In 2007 the Greens secured more than one-million votes, expanding their representation in the Senate to five, a number large enough to achieve official Parliamentary status. And in the 2010 federal election, the Greens received 1.6 million votes to secure six Senate seats, taking their tally in the upper house to nine. Melbourne's Adam Bandt broke new ground for the party, securing the Greens first seat in the House of Representatives at a general election.
The party entered a supply and confidence agreement with Labor in 2010, with the two parties working together on a number of common issues. After 16 years in federal politics leading the Australian Greens, M-P Bob Brown resigned as the party leader in April 2012, halfway through his term.
He handed over the leadership to M-P Christine Milne, who he had worked alongside with in the early days of his environmental activism in Tasmania. Many argued it would be the end of the Greens, an argument Dr Brown described as grossly inaccurate.
This isn't the first time we've done this. I left the Tasmanian parliament and she took on the leadership and there were all sorts of dismal proclamations about the end of the Greens. Well, look at us now. This party is set to grow. I remember wellbeing in this parliament as the only Green a decade ago. Here we are now ten.
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