Greens South Australia

Kris Hanna, the member for Mitchell, was elected as a Labor member in 1997, but changed to The Greens in 2003. Hanna left the party in February 2006, citing constituents' wishes for him not to be bound to any party.[2]

At the 2006 state election, Environmental lawyer Mark Parnell became the first Green candidate to be elected in South Australia, securing a position in the Legislative Council on a primary vote of 4.3 percent. A vote of 6.5 percent was achieved in the House of Assembly, an increase of 4.1%.

The best lower house result was in the electoral district of Heysen, on a primary vote of 17.7 percent. Heysen was also the Democrats closest lower house win, coming as close as 1.9 percent at the 1997 state election on a primary vote of 29.2 percent, finishing at 48.1 percent after preferences.

Fourth on the 2006 state ticket, Sarah Hanson-Young was first on the ticket at the 2007 federal election, and became South Australia's first Greens Senator. She won the sixth and final South Australian Senate position with a primary vote of 6.5 percent. The strongest Green votes in the Senate came from Adelaide, Boothby and Mayo.[3]

Sparked by the resignation of Liberal Party MP Alexander Downer, a Mayo by-election was held in 2008. Labor chose not to contest the by-election. Greens candidate Lynton Vonow finished second, on a primary vote of 21.35 percent amongst a field of 11 candidates, a swing of 10.39 percent, and finished on a final vote of 46.97 percent after the distribution of preferences, falling narrowly short of taking the seat from the Liberals.

Prior to the 2010 state election, the Greens had gone from four to ten percent and above in state Newspolls.[4] In the lower house, the vote increased to 8.1 percent, with the upper house vote to 6.6 percent which elected Tammy Jennings (now Tammy Franks).

At the 2010 federal election, polls showed a similar substantial increase. The Greens SA received a swing of 6.8 percent in South Australia for the Australian Senate, to finish with 13.3 percent of the statewide vote. Penny Wright was subsequently elected, joining Hanson-Young and 7 other Green Senators from July 2011.[5][6]

Hanson-Young was re-elected at the 2013 federal election with a statewide primary vote of 7.1 percent. The Greens polled strongest in the seat of Mayo with over 14 percent of the primary vote.[7]

15 of 47 electorates in South Australia had a Green vote of above 10 percent at the 2014 state election. At the 2013 federal election, of 11 seats, the Green vote was above 10 percent in Adelaide, Boothby and Mayo.

Parnell was re-elected at the 2014 election with the upper house statewide primary vote at 6.5 percent. The lower house statewide primary vote was 8.7 percent.

Lynton Vonow contested the seat of Heysen for the Greens and came second after preferences with a 39 percent two-candidate preferred vote from a 19.7 percent primary vote. The Greens have consistently polled strongest in Heysen but with preferences overtook the Labor candidate. The Greens also polled well in seats such as Kavel and Davenport with primary votes over 15 percent.

Penny Wright resigned from the Senate due to family reasons in September 2015. Later that month, Robert Simms was appointed to the casual vacancy by a joint sitting of the Parliament of South Australia.[8]

When Prime Minister Turnbull announced in March 2016 that a double dissolution would be taking place in May and an election in July,[9] the party was forced for the first time to choose between their two senators, and preselected Sarah Hanson-Young to the number 1 preference on the Senate ballot, with Robert Simms at number 2.[10] Only Hanson-Young was reelected, being assigned a 3-year term.

Tammy Franks was re-elected to the Legislative Council with a statewide vote of 5.87% in the upper house.[11]

Sarah Hanson-Young was re-elected to the Senate with a statewide upper-house swing of +5.03% and a total vote of 10.9% despite a modest swing of +3.4% in the lower house.[12] The party polled strongest in the seat of Adelaide, where Barbara Pocock received 15.7% of first preference votes.[13]

Steffi Medrow received 14.6% of first preferences with a swing of +8.3% in the 2019 Cheltenham state by-election.[14]

Sebastian Konyn received 8.3% of first preferences in the 2019 Enfield state by-election, a result unchanged from Cassie Alvey's result in the 2018 election[15]

Robert Simms was preselected to contest the 2022 South Australian state election, but when Mark Parnell resigned from Parliament on 9th April, Simms was appointed to the state upper house on 4 May 2021. Tammy Franks became the parliamentary leader of the party.

Simms was re-elected to the state's upper house with a statewide Legislate Council vote of 9% and a swing of +3.2%.[16] Sean Cullen-MacAskill received 14.5% of first preference votes in the seat of Adelaide.[17]

With Hanson-Young not requiring re-election in the middle of her six-year term, the party sought to double its upper-house representation. With a Senate swing of +0.99% and a total vote of 11.9%, Prof Barbara Pocock AM was elected as SA's newest senator.[18] The party polled strongest in the seat of Adelaide, where Rebecca Galdies received 20.1% of first preference votes.[19]

To fill the seat vacated by Vickie Chapman, the party preselected Jim Bastiras as the candidate for the Bragg by-election.

The party's State Council meets once a quarter to deal with the party's administrative matters. The party also has a Policy and Campaigning Council, which includes representatives from branches and member action groups and meets every two months to shape the party's strategic priorities

Branches are where new members first meet other Greens, talk politics and policy, get involved in local campaigning and fundraising, and find out about what else is going on.

A variety of member action groups have been established by the State Council, which are directly accessible to all Greens members. Working groups perform an advisory function by developing policy, conducting issues-based campaigns, or by performing other tasks assigned by the State Council. These groups include:

• Indigenous Issues
• Animal welfare
• Greenhouse, energy and nuclear
• Queer Greens
• Young Greens

• 
  Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens SA Senator elected in 2007.
• 
  Barbara Pocock, Greens SA Senator elected in 2022.

• Penny Wright (2011–2015)
• Robert Simms (2015–2016)

• 
  Robert Simms, Greens SA MLC appointed in 2021 to replace Mark Parnell.
• 
  Tammy Franks, Greens SA MLC elected in 2010.

• Kris Hanna (2003–2006), elected in 1997 for the Labor Party, defected to the Greens in 2003 and sat as an independent until 2010.
• Mark Parnell (2006–2021), Greens SA MLC elected in 2006.