Christine Milne was elected to represent Tasmania at the 2004 federal election and joined the Greens Senate team on 1 July 2005. She was elected Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens in 2008.;;Milne has had a long involvement in community activism and politics, beginning with the Franklin River campaign followed by a campaign to protect Tasmanian farm lands from the Wesley Vale Pulp Mill in the late 1980s. She represented the electorate of Lyons in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1989 to 1998, and was leader of the Tasmanian Greens Party from 1993 to 1998.