Formation in the 1980s, the first political party in Australia to use the label Green. The 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, Co-ordination between environmentalist groups occurred in the 1980s with various significant protests. Key people involved in these campaigns included
Bob Brown and
Christine Milne, who went on to contest and win seats in the
Parliament of Tasmania and eventually form the
Tasmanian Greens. Both Brown and Milne subsequently became leaders of the federal party. The formation of the federal party in 1992 brought together over a dozen green groups, from state and local organisations, some of which had existed for 20 years. Initially, the most successful Greens group during this period was
The Greens (WA), which was still a separate organisation from the Australian Greens at the time. Vallentine was succeeded by
Christabel Chamarette in 1992, and she was joined by
Dee Margetts in 1993. However, Chamarette was defeated in the
1996 federal election. Margetts lost her seat in the
1998 federal election, leaving Brown as the sole Australian Greens senator.
Bob Brown's leadership (2001–2012) 2001 election and 39th parliament . In the
2001 federal election, Brown was re-elected as a senator for Tasmania, and a second Greens senator,
Kerry Nettle, was elected in New South Wales. The Greens opposed the
Howard government's
Pacific Solution of offshore processing for asylum seekers, and opposed the bipartisan offers of support to
ANZUS and the
Afghanistan War by the government and
Beazley Opposition in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks. The party described the Afghanistan commitment in particular as "warmongering". Brown and Nettle's performance in the Senate increased voter support for the party, as it showcased that the Greens were not
deep ecologists nor a single-issue environmentalist organisation, thus granting approval from disaffected Labor voters. On 19 October 2002, the Greens won a
House of Representatives seat for the first time when
Michael Organ won the
Cunningham by-election, triggered by the resignation of
Labor member
Stephen Martin.
2004 election and 40th parliament In the
2004 federal election, the Australian Greens fielded candidates in every House of Representatives seat in Australia. The Greens' primary vote rose by 2.3% to 7.2%. This won them two additional Senate seats, taken by
Christine Milne in Tasmania and
Rachel Siewert in Western Australia, bringing the total to four. In
New South Wales, the Greens ran
John Kaye as their lead
Senate candidate but were unsuccessful due to unfavourable preference flows, and Organ lost his seat to Labor's
Sharon Bird. At the 2004 election, the
Australian Greens replaced the
Australian Democrats as the largest
third party in elections, a title that they have held since.
2007 election and 41st parliament The Greens increased their national vote by 1.38 points to 9.04% at the
2007 federal election, with the election of South Australian senator
Sarah Hanson-Young taking the number of Greens senators to five. Senators Bob Brown (Tas) and
Kerry Nettle (NSW) were up for re-election, Brown was re-elected, but Nettle was unsuccessful, becoming the only Australian Greens senator to lose their seat despite increasing her vote from 2001. In November 2008, Senator
Christine Milne was elected deputy leader in a ballot contested against Senator
Rachel Siewert. In 2009, the Greens and the Liberal Party voted to defeat Labor's emission trading scheme legislation after failed negotiations for an emissions cut target.
2010 election and 43rd parliament The
2010 federal election marked a high point for the Greens electorally, with the party receiving its largest vote to date and sharing the
balance of power. The Greens received a four percent swing to finish with 13 percent of the vote in the Senate. The 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. The new senators were
Lee Rhiannon in New South Wales,
Richard Di Natale in
Victoria,
Larissa Waters in
Queensland,
Rachel Siewert in
Western Australia,
Penny Wright in
South Australia and
Christine Milne in
Tasmania. Incumbents
Scott Ludlam in Western Australia,
Sarah Hanson-Young in South Australia and
Bob Brown in Tasmania were not due for re-election. The Greens also 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. Almost two weeks after the election, the Greens agreed to support a
Gillard Labor minority government on
confidence and supply votes. Labor was returned to government with the additional support of three
independent crossbenchers. Prior to the 2010 federal election, the
Electrical Trades Union's Victorian branch donated $325,000 to the Greens' Victorian campaign – the largest political donation ever directed to the Party up to that time. The Greens signed a formal agreement with the
Australian Labor Party involving consultation in relation to policy and support in the House of Representatives in relation to
confidence and supply and three of the independents declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply, allowing Gillard and Labor to remain in power with a 76–74 minority government. On 24 February 2011, in a joint press conference of the "Climate Change Committee" – comprising the Government, Greens and two independent MPs – Prime Minister Gillard announced a plan to legislate for the introduction of a fixed price to be imposed on "carbon pollution" from 1 July 2012 The
carbon price would be placed for three to five years before a full emissions trading scheme is implemented, under a blueprint agreed by a multi-party parliamentary committee. Key issues remained to be negotiated between the Government and the cross-benches, including compensation arrangements for households and businesses, the carbon price level, the emissions reduction target and whether or not to include fuel in the price. In April 2012, Bob stepped down as leader of the Australian Greens, and retired from the Senate in June 2012.
Christine Milne's leadership (2012–2015) Christine Milne led the Australian Greens through the remainder of the minority parliament, after being
elected unopposed.
2013 election and 44th parliament At the
2013 federal election, the
House of Representatives (lower house) primary vote was 8.7 percent (−3.1) with the
Senate (upper house) primary vote at 8.7 percent (−4.5). Despite receiving a decline in votes, the Greens representation in the parliament increased.
