‘Sole balance of power’: Bandt defiant on Gaza as Greens lose ground

Adam Bandt has denied his hardline Gaza stance cost him votes and, despite lower-house losses, vowed to use the Greens’ Senate power to shape the ‘most progressive parliament’.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has denied his hardline position on Israel cost him votes at the federal election, as he outlines his vision to “make this the most progressive parliament” Australia has seen.

Despite facing setbacks in the lower house and a fight for his political survival, a defiant Mr Bandt insisted his campaign had taken “a position of principle” by focusing on Gaza and denied it had pushed voters away from the Greens.

The Greens have lost two out of three Brisbane seats and the primary votes of all four Greens lower-house MPs dropped.

They will likely have the same number of senators as they did before the election.

But Mr Bandt said the election results showed strong support for his party and “sets us up well now for an era of progressive change in the parliament”.

Asked if his position on Gaza had an impact on his campaign, Mr Bandt said “no”.

“We have been clear that we wanted to see an end to the invasion and an end to the occupation and we wanted to see an end to the bombs being dropped on children and that was something that we took as a position of principle,” he said.

“No. I had people coming up to us regularly throughout the campaign and polling booths saying, ‘thank you for being the only voice talking about peace and humanity’.”

With the Greens likely to hold the “sole balance of power” in the Senate, Mr Bandt sharpened his attack on Labor, saying the government would no longer be able to blame crossbenchers for legislative inaction.

“With Greens in sole balance of power in the Senate at the moment, the government can’t blame other individual senators for not being able to get things through.

“The only barrier to getting dental into Medicare … is Labor. The only obstacle to making childcare free is Labor. The only obstacle to stopping new coal and gas mines from being opened is Labor.

“We stand ready in the Senate to make this the most progressive parliament that Australia has seen.”

While Mr Bandt blamed preference deals between the major parties for the Greens’ lower-house woes, all four of the party’s MPs elected in 2022 suffered a primary vote swing against them.

The drop was most severe for Mr Bandt, with a 3.3 percentage-point fall in his seat of Melbourne.

The Greens leader who almost received 50 per cent of the primary vote in 2019 has seen that drop to 41.4 per cent at this election.

Of the three Greens MPs who picked up seats in 2022, housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather suffered the heaviest swing, losing 2 percentage points from three years ago, while Stephen Bates and Elizabeth Watson-Brown suffered drops of about 1 percentage point.  

The Greens have already lost Brisbane and Griffith to Labor, while Melbourne and Ryan remain too close to call.

Of the five other seats where the Greens came second in 2022 after preferences were distributed, their candidates recorded negative swings in Cooper in Melbourne and in the seats of Sydney and Canberra. 

The Greens running in Anthony Albanese’s Grayndler and the target seat of Wills in Melbourne lifted the party’s vote but the Greens have fallen short of picking up Bob Hawke’s former seat in the Victorian capital’s inner north. In another target seat, Richmond, Greens candidate Mandy Nolan recorded a 1.3 percentage point swing but not enough to pick up the NSW far north coast seat.

The Greens’ lower-house primary vote fell 0.4 per cent with falls in all states and territories except NSW and South Australia. 

In the upper house, the Greens have exceeded their 2010 high mark of 13.1 per cent of the primary vote, with a national swing of 1.1 per cent lifting their vote to 13.8 per cent. 

Mr Bandt said he intended to remain as Greens leader and was “feeling confident” about his chances of securing another term.

Mr Bandt acknowledged the loss of Queensland MPs Mr Bates (Brisbane) and Mr Chandler-­Mather (Griffith), lamenting that they would not return to ­Canberra.

“They were terrific local members that we were campaigning very hard to have returned … they won’t be and that’s obviously not the result that we were hoping for,” Mr Bandt said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt holds a giant toothbrush to promote adding dental to Medicare during the campaign. Picture: David Caird / NewsWire

Despite the setbacks, Mr Bandt claimed a major win in the party’s campaign to block Peter Dutton from forming government.

“We are incredibly proud of our role in keeping Peter Dutton out. You’ll know that our slogan this election was keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act. Certainly on part one of that, that gets a tick,” he said.

Mr Bandt said his party could no longer rely on winning seats through generous preferences.

“Our goal has to be to be able to win these seats in our own right,” Mr Bandt said.