Seeding Environmental Change: From Tasmania to the world

Given the nature of the public discourse in Australia surrounding climate change, fossil fuel
use, renewable energy adoption and ecological responsibility, it may seem strange that
Australia is also the home of the worlds first environmentally focussed political party, as well
as the foundation of the green political movement worldwide, but indeed it was and the nature
of the effects of that both at the time of founding and today will be examined as we reveal the
influence of the Australian green political movement on a worldwide scale. Necessarily, a
brief history and description of the major events in the establishment of the Green movement
here from the 1960s though to the establishment of the Australian Greens in 1992 forms the
basis of this work.

In the beginning

While the United Tasmania Group, the worlds first ever green political party, was officially
formed in 1972, we must firstly go back to the 1960s to find the origins of the group, and the
conditions that spawned iti.

Tasmanias Hydro-Electric commission announced in 1967 that they intended to dam an area
of south-west Tasmania that included Lake Pedder and other nearby waterways in order to
produce hydro-electric power. This area was particularly pristine and beautiful and thusly the
plans aroused a good deal of grass-roots opposition. This opposition took the form of several
community groups, most prominently the Lake Pedder Action Groupii.

P.R. Hay, a Tasmanian scholar, describes some of the very specific conditions that led to the
rise of the green movement:

It has one of the world's most significant tracts of remnant wetland wilderness and a unique
flora and fauna, endangered by an aggressively growth-oriented political mainstream. It is the
only political system in the world (of which I am aware) with a political agenda permanently
dominated by environmental issues (of which the celebrated Franklin River controversy was
only the most dramatic episode of an ongoing and volatile environmental conflictiii.

While these groups were not successful in stopping the damming of Lake Pedder in 1972 for
what became known as the Middle Gordon hydroelectric schemeiv, they did come together to
meet in Hobart on March 23rd, 1972, and it was at this very meeting that the United Tasmania
Group was formed-the worlds very first green political partyv.
Above image: Lake Pedder, Tasmania, 1970.Tasmanian Government Archives, TGA, AA193, AA193/1/2796. vi

The United Tasmania Group was, despite being short-lived (1972-1979), hugely influential.

Not only was it the first ever environmentally-focussed political party, and hence the direct
inspiration to all groups who were founded from then on, but they also made another, equally
vital contribution: their 1972 manifesto, The New Ethicvii. Human dignity, cultural heritage,
natural ecosystems, aesthetic harmony, intergenerational equity and the natural beauty of
Tasmania were to be protected. The misuse of power, divisive ideology and environmental
damage were to be avoided.

The New Ethic, and the principles it enshrined, went on to be the key influence on the World
Commission on Environment and Development report in 1987, as well as the United Nations
Agenda 21 program announcement in 1992, green parties in the United states, Europe and
the UK, beginning in 1973 with the establishment of the PEOPLE/ecology partyviii there as
well as the charter of the Global Greens organisation in 2001ix.

Evolution

Following in the footsteps of the United Tasmania group was another organisation called the
Tasmanian Wilderness Society. Much like the United Tasmania Group, future Greens leader
Dr. Bob Brown was the key instigator in the founding of this group. He and a friend, Paul
Smith, had earlier in 1976 sailed along the Franklin River in rubber dinghies, showing Bob
how vital this environment wasx.
This new organisation was to receive a baptism of fire in that in the same year they were
founded, they were immediately engaged in a particularly unpleasant fight to prevent the
Franklin River being dammedxi, and as such, the picture below demonstrates some activist-
made banners and stickers, and most importantly, this shows the efforts of both those who
wanted to save the river, and those who wanted to dam it.

Repulse hydro-electric power station in flood, Tasmania, 1970. Tasmanian Government Archives, TGA,
AA193/1/693. xii

This fight continued all the way until 1983, and saw Bob Brown arrested during protests,
jailed for three weeks, and elected to parliament on the day of his release, as well as a truly
enormous effort to influence national politics in favour of the preservation of the Franklin,
including full page newspaper adverts, doorknocking and nationwide protestsxiii. The
influence of this Tasmanian movement on the final outcome, and also national politics, was
undeniable: Labor's Bob Hawke easily won the election. Subsequent analysis showed that
the (Tasmanian) wilderness Society campaign had delivered crucial votes in marginal
electorates to Labor. After accepting victory, PM Elect Hawke announced that the dam would
not proceedxiv.
 From the Tasmanian Wilderness Society to The Greens

In 1984, the Tasmanian Wilderness Society changed their name to the Wilderness Society, on
account of their expansion nationally. Over the course of the next 8 years, until the founding
of the Greens, and indeed to this day, they have had several major political successes,
including the expansion of the South-West Tasmanian National Park and its successful
nomination in 1989 to become a World Heritage Area, as well as other National Park
extensions. They were also significantly involved in organising large-scale peaceful, public
protest against environmental destruction wrought on old-growth rainforests by logging in the
1980s, 90s and until the present day. xv

Above image: Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Adrian
Doling-Hill, 2015xvi

Intertwined History

As far as independent environmental politicians and their influence on this is concerned, the
first politician ever elected on an environmental platform was Mr. Norm Sanders, considered
a Green Independent, an American environmentalist who, two years after his election,
resigned and his place in parliament was filled by, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dr. Bob Brown. In
the next state election in 1986, two more Green Independents won seats. It was in 1992 that
from all of these precursors, the Tasmanian Greens were formedxvii.

