Greens leader Adam Bandt ‘not surprised’ by 3 per cent drop in primary vote

Adam Bandt warns of looming climate crisis while playing down a swing against the Greens in Eden-Monaro.

Greens leader Adam Bandt says he is ‘not surprised’ his party experienced a 3 per cent drop in its primary vote at the Eden-Monaro by-election. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Greens leader Adam Bandt has declared the climate crisis could be like “coronavirus on steroids” in a decade after playing down a swing against his party in the Eden-Monaro by-election.

Mr Bandt said he was unsurprised at the swing against the Greens, despite his party’s push for greater climate action and the electorate being ravaged by the Black Summer fires that he said were “coal-fuelled” blazes.

Mr Bandt told The Australian on Monday that the nation was right to focus its attention on the COVID-19 pandemic but issued a stark warning that unless measures were taken to reduce pollution in the next decade, the climate crisis would be like “corona­virus on steroids”.

In the lead-up to the election, Mr Bandt called on voters to use the July 4 poll to send a message to Scott Morrison about the climate crisis.

The party’s candidate, Bega Valley Shire councillor Cathy Griff, suffered a 3 per cent drop in the primary vote, receiving just 5164 votes.

Labor’s Kristy McBain, who has claimed victory in Eden-Monaro, leads Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs by a margin of less than 800 votes with about 5 per cent of the count to go.

“We were not surprised by the result in Eden-Monaro,” Mr Bandt said. “It was a very unusual by-election, held in the middle of a pandemic with more candidates on the ballot than I can remember seeing in any by-election.”

He said the large field of candidates was always going to fracture the vote, but the Greens were second only to the Nationals in non-major party votes, with preferences from Greens voters “clearly deciding” the winner. The Greens preferenced Labor.

Mr Bandt said momentum for climate action had been strong after the “coal-fuelled bushfires” and he had no doubt the desire for action was there.

“Everyone around the country has rightly dropped everything to deal with the immediate pandemic threat and while this may temporarily push other ­issues off the front page in a way that favours incumbent leaders, unless we get pollution under control over the next decade, the climate crisis will be like the corona­virus crisis on steroids.”

Nationals senator Perin Davey on Monday told Sky­ News the Greens had “absolutely tanked”. “(Their) primary vote has fallen by nearly 3 per cent at a time they were telling everyone the bushfires were wholly due to government policy,” she said.

“The people of Eden-­Monaro are smarter than that.”