Why the Greens Won't Give Up Adam Bandt's Melbourne Seat

Share this @internewscast.com

The Greens assert that their leader still has a chance to secure the highly competitive Melbourne seat and are not conceding defeat.

According to projections from the ABC and Sky News, Labor candidate Sarah Witty is anticipated to oust Bandt, who experienced a 4.4 percent decline in his primary vote.

Nonetheless, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi stated on ABC’s Radio National that the party remains optimistic that the remaining uncounted votes could lead to their leader’s victory.

“There are up to 15,000 absentee and declaration votes yet to be processed and tallied,” she commented on Thursday morning.

“These votes typically tend to favor the Greens, so we are anticipating the final count before confirming the outcome.”

Bandt is trailing in the count by a few thousand votes and a loss in Melbourne will leave the party leaderless.

Faruqi has denied she has been canvassing leadership votes behind closed doors as the Melbourne seat hangs in the balance.

“That is absolutely not correct. We are still waiting for the result of Melbourne,” she said.

“Adam has done a fantastic campaign … and we will wait for all the results to be declared, have a party room and then start the process of electing a leader.”

It is believed that Greens senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Larissa Waters are also potential candidates for leadership, though neither has formally announced their intentions.

Greens voters deliver mixed results

In 2010, Bandt was the first Greens member to be elected to the House of Representatives.

While holding the balance of power in the Senate, Bandt finally witnessed the party’s presence in the lower house grow with the addition of three Queensland MPs in 2022.

However, these advances seemed short-lived as Brisbane’s Stephen Bates and Griffith’s Max Chandler-Mather acknowledged defeat in the wake of Labor’s overwhelming success.

Three men and a woman in black suits stand in front of a long table with people wearing masks sitting behind them on a green couch.

In 2022, MPs Stephen Bates, Elizabeth Watson-Brown, and Max Chandler-Mather joined leader Adam Bandt in the lower house in what was dubbed a “Greenslide”. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

Chandler-Mather acknowledged the party had fallen short when it came to lower house seats — which was “bitterly disappointing”.

“But I think there is a lot of reason for hope,” Chandler-Mather said.

“We need to work out how to do better. Two days out from the election, [I] don’t have all the answers.”

Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown is in a tight three-party contest in Ryan, making it too close to call.

The minor party has attributed part of its loss to the collapse in the Liberal vote, which meant Coalition preferences flowed through to Labor.

Bandt maintains the party has received a record Senate vote this election and is on track to take 11 upper house seats.

As Labor expands its presence in the Senate, with a projected increase from 24 to 28 seats, it will only require the Greens to pass legislation.

This would mean previously influential crossbenchers like independent David Pocock won’t be as critical to passing legislation through the Senate.

For the latest from SBS News, and .