Lance John Edward Armstrong (17 February 1940 – 14 October 2023) was an Australian politician. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he was active in Tasmania and subsequently as a minister with the Uniting Church in Albury.
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Political career
Armstrong chose to stand for Parliament at the 1989 Tasmanian state election in Bass following an invitation by Bob Brown, who had been the first Australian parliamentary representative of what would later be known as the Greens. Armstrong was motivated to accept Brown's invitation due to a number of factors, including unabated exploitation of the Tasmanian natural environment for the benefit of multinational corporations, tactics of the Robin Gray government, and abusive language being used in the Tasmanian Parliament. In regards to the latter concern, Armstrong stated that a strong motivator in him choosing to contest was language used to describe Christine Milne after she first considered standing for election, with a member using parliamentary privilege to label Milne a "parliamentary prostitute".
Armstrong was successful in being elected, and sat alongside Brown, Milne, Di Hollister, and Gerry Bates as independents in the Tasmanian parliament. An attempt by the Gray government to fast-track legislation to build a pulp mill at Wesley Vale, in Armstrong's electorate of Bass, contributed in bringing environmental issues to the forefront of the election campaign. Following the election, the five independents began to use the moniker of 'Green Independents', which had been used by media throughout the election campaign in reference to them.