NSW election 2023: Hopes dashed for One Nation, Greens amid Labor victory

Minor parties One Nation and the Greens have failed to substantially increase their vote at the NSW election after predictions of a minority government failed to materialise on election night.

One Nation party leader Mark Latham. Picture: Julian Andrews

Minor parties One Nation and the Greens have failed to substantially increase their vote at the NSW election after predictions of a minority government failed to materialise on election night.

One Nation have received only 1.8 per cent of the vote, an increase of 0.7 per cent, after about half the vote count had been completed on Sunday.

Party leader Mark Latham did not return calls while former Labor MP turned One Nation candidate Tania Mihailuk was unavailable for comment.

Ms Mihailuk on Saturday told The Australian she believed the minor party could double the number of seats it held to four.

Former Labor strategist Kosmos Samaras said One Nation would become increasingly irrelevant as the number of voters under the age of 40, who were attracted to progressive and globalised politics, increased as a proportion of voters.

“Clearly One Nation has been a political movement that has succeeded in capturing the support of much older and politically disenfranchised constituencies,” said Mr Samaras, the founder of polling company Redbridge.

“That kind of person is becoming less and less prominent.”

Meanwhile, Greens NSW have held on to the seats of Newtown, Ballina and Balmain in Sydney’s inner west.

This was despite a concerted campaign by Labor seeking to capitalise on the retirement of Jamie Parker, who became the minor party’s first member to be elected to the lower house in 2011.

The progressive minor party increased their total vote by 0.6 per cent while Newtown MP Jenny Leong increased her primary vote by about 9 per cent from the 2019 election.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

“It is an absolute privilege to have been re-elected by you to represent our wonderful community in the NSW parliament,” said Ms Leong on Twitter.

“This win is for the renters.”

Greens NSW said during the election campaign that they were confident Labor leader Chris Minns would want their support forming minority government and outlined demands including ending coal and gas in the state, scrapping the public sector wages cap and the introduction of a cashless gaming card.

Sky News election analyst Tom Connell said the Greens would likely be happy they kept all three seats after the retirement of Balmain MP Jamie Parker.

“They’ve had the first ever retiring lower house Green in the nation,” he said.

“I think they’ll be happy enough even though they didn’t gain ground elsewhere.”

Election analyst Antony Green said there was an upper limit on the amount of support minor parties such as the Greens and One Nation could gain compared to the major parties.

“The major parties are a broad coalition of interest whereas One Nation and the Greens tend to have a similar demographic where they gain support,” he said.

Mr Green said the Greens vote tended to be concentrated.

Cate Faehrmann was re-elected to the upper house, where she will be joined by the newly elected Amanda Cohn.