Former controversial Green to run in state election as independent
Tammy Franks – who controversially split from the Greens last year – is contesting the state election in March, fearing her vital work won’t be protected. The Greens say they don’t need her help in keeping key reforms in place.
Upper House Independent Tammy Franks is planning to fight for her spot in parliament despite publicly announcing in 2024 she would retire at this election, citing abortion legislation and decriminalising sex work as two major reasons why she has changed her mind.
The former Greens joint leader who spectacularly quit the party over allegations of being “undermined” last year, wants another eight-year term in the legislative council, which has 11 spots up for grabs in March.
Franks has her sights set on the eleventh spot, but if unsuccessful for re-election, could still receive a 12-week redundancy payment – something that applies to all members of parliament if they stand for election and are unsuccessful.
The taxpayer-funded redundancy payment was a talking point in the 2022 election, when then-treasurer Rob Lucas accused former upper house Labor MP Russell Wortley of running for the money. Wortley denied this at the time and said he would donate the money to charity.
When asked if a redundancy payout factored into her decision to run again, Franks told InDaily it did not, but if she were to receive those funds, “I’m a single mum and would use it to transition into the next stage of my working life”.
“If I wanted to do this for the money, I would have set up a political party and been entitled to more funding,” Franks said.
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Franks flagged she intended to have a running mate to get a more prominent spot above the line on the ballot paper, but she has ruled out starting her own political party after previously being a member of both the now-defunct Australian Democrats and the Greens.
“Party politics was definitely something I was very committed to, but it’s not in my future,” Franks said.
Franks resigned from the SA Greens in May 2025 claiming she was “undermined” and subject to “unfair and oppressive conduct”.
Greens leaders said at the time that Franks’ resignation was “a difficult period” and claimed that there had been complaints about Franks’ behaviour from “multiple” Greens members.
Franks said she was “in a much better place” than when she announced her retirement at the end of 2024 and after seeing the growing One Nation presence in SA, felt she had to run again.
“I’m well placed to probably prioritise issues that the Greens don’t necessarily want to prioritise and that is why I think on the abortion law reform, somebody needs to stand firm as well as continue to champion the decriminalisation of sex work,” Franks said.
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“One of my concerns is that people may support abortion being treated as healthcare and understand that that’s important, but I don’t know that anyone else is actually willing to lead the charge against those who seek to put parts of abortion back into criminal code legislation. I don’t see anyone else having the courage to take those people on.”
Franks was part of a national movement to remove abortion from the criminal code and put the first decriminalisation of abortion bill on the Legislative Council agenda. She pushed for the former Marshall Liberal government to refer it to the SA Law Reform Institute, which eventually saw the reform led by then-Attorney General Vicky Chapman.
Recently, Franks raised concerns in parliament about anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe’s spending on Meta advertising regarding Sarah Game’s attempt to limit late-term abortions, which failed to get up at the end of last year.
“There were personal attacks against me right across the state with unauthorised material calling me a killer put in letterboxes. There were death threats, there was rape threats to my office,” Franks said.
“I certainly think Vicky Chapman (the Liberal MP who initially led the reform) should absolutely be commended for her leadership here and Susan Close on the Labor side, nobody else is still standing.”
Greens leader Robert Simms said he “was not surprised” to hear about Franks’ run but “in terms of the makeup of the Upper House, the Greens are the party that is best able to take on One Nation and their divisive agenda”.
“I think diversity in politics is always a good thing, it’s always welcome to see people putting their hands up, but in terms of who’s better able to take on One Nation and to hold the Malinauskas government to account, that’s the Greens,” Simms said.
“Tammy has done a good job advocating on that (abortion) as a Greens MP and also as an independent, but I’ve continued to advocate on that issue as well, and I know that Melanie Selwood will be a fantastic advocate on that issue, along with Katie McCusker as well.”
In the Upper House, the Greens will run Selwood, a former Adelaide Hills Deputy Mayor, in the Greens’ top spot, followed by McCusker, who was the party’s pick for both the federal seat of Sturt and state seat of Dunstan.
Former Liberal Cory Bernardi, would run in One Nation’s number one spot for the Upper House ticket and said last week that he was optimistic about winning both seats”.
