The first Greens party was registered in 1984, but the Greens NSW did not take its current form until 1991, when six local groups in New South Wales federated as a state political party. Greens candidates have run in every federal election since 1984, when a single candidate ran in the federal
Division of Sydney. The founding document of the Greens NSW described the organisation as the following:
Local government The party endorses candidates to stand for election in many of the 128
local government areas across NSW, including in rural and regional areas where the major parties usually do not run candidates on party tickets. The Greens NSW currently have 58 councillors on 32 local councils around NSW. In NSW, local government elections were held in September 2016 and September 2017. In 2016 The Greens elected three mayors and 24 councillors in the 29 areas where candidates stood. Greens councillors were elected for the first time in:
Albury,
Broken Hill,
Clarence Valley,
Glen Innes Severn,
Goulburn Mulwaree,
Kyogle and
Yass Valley. The Greens also grew their vote in
Bellingen, Byron,
Shoalhaven,
Campbelltown,
Kiama,
Hawkesbury,
Wingecarribee, Lismore,
Hawkesbury and the
Blue Mountains. In 2017 The Greens elected a further 31 Councillors in Armidale, Bathurst, Canterbury Bankstown, Canada Bay, Hornsby, Inner West, Newcastle, Northern Beaches, Orange, Parramatta, Queanbeyan Palerang, Randwick, Ryde. Snowy Mountains. Waverley, Willoughby, Woollahra, Wollongong.
New South Wales State Elections The party first came close to electing a candidate in 1991, when
Ian Cohen was the last Upper House candidate to be excluded in a contest against
Christian Democratic Party leader
Fred Nile for the final statewide seat. In the subsequent 1995 election, Cohen was elected to the NSW Legislative Council and became the first Greens parliamentary representative in NSW. In 1999 he was joined by
Lee Rhiannon and in 2003 he was re-elected and joined by
Sylvia Hale. In
2007 Lee Rhiannon was re-elected to the Legislative Council and joined by
John Kaye, bringing the number of Members of the Legislative Council to four. In 2010 Lee Rhiannon resigned from the Legislative Council to contest and win a Senate seat, and Sylvia Hale also resigned her seat. The resulting
casual vacancies were filled by
Cate Faehrmann and
David Shoebridge respectively. At the
2011 NSW state election the Greens further increased their vote, resulting in the election of
Jamie Parker as the first Greens member of the Legislative Assembly, representing
Balmain.
David Shoebridge was re-elected and joined by
Jan Barham and
Jeremy Buckingham in the Legislative Council. In 2013 Cate Faehrmann resigned from the Legislative Council to contest a Senate seat. The resulting casual vacancy was filled by
Mehreen Faruqi of the South Sydney Greens. At the
2015 state election current sitting members
Jamie Parker,
John Kaye and
Mehreen Faruqi were re-elected. Two new members were elected to the Legislative Assembly:
Jenny Leong in the new seat of
Newtown and
Tamara Smith in the previously safe National seat of
Ballina. The Greens primary vote in
Newtown of 45.6% is the party's highest ever primary vote in a lower house electorate. This resulted in five Legislative Council seats and three Legislative Assembly seats. In October 2016,
Jan Barham resigned and the casual vacancy was filled a few months later by former federal candidate for
Richmond,
Dawn Walker. In December 2018,
Jeremy Buckingham resigned from the Greens NSW. Buckingham described the party as more focused on "bringing down capitalism" and "divisive identity politics" than acting on climate change. At the
2019 state election there were two upper house Greens seats up for contest as was Buckingham's. David Shoebridge was re-elected, Abigail Boyd (former federal candidate for
Dobell) won one but Dawn Walker lost hers. Each of the three lower house seats were returned with a favourable swing.
Constitutional Convention In 1997 The Greens NSW formed part of a joint ticket called
Greens, Bill of Rights, Indigenous Peoples for the
1998 Constitutional Convention held in Canberra in February 1998. Catherine Moore led the ticket and was elected for NSW. She joined
Christine Milne from Tasmania to focus on ensuring that the overall process was more inclusive. == Structure ==