The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Australia to create the current federated structure. The Greens NSW continue to be separate to the other state and territory Greens parties in several regards. The Greens NSW tend to be more left-wing in their political positions in comparison to the other state parties, and continues to maintain the original Greens policy of not having a single parliamentary leader, instead being based on principles of collective leadership. The party currently sits on the crossbench in the New South Wales Parliament, and has representation federally in the Senate. History The first Greens party was registered in 1984, but the Greens NSW did not take its current form until 1991, when six local groups in New South Wales federated as a state political party. Greens candidates have run in every federal election since 1984, when a single candidate ran in the federal Division of Sydney. The founding document of the Greens NSW described the organisation as the following: New South Wales state elections The party first came close to electing a candidate in 1991, when Ian Cohen was the last Upper House candidate to be excluded in a contest against Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile for the final statewide seat. In the subsequent 1995 election, Cohen was elected to the NSW Legislative Council and became the first Greens parliamentary representative in NSW. In 1999 he was joined by Lee Rhiannon and in 2003 he was re-elected and joined by Sylvia Hale. In 2007 Lee Rhiannon was re-elected to the Legislative Council and joined by John Kaye, bringing the number of Members of the Legislative Council to four. In 2010 Lee Rhiannon resigned from the Legislative Council to contest and win a Senate seat, and Sylvia Hale also resigned her seat. The resulting casual vacancies were filled by Cate Faehrmann and David Shoebridge respectively. At the 2011 NSW state election the Greens further increased their vote, resulting in the election of Jamie Parker as the first Greens member of the Legislative Assembly, representing Balmain. David Shoebridge was re-elected and joined by Jan Barham and Jeremy Buckingham in the Legislative Council. In 2013 Cate Faehrmann resigned from the Legislative