century. The party cites four core values as its ideology, namely ecological sustainability, social justice, grassroots democracy, and peace and non-violence.^[13] The party's origins can be traced to early environmental movement in Australia, the Franklin Dam controversy, the Green bans, and the nuclear disarmament movement. The party began with the United Tasmania Group, one of the first green parties in the world.^[14]

Following the 2022 Australian federal election, the Australian Greens had twelve senators and four members in the Australian House of Representatives, and as of 2020 had over 15,000 party members.^[4]