Adam Bandt will ‘blame Labor, he’ll blame Liberals, he’ll blame voters, but never himself’

The Greens are in crisis and searching for a leader after Adam Bandt became the latest victim of Anthony Albanese’s stunning election victory by losing the far-left party’s stranglehold over the centre of Melbourne.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has ended his 15-year parliamentary career after the loss of his seat of Melbourne. Main picture: NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

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The Greens are in crisis and searching for a leader after Adam Bandt became the latest victim of Anthony Albanese’s stunning election victory by losing the far-left party’s stranglehold over the centre of Melbourne.

The Prime Minister’s extraordinary win at the May 3 poll has seen him knock rival leaders Peter Dutton and Mr Bandt out of parliament, in a result that was beyond the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic Labor strategist.

The Greens will lose at least three of its four lower house MPs, with only Elizabeth Watson-Brown a chance of winning a tight race in the Brisbane seat of Ryan.

Despite Mr Bandt refusing to concede the seat of Melbourne that was called in Labor’s favour by Sky News and the ABC, Greens senators were in discussions on Wednesday about who could be their new leader.

Party sources said South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Queensland senator Larissa Waters were considered the most likely to become the next Greens leader.

While Labor MPs privately expressed sympathy at Mr Dutton losing his seat of Dickson, there was nothing but jubilation within the Albanese government’s ranks at the political death of the first Green to win a seat in the House of Representatives.

Labor MPs were scathing of Mr Bandt for stalling the Albanese government’s agenda in parliament, politicising the conflict in Gaza and undermining the progressive cause by mostly targeting Labor seats rather than those held by the Coalition.

The loss is particularly embarrassing for Mr Bandt given he was talking up the Greens’ chances of governing in minority with Labor this term, arguing the party was a hot chance on building on the record four seats it won in 2022.

The new Melbourne MP will be Sarah Witty, the chief executive of a charity that provides nappies to families in crisis. There was no self-reflection or admission of mistakes from the Greens on Wednesday, laying the path to blame “Liberal and One Nation preferences” for Mr Bandt’s loss.

“While there are many, many thousands of votes to be counted we are not conceding Melbourne,” the Greens spokesman said. “While we are ahead on primary votes, there is a chance that One Nation and Liberal prefer­ences will elect the Labor candidate. The count needs to proceed.”

Despite the loss being blamed on preferences, Mr Bandt’s primary vote in Melbourne has plummeted by nine points from 49.3 per cent in 2019.

One Labor source said “it turns out being morally superior has a shelf life”.

“He’ll blame Labor, he’ll blame the Liberals, he’ll blame voters, but he’ll never blame himself,” the Labor source said.

A Labor minister said the Greens paid the price for voting with the Liberals too often in parliament, including on legislation aimed at building more housing and protecting the environment.

Cabinet minister Murray Watt said Labor campaigned “very heavily” in seats held by the Greens. “We were determined to win them,” Senator Watt told Sky News. “We started campaigning in those Greens seats at least two years ago, mainly on the fact that the Greens were in Canberra voting with the Coalition to delay progress on important issues like housing and environmental reform, the kind of things that the Greens say that they care about but were actually blocking progress on in Canberra.

“I think Australians in those Greens seats said they wanted to actually see some progress on these issues rather than just constant protesting.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said it was a “good thing” Mr Bandt lost his seat.

“Bandt led a political party in this country to become institutionally anti-Semitic,” Mr Ryvchin. “This doesn’t mean its members, candidates and leaders merely said some anti-Semitic things. It means that at a time when Jews were being doxxed, threatened, boycotted and firebombed, the Greens under Bandt’s leadership turned their influence and resources against our community and did so while leading the lie that they were progressive and anti-racist.”

In 2010 Mr Bandt became the first Greens MP to enter the House of Representatives at a general election, breaking Labor’s 100-year run in Melbourne after former finance minister Lindsay Tanner retired.

A former lawyer, Mr Bandt quickly became deputy leader in 2012, a role he held alongside portfolios such as employment, treasury and climate change before being chosen to replace Richard Di Natale in 2020 as leader.

During his five years at the helm of the party, he presided over Lidia Thorpe’s defection from the Greens in protest against the party’s support for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

Bullying claims in the office of Senator Thorpe’s successor in the Indigenous portfolio, Dorinda Cox, also were raised in the last parliamentary term.

A key feature of his leadership in the past term has been on the issue of anti-Semitism.

Mr Bandt and his party refused to back a motion in parliament shortly after the October 7, 2023, attacks condemning Hamas, citing a need to put some of the responsibility on Israel.

His comments in parliament accusing Mr Albanese of being “complicit in genocide” and selling arms to Israel were panned by the two major parties, accusing the Greens leader of sowing division for political gain.

Mr Bandt took the Greens to the 2025 election with an ambitious agenda to implement a “Robin Hood tax” that would increase taxes on big business to fund myriad programs such as putting dental on Medicare.

Despite being highly critical of several Labor policies, Mr Bandt led the party to support the safeguard mechanism – despite its failure to ban coal and gas – and eventually helped Labor pass legislation to set up the Housing Australia Future Fund.

The Greens leader has been at the centre of several controversies, including his decision in 2022 to remove the Australian flag from a press conference because of the “lingering pain” it caused Indigenous Australians.

He was a vocal critic of Donald Trump and Australia’s alliance with the US, declaring earlier this year that the election of the Republican President would encourage “hate and far right extremism”.