United Tasmania Group
United Tasmania Group | |
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Founded | 23 March 1972 |
Ideology | Green politics |
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Green politics |
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The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green party to contest elections.[1] The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Committee (LPAC) at the Hobart Town Hall in order to field political candidates in the April 1972 state election.[2]
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, went on to form the Tasmanian Greens and then ultimately, at the national level, the Australian Greens.
2010s[]
In 2 April 2016 following a meeting, former members of the party re-started the group.[3][4]
The United Tasmania Group launched The UTG Journal in 2018.[5] 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.
In March 2021 a special 50th year anniversary edition of the UTG Journal, Issue No. 6, was published. This publication is principally a compilation of UTG’s policies from 1972 to 2020 as part of the celebrations of the 50th year of the world’s first ‘Green’ party (the term ‘Green’ had not been invented back then and, when it was it became a term of abuse, especially in Tasmania). UTG is the political party that invented green politics, with major impacts not only in Tasmania but the rest of Australia and globally. UTG’s policies are reproduced here with historical accuracy, i.e., no content editing and no grammar corrections. It is sometimes said that the Tasmanian Greens evolved out of UTG. However, that is not entirely accurate, if not misleading, for four main reasons. First, very few UTG members went on to participate in the Green Independents (1989), who later became the Tasmanian Greens. The second reason is that UTG’s philosophy is based on ecocentrism - by contrast, the Greens are anthropocentric. The third reason is that UTG’s policies are very different from those of the present Greens – as is demonstrated across its extensive policies reproduced in UTG Journal No. 6. The fourth reason is UTG’s foundational document called ‘A New Ethic’, which is a set of ethical principles, something much lacking in today’s politics. (see reference to UTG Journal No. 6 below)
Histories and analysis[]
In the mid 1990s Lance Armstrong wrote a history of the politics of Tasmania in the 1990s.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9]
Publications[]
1970s[]
- United Tasmania Group (1970), Newsletter, United Tasmania Group, retrieved 4 April 2016
- United Tasmania Group (1976), State newsletter, United Tasmania Group, retrieved 4 April 2016
- United Tasmania Group (1977), Alternative : journal of the Group, United Tasmania Group, retrieved 4 April 2016
- United Tasmania Group (issuing body.) (2018), "The UTG journal Issue No. 1", The Utg Journal, [Sandy Bay, Tasmania] United Tasmania Group, ISSN 2208-9497
2000s[]
- The UTG Journal issue No. 1[10]
- The UTG Journal Issue No. 2[11]
- The UTG Journal Issue No. 3[12]
- The UTG Journal Issue No. 4[13]
- The UTG Journal Issue No. 5[14]
- The UNITED TASMANIA GROUP Story Policy Compilation The UTG Journal Issue No. 6 Special 50th year edition[15]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Timms, Peter (2009). In Search of Hobart. UNSW Press. p. 161.
- ^ Walker, PF (1987). "The United Tasmania Group". Trove.nla.gov. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ Bolger, Rosemary. "United Tasmania Group to reform over disquiet with current Greens party". ABC News. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ Karp, Paul (5 April 2016). "Bob Brown shrugs off impact of split in Tasmanian Greens". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ "Geoff Holloway's Lab - Independent Researcher ()". ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ Armstrong, Lance (Lance John Edward); Armstrong, Lance John Edward (1997), Good God, he's green! : a history of Tasmanian politics 1989 to 1996, Pacific Law Press, ISBN 978-1-875192-08-3
- ^ Lines, William J (2006), Patriots : defending Australia's natural heritage, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3554-2
- ^ Manning, Paddy (2019), Inside the Greens : the origins and future of the party, the people and the politics, Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Publishing, ISBN 978-1-86395-952-0
- ^ Manning, Paddy (2019), Inside the Greens : the origins and future of the party, the people and the politics, Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Publishing, ISBN 978-1-86395-952-0
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "The UTG Journal Issue No. 2" (PDF). ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ "The UTG Journal Issue No. 3" (PDF). Cdn-src.tasmaniantimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ "The UTG Journal Issue No. 4" (PDF). ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ "The UTG Journal Issue No. 5" (PDF). ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
- ^ https://www.academia.edu/46399393. Missing or empty
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External links[]
- United Tasmania Group
- Green political parties in Australia
- Political parties established in 1972
- 1972 establishments in Australia