Adam Bandt retained his
Melbourne seat with a primary vote of 42.6 percent (+7.0) and a
two-candidate preferred vote of 55.3 percent (−0.6). The Greens won four Senate positions, increasing their Senate representation from nine to ten senators. At the
2014 Australian Senate special election in Western Australia, the Greens won in excess of a quota with the primary vote increasing from 9.5 to 15.6 percent, re-electing
Scott Ludlam. In December 2015, the 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. This law also made 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. The following year the Coalition government and the Greens agreed on a permanent 15% tax rate for
backpackers, in exchange for a $100 million funding boost to environmental stewardship
not-for-profit Landcare. Christine Milne stepped down from the leadership of the Australian Greens on 6 May 2015.
2016 election and 45th parliament At the
2016 federal election, the
House of Representatives (lower house) primary vote increased to 10.23 percent (+1.58) but decreased in the
Senate (upper house), with primary vote at 8.65 percent (−0.58).
Adam Bandt was elected to a third term in his
Melbourne seat with a primary vote of 43.75 percent (+1.13) and a
two-candidate preferred vote of 68.48 percent (+13.21). Despite a campaign focus on winning additional seats in the lower house, The Greens failed to win any lower house contests. The Greens also 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. The result was seen as disappointing, and caused internal divisions to flare up, with former Federal Leader
Bob Brown calling upon Senator
Lee Rhiannon to resign, citing the "need for renewal". In 2017, Greens Senators
Scott Ludlam and
Larissa Waters were forced to resign during
2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis after it was found that Ludlam had dual Australian–New Zealand citizenship and Waters had dual citizenship with
Canada. Subsequently,
Adam Bandt and
Rachel Siewert were named as temporary co-deputy leaders until the arrival of Ludlam and Waters' replacements in Canberra.
2019 election and 46th parliament At the
2019 federal election, the Australian Greens received a primary vote of 10.4% in the House of Representatives, with a federal swing of +0.2%. The party's highest vote was captured in the Australian Capital Territory (16.8%), followed by Victoria (11.9%), Western Australia (11.6%), Queensland (10.3%), Northern Territory (10.2%), Tasmania (10.1%), South Australia (9.6%) and New South Wales (8.7%). The party retained the federal electorate of
Melbourne with
Adam Bandt sitting at a 71.8% two-party preferred vote. All six Greens senators up for re-election retained their seats, including Senators
Mehreen Faruqi,
Janet Rice,
Larissa Waters,
Sarah Hanson-Young,
Jordon Steele-John and
Nick McKim. Three key seats were targeted by the Greens in Victoria, including
Kooyong,
Higgins and
Macnamara. Prominent barrister
Julian Burnside, who stood for Kooyong, came close to unseating treasurer and deputy Liberal leader
Josh Frydenberg, falling short by 5.7% in the two-party preferred vote. Greens candidate
Jason Ball, for the
Division of Higgins, failed to enter the two-party preferred vote, despite optimism within the Greens and a diminishing Liberal vote. In Macnamara (formerly
Melbourne Ports), a three-way contest emerged between the Liberals, Labor and Greens. Greens candidate
Steph Hodgins-May had come within a few hundred votes in 2016 of taking the seat, however, redistributions in the electorate for the 2019 election were unfavourable for the Greens' vote, and the party's final vote sat at 24.2%.
Adam Bandt's leadership (2020–2025) On 4 February, Adam Bandt was
elected unopposed as parliamentary leader of the Australia Greens party room.
2022 election and 47th parliament The Greens' strategy for the
2022 federal election involved targeting nine key seats, including the previously Labor-held seats of
Macnamara,
Griffith,
Richmond,
Wills, and
Canberra, and four previously Liberal-held seats of
Kooyong,
Brisbane,
Ryan and
Higgins. Bandt claimed that polling suggested a hung parliament was a likely outcome and the Greens would work with Labor to "kick the Liberals out and make the next government go further and faster on climate action, and make billionaires and mining corporations pay their fair share." The party had its best ever result at the election, picking up three seats in inner
Brisbane,
Elizabeth Watson-Brown in the seat of
Ryan,
Stephen Bates in the seat of Brisbane, and
Max Chandler-Mather in the seat of
Griffith, to boost their representation in the House to four MPs, and won a Senate seat in every state to increase to 12 senators with new Senators
Barbara Pocock,
David Shoebridge and
Penny Allman-Payne. This gave them the balance of power. Analysis of vote trends suggested the party succeeded in picking up former votes of both Labor and the Liberal Party. The party were unsuccessful in picking up the seat of
Richmond with their high-profile candidate
Mandy Nolan. On 6 February 2023, Victorian Greens senator
Lidia Thorpe announced that she would resign from the Greens to become an independent senator, over disagreements concerning the proposed
Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In mid-March 2024, the Greens announced they would introduce legislation seeking to break the dominance of the two supermarket giants
Woolworths Group and
Coles Group by forcing them to sell some of their operations. While the
Albanese government did not support the bill, it found support from the centre-right
National Party.
2025 election and 48th parliament The Greens lost party leader
Adam Bandt in the seat of
Melbourne,
Stephen Bates in the seat of
Brisbane, and
Max Chandler-Mather in the seat of
Griffith in the
2025 federal election, with Labor taking all three seats in a landslide victory. When Bandt conceded on 8 May 2025 Tasmanian Greens senator
Nick McKim as party whip became acting leader until the planned
leadership meeting.
Larissa Waters' leadership (2025–present) Queensland Senator
Larissa Waters was
elected unopposed as party leader on 15 May 2025, with
Mehreen Faruqi continuing as deputy leader. Sarah Hanson-Young was expected to run for the party leadership, however was elected as Manager of Greens Business. On 6 June 2025, Senator for Western Australia
Dorinda Cox defected to Labor. == Ideology ==