Adam Bandt loses seat as Greens’ ‘dream to replace Labor’ is dead
Adam Bandt has led his party into electoral oblivion in the lower house and the Greens leader has also lost his own seat.
Federal Election
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Adam Bandt has led his party into electoral oblivion in the lower house by making Greens voters feel the party was only “in the business of tearing down Labor” — a mistake he has now paid for with losing his own seat.
Sky News called the seat for Labor candidate Sarah Witty on Wednesday.
The Greens leader, who has lost his seat of Melbourne, was “too late” changing his strategy from attacking Anthony Albanese to targeting Peter Dutton and dialling down his rhetoric on the Gaza war, pollsters say.
Mr Bandt has presided over the loss of at least two, but up to all four of the Greens seats in the House of Representatives, where the party recorded swings against every sitting MP.
Victorian Greens senator Steph Hodnatgins-May had said the party was confident Mr Bandt would not lose its seat, despite Labor’s Sarah Witty taking an early lead with 54 per cent of the vote after preferences on Tuesday.
“We did expect that we would see some shifts, given the redistribution that happened,” she told the ABC.
“But we’re not concerned about Melbourne.”
Having already lost Griffith and Brisbane in Queensland, the Greens are in trouble in the neighbouring seat of Ryan where a three-way contest is likely to put Labor in poll position on preferences.
The Greens’ disastrous performance at the May 3 election followed a trend of sweeping losses in local government elections and some state contests in Victoria, Queensland and NSW.
Redbridge Group director Kos Samaras said research suggested Australians saw the Greens as contributing to “trauma” in the community over the Gaza-Israel war, and being blockers during the Albanese government’s first term.
“They were seen by Green voters as in the business of tearing down Labor governments,” he said.
“People felt they were aiding and abetting Mr Dutton.”
Mr Samaras said he did not believe the Greens, whose national vote did grow beyond their usual strongholds in the inner cities due to a broadening of support among Gen Z, were not gone for good.
“I think they can bounce back in some locations, but their dream to replace Labor is dead,” he said.
“People who had a history of voting Labor came back because they’re not happy with the Greens’ behaviour.”
Meanwhile, Labor MP Peter Khalil appears to have fended off a strong challenge from the Greens in his inner Melbourne seat of Wills, pulling ahead of his opponent by 3356 votes as of 4.30pm on Tuesday.
Wills, as well as Richmond on the NSW north coast, had been Mr Bandt’s two big hopes for expanding the Greens footprint in the lower house, but both have come back to Labor.
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