We have pushed the government to take up our policies through campaigns and electoral and parliamentary pressure.
Climate action
- Together with the local community and environment groups, we successfully campaigned to stop a giant new gas terminal in Westernport Bay.
- We were a key part of the campaign which secured a solid commitment to renewables in Victoria, via a legally-binding Renewable Energy Target.
- We helped shut down the ageing Hazelwood power station, which was the most polluting coal power station in the country.
- We took making new homes all electric to the 2022 election, and Labor adopted our policy in 2023.
- The Greens campaigned with the community and got a ban on toxic gas fracking in Victoria.
- In 2014, the Greens successfully campaigned to stop the East West Link toll road from ripping up Royal Park and further contributing to climate pollution from thousands of cars.
Housing and Equality
- Through our negotiations in Parliament the Greens made the tax on empty homes stronger, meaning up to 5000 more empty homes could be available to renters.
- During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Greens secured a ban on evictions and rent increases.
- The Greens have campaigned for years on better rights for renters. In the lead-up to the Northcote by-election (which they lost to the Greens), Labor committed to better rights for renters, including rights to a pet and secure locks.
- We kept up the pressure on the state government's cosy relationship with Crown and on the casino's scandals. Now there is an independent gambling regulator to make help sure we put people before corporate interests.
- In 2021, the Labor Government adopted our 2018 election policy for a Developer Tax on land value gains from rezoning.
- Making the Sick Pay Guarantee available to arts workers is a policy we took to the 2022 election. In 2023, the Labor government adopted our policy.
Protecting nature
- Together with First Nations, environmental and community groups, the Greens achieved an end to native forest logging.
- After years of campaigning by the Greens and others, we now have a ban on single-use plastics, including plastic cutlery, plates and polystyrene food containers.
- After the Greens-initiated a parliamentary inquiry and years of campaigning, the Greens secured the container deposit scheme, which refunds 10 cents when you return bottles and cans.
- We supported the local community and Traditional Owners to successfully reject plans for an environment-wrecking open-cut mineral sands mine in East Gippsland.
- After campaigning for a decade on the impact on both horses and safety, in 2021 the Greens secured a ban on horse-drawn carriages in Melbourne’s CBD.
- The Greens led the charge for a single-use plastic bags ban in Victoria, introducing legislation to Parliament, with Labor finally committing ahead of the by-election in Northcote (which the Greens won).
- After the wombat culls were revealed in 2019, we pushed in parliament to protect wombats and were successful in getting wombats to be declared a protected species across the entire state.
OTHER GREENS ACHIEVEMENTS
✔️ More support for maternity care
In 2021, we led a campaign to win $13 million extra for midwives and Victoria’s public maternity system.
✔️ Fairer fines
We secured fairer COVID fines for people on low incomes. For the first time in Victoria, people on lower incomes did not pay the same sized fine as the wealthy.
✔️ More accountability for ministers
We have long campaigned for ministerial diaries to be public, so we all know who powerful ministers are meeting with. In 2023, Labor finally committed to this.
✔️Protecting women’s reproductive rights
The Greens have always been on the forefront of ensuring women’s reproductive rights. In 2008, Greens MP Colleen Hartland was the first MP to reveal she had had an abortion and advocated strongly for reforms to make abortion legal in Victoria, which we helped pass parliament.
✔️First Aboriginal woman to the Victorian Parliament
In 2017, the prominent activist and community leader Lidia Thorpe became the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian Parliament as the Greens MP for Northcote. The Greens support for her candidacy, together with the voting community, made history. Lidia has since gone on to be elected the first Aboriginal Senator for Victoria in our Federal Parliament.
✔️An overhaul of our broken recycling system
For many years, the Greens were the only party calling to fix our recycling system. When the system fell into deep crisis in 2018-19 and recycling was being dumped in landfill, we established an inquiry and helped achieve separate glass and food waste bins for households, funding to boost the recycling industry and ensuring that recycled materials get used in infrastructure projects, like roads.
✔️ Improved public transport
The Greens have always campaigned strongly for more frequent, reliable public transport and safer, better bike infrastructure. Through strong electoral and local campaigns, we secured significant upgrades of South Yarra Station and an upgrade of facilities at South Kensington Station, one metre minimum passing laws for cars overtaking cyclists to help keep people safe, and bike lanes on St Kilda Road, and we will keep fighting for more.
✔️ Reform to political donations laws
The Greens don’t take donations from corporations and vested interests, like big property developers and the gambling industry. But the two old parties do. For years we have campaigned to stop corporate influence over government policies by banning corporate donations to political parties. In 2017, in the lead up to the Northcote by-election (which the Greens won), the Victorian Government announced it would cap donations to political parties to $1000 per year.
✔️ More accountable pandemic laws
The Greens negotiated with the state government to create better public health laws for managing pandemics - laws which are more transparent and accountable, and fairer for the whole Victorian community.
✔️ Safe injecting rooms established
The Greens have continuously and courageously advocated for these vital health services for drug users, because our policies are based on evidence. In the lead up to the Northcote by-election in 2017, the Labor Government finally backflipped on its long-term position and committed to a safe injecting service. Since it began in 2018, it has saved dozens of lives and reduced ambulance call outs.
✔️ Dying with dignity laws
The Greens campaigned for compassionate deaths for terminally ill people for a long time, first introducing a bill to achieve this in 2008. Along with Dying with Dignity Victoria, we kept this issue on the agenda and our first action after the 2014 election was to introduce a motion for policy reform. A parliamentary inquiry was established and we were successful in influencing the members of the inquiry to recommend law reform. This reform was finally achieved with a conscience vote in 2017.
✔️ A ban on ATMs from pokies venues
The Greens are the only party that continues to speak up about the harms of pokies. When the government required the Greens vote on gambling legislation, we negotiated to secure stronger bans on ATMs in pokies venues from 2012, which significantly cut gambling losses.
✔️ WorkCover for firefighters with cancer
For years, the Greens stood alongside firefighters and unions calling for automatic compensation for firefighters who contract work-related cancer. WorkCover for cancer was almost impossible for firefighters to obtain and it was impossible to prove the exact cause. After years of campaigning, including the Greens introducing a bill in 2008, the legislation passed in 2019 to enable firefighters to get proper WorkCover.
✔️ Safe cladding on apartments
Working with the community, the Greens led the way in securing support from the government for our proposed package of support to make apartment buildings safe from flammable cladding.
✔️ Secured divestment of State Government funds from tobacco
The Greens believe government investments should be ethical. In 2013 we pressured the Victorian Funds Management Corporation, which manages the Victorian Government’s investments, into divesting $200 million dollars from the tobacco industry.
✔️ Shipping containers moved off trucks and onto rail
The Greens, together with the local community, have campaigned strongly to get dirty diesel trucks off local streets in the inner west of Melbourne, and to connect the Port of Melbourne with rail for moving freight. Thanks to this pressure, the government announced curfews for container trucks on some residential streets, and made connecting the port to rail for moving freight part of the port lease requirements.
✔️ New schools for students
The Greens have pushed to ensure our kids have the schools they need to get a quality education. The Greens MPs for Prahran and Melbourne successfully campaigned with the community for new schools to be established in Prahran and the Docklands.