Waters was unanimously elected at a party room meeting in Melbourne this afternoon, with fellow senator Mehreen Faruqi to continue as deputy leader.
The decision comes after Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne, becoming the second leader to be voted out of parliament at the election following Peter Dutton’s loss in Dickson.
Born in Canada and an environmental lawyer by trade, Waters was first elected to the Senate in 2010.
She became Greens deputy co-leader in 2015, but resigned as one of the more than a dozen MPs and senators who were found ineligible to sit in parliament during the dual citizenship saga in 2017.
She returned to the Senate a year after having renounced her Canadian citizenship, and was re-elected in 2019 and at this month’s federal election.
In 2017, Waters made history when she became the first person to breastfeed on the floor of Australian parliament, having taken her two-month-old daughter Alia into the chamber.
The Greens’ four former leaders all backed the choice of Waters to lead the party, with Bandt saying his successor is exactly what Australia needs.
“As Australia faces a growing climate crisis and as inequality gets worse, Larissa’s integrity, intelligence and strong sense of justice are just what this country needs,” Bandt said.
