The Greens are a vibrant and growing political force in Australia and around the world.
Since the party's formation in NSW in 1984, The Greens have made significant electoral advances. In 1995, when Ian Cohen was elected to parliament, The Greens NSW had eight affiliated groups and contested 30 seats in the state election. Four years later, Lee Rhiannon was elected to join Ian in the NSW Legislative Council. In the 2003 state election, The Greens contested every seat, received 8.5% of the vote and both Ian Cohen and Sylvia Hale were elected.
Kerry Nettle was elected as a Senator for NSW in the 2001 federal election. In 2004, we doubled our Senate team after receiving nearly a million votes Australia-wide. Rachel Siewert (WA) and Christine Milne (Tas) have joined Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle in the Senate on 1 July 2005.
In addition to parliamentary representation, the Greens now have 59 local government councillors across NSW.
Lee
Rhiannon and John Kaye have been elected to the NSW Upper House in the
election in 2007, and have taken their places in parliament on the
cross benches of the Upper House.
After this election, the number of interested people grew. The Newcastle Greens supported us with a donation so that we could become financially viable and mentored our group.
We became formally affiliated with the NSW Greens after attending the State Delegates Council three times. This meant our delegates to the Council could now participate in the outcome of issues and motions. We hosted a State Delegates Council meeting in November of the same year at the Niagara Park Community Centre. A State Delegates Council meeting was also hosted by the Central Coast Greens at Mount Penang Gardens in 2006.
We ran candidates in all four electorates for the 2002 state election and saw an increase in the number of people voting Green. Membership and support was steadily growing and the local elections in 2004 resulted in the historic election of the first Greens councillor, Terri Latella, to Gosford Council.
2004 proved to be a busy year with the federal election also held in October. The campaign was very well organised by the campaign committee and we achieved over 4% of the votes in both Robertson and Dobell electorates, which entitled the group to receive electoral funding.
Besides running successful election campaigns, the Central Coast Greens has also been involved in a number of local campaigns such as relocatable housing, Clean Up Australia Day and participating in a number of environmental campaigns in the local area.
Members of the Central Coast Greens also ran Greentips, an environmental awareness course through the Central Coast Community College in 2004.
In 2007 we ran a successful State election campaign with candidates standing in all Central Coast electorates. Support and membership had increased to such an extent that a large percentage of booths in both electorates could be covered.
In the Federal election of 24th November 2007, we stood candidates in Robertson and Dobell, with an overall small increase in The Green vote on the Central Coast. Greens preferences were crucial in the ALP success in winning the seat of Robertson.
The Central Coast Greens have grown significantly in a short time and membership of the Greens Australia wide continues to increase steadily.
Information on The Australian and NSW Greens can be found in the booklets contained in this package or on the websites www.greens.org.au/ (national) and www.nsw.greens.org.au/ (N.S.W.)