Greens leader Adam Bandt loses seat of Melbourne after 15 years in office

Adam Bandt losing his seat of Melbourne signalled the near-complete reversal of the “Greenslide” from the previous election. See who’s tipped to be the next Greens leader.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has lost his seat of Melbourne on top of presiding over the near-total wipe-out of his colleagues in the lower house in what Jewish groups have described as a thorough “repudiation” of the minor party.

Mr Bandt had been trailing Labor candidate Sarah Witty in the count since Saturday night, and by Wednesday afternoon the gap was deemed too big for him to close leading Sky News to declare the Greens leader had lost his seat after 15 years in office.

His demise signalled the near-complete reversal of 2022’s “Greenslide,” when the party secured four lower house seats – its best ever result.

Adam Bandt has lost his seat of Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

A Greens spokeswoman said while there were “many, many thousands of votes to be counted we are not conceding Melbourne”.

“While we are ahead on primary votes, there is a chance that One Nation and Liberal preferences will elect the Labor candidate,” she said.

The Greens are awaiting more than 15,000 absentee and declaration votes that have not reached the counting centre, believing the current count of about 40 per cent is skewed by postals, which break unfavourably for the minor party.

The Greens are yet to schedule a post-election party room meeting where they will decide a new leader, with prominent South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young considered a frontrunner for the position.

South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is considered a frontrunner to replace Adam Bandt as leader of the Greens.

Despite her famous stunts, such as recently taking a dead fish into the Senate chamber to protest Tasmanian salmon farming, Ms Hanson-Young has a reputation as a reasonable negotiator when it comes to key legislation, which could help the Greens’ claw back support after being viewed by many voters as “wreckers” during the Albanese Government’s first term.

Greens deputy leader, NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi, could also consider a tilt to lead what will be a significantly smaller federal parliamentary team.

Along with Mr Bandt, two of the party’s three Queensland MPs – Stephen Bates in Brisbane and Max Chandler-Mather in Griffith – have also been voted out, and Elizabeth Watson-Brown has only a slim lead over her Liberal challenger Maggie Forrest in the seat of Ryan.

The Greens’ vote increased slightly nationally in the Senate, but in the House of Representatives Mr Bandt recorded a huge primary swing of about 4.4 per cent against him, while Mr Bates had a 1.73 per cent swing and Mr Chandler-Mather’s was 2.88 per cent.

Jewish groups have described the result as a “repudiation” of the Greens’ “extreme and divisive politics”.

“This result reflects a message from fair-minded Australians: extremism has no place in our democracy,” Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Mr Bandt led the Greens to become “institutionally antisemitic”.

“Jewish law precludes us from celebrating the misfortunes of others but the fact that the people of Melbourne decided to purge Adam Bandt from the federal parliament is a good thing,” he said.

Adam Bandt was first elected to the seat of Melbourne in 2010. Picture: NewsWire/Ian Currie

Mr Bandt, who first won the seat of Melbourne from Labor in 2010, was elected leader of the Greens ten years later.

Over the past five years he has expanded the Greens’ focus beyond its traditional environment and climate roots when the party was first established in 1992.

Though the Greens continued to opposed new coal and gas projects and push for a more rapid reduction in Australia’s emissions, the party also expanded its focus to renters’ rights, welfare supports, and taxing billionaires to fund things like dental in Medicare.

Meanwhile in other close seats, Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer has come within 366 votes of teal independent MP Monique Ryan in the electorate of Kooyong in Melbourne’s leafy suburbs.

If she is able to close the gap as the final postal votes are received, Ms Hamer would be the second Liberal to unseat a Climate 200-backed community independent after incoming MP Tim Wilson declared victory against Zoe Daniel in the seat of Goldstein on Wednesday.

After the win Mr Wilson, who lost the Melbourne seat to Ms Daniel in 2022, remained tight-lipped on his own leadership ambitions.

Asked if he would consider a tilt at the Liberals’ top job, which is currently expected to be contested between Angus Taylor, Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan, Mr Wilson said: “I have aspirations for one thing, and it was to have the great privilege and service to be the member for Goldstein again and of course we have lived out that promise”.

Labor is also fighting to hold on to the Canberra seat of Bean and West Australian set of Fremantle from teal independent challengers.

Originally published as Greens leader Adam Bandt loses seat of Melbourne after 15 years in office