The final piece of the puzzle regarding the history of the green movement is the creation of
the first ever official Greens chapter, which actually took place in Sydney, in the suburb of
Glebe, in 1984, and was registered in January 1985xviii. On August 30, 1992, the Australian
Greens were formed as a unification of the various state groups that had come into being at
that pointxix, and thus we have a (rather concise) history of the Australian Green movement.
 Impacts of the movement

Now it is time to analyse the impacts of these movements on the world scale.
While we have already examined the influence of the New Ethic at the world level,
including influencing the United Nations climate policy, there are many other examples of the
world-wide influence of the Australian green political movement around the world.

Image: National Museum Australia, Bob Brown collection no. 1, 1993, 0002.0963.xx

The early Australian Green movement directly influenced similar movements in the United
States, Germany and the UK. The United States green movements and parties followed a very
similar set of principles to the Australian movements, i.e. the protection of wilderness and
opposition to deforestation, and the movement in Germany took some a great deal of
inspiration, in particular from the Green Bans concept (the banning of the destruction of
areas of green, forest etc in major cities). The German example differs as Australia and the
United states are vast countries with huge areas of open space, whereas Germany was much
more urbanised on account of its much smaller size, so the movement there took to the cities
and adaptedxxi.
The importance of the aforementioned Green Bans, and the circumstances that caused them
to first occur specifically in Australia first, are best described here: In 1971, the New South
Wales branch of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) objected to plans to redevelop one
of Sydneys historic suburbs, Hunters Hill, and refused to begin construction. This was the
first green ban. By 1974, unions placed bans on more than 40 sites worth an estimated $3
billionxxii. The fascinating thing to draw from this is the power Australian trade unions hold
over not only (some) big business, but also the government itself.

Indeed, it is the very individuality of Australian society, nature, people and above all others
the willingness to engage on a grass-roots level that sets Australia apart from the rest of the
world, and resulted in our pioneering of environmental politics on a world scale, from the
worlds very first green political party, to the widely used New Ethic, the implementation of
green bans, and the demonstration to the world that a motivated, informed and committed
populace can do in the face of seemingly overwhelming political, industrial and financial
opposition.

Relevance today

This incredible and uniquely Australian movement still resonates worldwide today. With the
increase in public concern about climate change as we begin to see the impacts of it manifest,
the importance of grass-roots activist movements has never been greater.

And with the Australian example we have discussed here, we can see that anyone can do it if
they truly believe in what they are doing.

Image: Port Arthur, Southern Tasmania. Photo by Adrian Doling-Hill, 8/11/2015xxiii

Bibliography, Primary:

Gee, Helen, The Wilderness Society, Companion to Tasmanian history, University of

Tasmania, [website], 2006, para. 2-3, accessed 21 Oct. 2017.

Dauvergne, Peter, Historical Dictionary of Environmentalism (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman

& Littlefield, 2016).

Rainbow, Stephen L. Why did New Zealand and Tasmania Spawn the world's first green
parties?, Environmental Politics, Vol. 1 No.3 (1992), 321.

Bennett, Scott The Fall of a Labor Government: Tasmania 1979-82, Labour History, No 45
(1983), 80-93.

History of the Franklin River Campaign 1976-83, The Wilderness Society,

https://www.wilderness.org.au/history-franklin-river-campaign-1976-83, accessed 27 Oct.
2017.

Hay, P. R. The Contemporary Environment Movement as Neo-Romanticism: A Re-

Appraisal from Tasmania, Environmental Review, Vol. 12, No 4 (1988), 14.

Newman, Julie, Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, (Washington D.C., Sage,
2011.

Bibliography, Secondary:

Lupton, Roger Gordon Below Franklin Dam, [website], (2006)

<http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Gordon-below-
Franklin%20Dam.htm> para. 1-2 accessed 23 Oct. 2017.

History of the Franklin River Campaign 1976-83, The Wilderness Society,

https://www.wilderness.org.au/history-franklin-river-campaign-1976-83, accessed 27 Oct.
2017.

The Globalising World, The Environment Movement, Jacaranda History Alive 10 Victorian
Curriculum, 2016, p.p. 207-209.

