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History of The Greens (WA)
The Greens (WA) formed on January the first, 1990, following a merger of the WA Green Party and the Green Earth Alliance.
The Green Earth Alliance was itself a merger between the Alternative Coalition, the Vallentine Peace Group and Green Development. All the above groups shared similar visions and decided that they could achieve their aims and beliefs more effectively as one organisation.
The Alternative Coalition developed from a meeting of the Victoria Park/Carlisle Greens, the Western Suburbs Greens and members of the Australian Democrats in 1987. Its agenda was anti nuclear and for forests and land rights. It was strongly committed to grassroots democracy and set up Working Groups to involve members, as well as local electoral groups. There was a deliberate attempt to encourage the participation of women, especially as candidates.
Senator Jo Vallentine was elected in December 1984 under the banner of the Nuclear Disarmament Party. The Valentine Peace Group formed when the Nuclear Disarmament Party collapsed and was composed of friends and supporters of Senator Jo Vallentine. Its main focus was peace and opposition to the whole nuclear cycle. It was opposed to becoming a traditional political party.
Green Development grew out of a network of environmentalists in the south west of Western Australia and formed after a meeting with the Alternative Coalition in 1988. It operated by informal networks and teleconferencing. It ran candidates for the 1989 State election and was noted for its refusal to do preference deals.
The WA Green Party was also set up to contest the 1989 State election. It was part of the Australia wide green political movement and was affiliated to Greens NSW. A major precept of the party was consensus decision making.
In 1989 there were merger talks. Understanding the importance of the name "Green" and the need for a formal political party, the Green Party registered the name "The Greens (WA)" for the Federal election. The other groups realised the strength both of having a registered party which would allow them to have the party name next to the candidate's name and also of the word "Green".
The Alternative Coalition, the Vallentine Peace Group and Green Development merged to form the Green Earth Alliance. It began to develop policy and set up local groups. The electoral commission ruled that a second party with the name "Green" could not be registered. With an election imminent there was a need for quick action.
The Green Alliance and the WA Green Party merged to form The Greens (WA) in January 1990. Jo Vallentine agreed to join The Greens (WA) and the party had its first high profile Senator. Jo's senate career and community-based activism consists of numerous firsts, for herself and women in general. She has protested against nuclear weapons and war and her acts of civil disobedience have confronted many unjust laws.
In 1992, Jo retired from parliament and Christobel Chamarette was elected by The Greens (WA) to take her place. Her position was difficult as she held the balance of power. She refused deals which traded issues or values for unrelated outcomes.
In 1993 Christobel was joined in the Senate by Dee Margetts, who was elected that year in an half Senate election. Dee Margetts continued the work of Jo Vallentine by providing strong representation on peace and nuclear disarmament issues in parliament. She provided consistent, solid and dependable representation on social justice, health, education, the workplace and issues of regional importance such as East Timor and Bougainville. Dee provided a voice of good sense on budget and economic policy. Her electorate office undertook wide-ranging support of community groups and individuals.
Senator Margetts, opposed the original legislation on National Competition Policy in 1995. Both Christobel and Dee opposed the two stages of Telstra's privatisation and proposed significant amendments to minimise the impact on rural communities. Dee was a member of two Senate Committees inquiring into the privatisation of Telstra and wrote minority reports outlining concerns about the sale.
Both Greens (WA) Senators worked actively with Indigenous groups on Native Title and other issues during their time in the Senate. In regard to the Native Title 1993 debate between The Greens (WA) and the Keating Government, Tasmanian aboriginal activist, Mike Mansell said "These two white women in Canberra are asking more for Aboriginal people than Aboriginal people are asking for themselves."
In State elections in 1993, Jim Scott was elected to the Upper House of the Western Australian Parliament as a member for the South Metropolitan Region. Jim's office has helped to inform and support many community campaigns, including the Leighton Action Coalition, the Transport Action Coalition, People Against Cruelty in Animal Transport, Communities for a Clean Environment and Community Networking (Com-Net).
Unfortunately The Greens (WA) lost half its Federal representation with the defeat of Christobel in 1996. But that year was marked by success in re-electing Jim Scott and electing two more Greens to the Upper House of State Parliament, Giz Watson, for North Metro and Dr Christine Sharp for the South West. With the two Democrat MLCs, the three Greens held the balance of power in the upper house until Mark Neville defected from the Labor party.
Giz Watson was at the anti-Vietnam war rallies in the 1970s and the first campaign in WA against clear felling of jarrah forests for bauxite mining. She is at the forefront of resisting national and international attempts to dump nuclear waste in Western Australia, and to stopping uranium mining in this State. Her efforts have seen several local councils pass motions opposing the transport, processing and/or storage of non-medical nuclear materials in their local areas.
Chrissy Sharp has been involved in "green" issues for decades, applying the concepts of ecologically sustainable development to specific questions of employment and environmental protection in the South West. She currently chairs the Legislative Council Standing Committee on Ecologically Sustainable Development. She is the only woman Chair in WA's Parliament and the only Parliamentary Chair from a Greens Party anywhere in Australia.
During their first ten years, The Greens (WA) worked with various community groups. They continued to oppose the nuclear industry and worked with forest protesters to protect old growth forests. Members worked with the Friends of East Timor, Reconciliation groups and for workers' rights. The party supported abortion law reform and worked for Gay Rights.
Much of the work of the party is done by volunteers who help staff the Greens party office, publish the newsletter, run election campaigns and develop the party's policies. Electoral support for the Greens has grown steadily.
At the end of 2000, electoral law was changed to deregister parties with less than 500 members. The Greens (WA) held a membership drive and doubled their membership.
In the 2001 State Election, Giz, Jim and Chrissy were joined in the Legislative Council by Robin Chapple for the Mining and Pastoral Region and former Senator Dee Margetts for the Agricultural Region. Both Robin and Dee spend the time that parliament is not sitting in travelling around their huge electorates holding meetings with community groups and constituents. The five Greens MLCs hold the balance of power in the Upper House. This increases their workload as every piece of legislation must be minutely examined by them and their overworked staff.
Greens (WA) candidate Rachel Siewert just missed out on winning a senate seat in 2001 but the party is working hard to gain a Senator in 2004 as well as the East Metro seat for the Legislative Council in state elections in 2005.
In October 2003 The Greens (WA) joined the Australian Greens. We are now in the strongest position to make a difference to politics than at any time in our history.
In the October 2004 federal election Rachel Siewert was elected to the Senate. In June 2005 she will join Bob Brown, Kerry Nettle and new Greens Senator from Tasmania, Christine Milne.
At the February State 2005 election, Jim Scott and Chrissy Sharp retired. Lynn Maclaren ran for South Metro but unfortunately just missed out on replacing Jim in the Council. Paul Llewellyn ran for the South West and was elected. Giz Watson, Dee Margetts and Robin Chapple recontested their Upper House seats. While Giz is now serving her third term, sadly in spite of the huge amount of work they had done in their vast electorates, Dee and Robin were not re-elected. The Greens have retained the same balance of power in the Legislative Council but with an increased work load with the burden shared between 2 MLCs instead of 5.
Although these losses were very sad for the enviroment and the community, the Green vote has stayed the same and the party continues to grow.
