The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is generally acknowledged as the world's first
Green party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
to contest elections. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the
Lake Pedder Action Committee
The Lake Pedder Action Committee (also known as the Lake Pedder Action Group) was a Tasmanian environmental group.
1967
An earlier format was the ''Save Lake Pedder National Park Committee'' in 1967.
In the early 1970s the state government of ...
(LPAC) at the
Hobart Town Hall
Hobart Town Hall is a landmark sandstone building which serves as seat of the City of Hobart local government area, hosting council meetings as well as acting as public auditorium that can be hired from the council. It is also open to periodic ...
in order to field political candidates in the
April 1972 state election.
1970s
UTG contested ten state and federal elections between 1972 and 1977, with the highest vote of 9.9% in the Legislative Council election with Rod Broadby in 1975 (see Appendix 4, UTG Journal Issue No. 6, 2021).
The United Tasmania Group's first President was
Dr Richard Jones and it lasted for five years, briefly reforming in 1990 for the federal election. A few of the 1970s candidates, including
Bob Brown
Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasma ...
, went on to form the
Tasmanian Greens
The Tasmanian Greens are a political party in Australia which developed from numerous environmental campaigns in Tasmania, including the flooding of Lake Pedder and the Franklin Dam campaign. They form a part of the Australian Greens.
The party ...
and then ultimately, at the national level, the
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and t ...
.
2010s
On 2 April 2016 following a meeting, former members of the party re-started the group.
The United Tasmania Group launched The UTG Journal in 2018. The journal is designed to cover a wide range of topics, including the development of conservation and other issues since that original founding date in April, 1972. Six issues of The UTG Journal have been published since the re-start of the organisation in 2016.
Histories and analysis
In the mid 1990s Lance Armstrong wrote a history of the politics of Tasmania in the 1990s.
In the mid-2000s author Bill Lines also attempted to grapple with the broader scope of politics in Australia relative to greens politics in ''Patriots''.
In the late 2010s Paddy Manning researched and wrote a history of the Greens in Australia, and included the UTG in the first chapter, acknowledging the importance of the group within the larger context.
An unpublished Honours Thesis on the party by Pam Walker (University of Tasmania) was written in 1986, and the first chapter in Paddy Manning's book, ''Inside the Greens'' (2019), is devoted to the history of the party.
Publications
1970s
*
*
*
*
2000s
* ''The UTG Journal issue No. 1''
* ''The UTG Journal Issue No. 2''
* ''The UTG Journal Issue No. 3''
* ''The UTG Journal Issue No. 4''
* ''The UTG Journal Issue No. 5''
* ''The UNITED TASMANIA GROUP Story Policy Compilation The UTG Journal Issue No. 6 Special 50th year edition''
* ''The UTG Journal Issue No. 7''
See also
*
List of political parties in Australia
The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Coalition. Federally, 16 of the 151 members of the lower house ...
*
*
Living Soil Association of Tasmania
References
External links
History of Green Politics in Tasmania
{{Authority control
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
Political parties established in 1972
1972 establishments in Australia