Hudson, Marc The Australian Greens at 25: fighting the same battles but still no
breakthrough, [website], (2017)< http://theconversation.com/the-australian-greens-at-25-
fighting-the-same-battles-but-still-no-breakthrough-83090> para 1,2,4,5, accessed 20 Oct.
2017.

Kirchhof, Astrid Going Green: The emergence and entanglements of the green movement in
Australia, the USA and Germany 1970 to present day, The Rachel Carson Centre [website],
(Nov. 2013), < http://www.astrid-kirchhof.de/files/2013_expose-going-green.pdf>, 28 Oct.
2017, p.p. 1-2.
Glaetzer, Sally, What would it take to restore Lake Pedder?, The Mercury, 14 May. 2016,
Para. 5, http://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle/tasweekend-what-would-it-take-to-restore-
lake-pedder/news-story/2879fef1d54c7f29e3b5e8331d862e68, Accesed 20 Oct, 2017

Bibliography, Images:

Tasmanian Government Archives, AA193 Photographs, AA193/1/2796, Photograph, 1970.

1921-1981.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, June 17 2017. Photo by Adrian Doling-Hill.

Port Arthur, Southern Tasmania. Photo by Adrian Doling-Hill, 8/11/2015.

i
Julie Newman, Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, (Washington D.C., Sage, 2011), 418.
ii
Julie Newman, Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, (Washington D.C., Sage, 2011), 419.
iii
P. R. Hay, The Contemporary Environment Movement as Neo-Romanticism: A Re-Appraisal from Tasmania,
Environmental Review, Vol. 12, No 4, 14.
iv
Sally Glaetzer, What would it take to restore Lake Pedder?, The Mercury, 14 May. 2016, Para. 5,
http://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle/tasweekend-what-would-it-take-to-restore-lake-pedder/news-
story/2879fef1d54c7f29e3b5e8331d862e68, Accesed 20 Oct, 2017
v
Stephen L. Rainbow, Why did New Zealand and Tasmania Spawn the world's first green parties?,
Environmental Politics, Vol. 1 No.3 (1992), 321.
vi
TGA, AA193 Photographs, AA193/1/2796.
vii
Julie Newman, Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, (Washington D.C., Sage, 2011), 418-425.
viii
Peter Dauvergne, Historical Dictionary of Environmentalism (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield,
2016), 102-103.
ix
Julie Newman, Green Ethics and Philosophy: An A-to-Z Guide, (Washington D.C., Sage, 2011), 419.
x
History of the Franklin River Campaign 1976-83, The Wilderness Society,
https://www.wilderness.org.au/history-franklin-river-campaign-1976-83, accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
xi
Roger Lupton, Gordon Below Franklin Dam, *website+, (2006)
<http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Gordon-below-Franklin%20Dam.htm>
para. 1-2 accessed 23 Oct. 2017.
xii
Repulse power station in flood, Tasmania, 1970. Tasmanian Government Archives, TGA, AA193/1/693.
xiii
History of the Franklin River Campaign 1976-83, The Wilderness Society,
https://www.wilderness.org.au/history-franklin-river-campaign-1976-83, accessed 24 Oct. 2017.
xiv
Scott Bennett, The Fall of a Labor Government: Tasmania 1979-82, Labour History, No 45 (1983), 80-93.
xv
Helen Gee, The Wilderness Society, Companion to Tasmanian history, University of Tasmania, *website+,
2006, para. 2-3, accessed 21 Oct. 2017.
xvi
Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Adrian Doling-Hill, 2015.
xvii
Tasmanian Government Archives, Tasmanian Greens, (1992)
http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/default.aspx?detail=1&type=A&id=NG02160, para, 1-3, accessed 25 Oct.
2017.
xviii
https://nsw.greens.org.au/our-story, accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
xix
Marc Hudson, The Australian Greens at 25: fighting the same battles but still no breakthrough, *website+,
(2017)< http://theconversation.com/the-australian-greens-at-25-fighting-the-same-battles-but-still-no-
breakthrough-83090> para 1,2,4,5, accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
xx
National Museum Australia, Bob Brown collection no. 1, 1993, 0002.0963.
xxi
Astrid Kirchhof, Going Green: The emergence and entanglements of the green movement in Australia, the
USA and Germany 1970 to present day, The Rachel Carson Centre *website+, (Nov. 2013), < http://www.astrid-
kirchhof.de/files/2013_expose-going-green.pdf>, 28 Oct. 2017.
xxii
The Globalising World, The Environment Movement, Jacaranda History Alive 10 Victorian Curriculum, 2016,
p.p. 207-209.
xxiii
Port Arthur, Southern Tasmania. Photo by Adrian Doling-Hill, 8/11/2015.