Former Opposition leader Peter Dutton has taken aim at Adam Bandt after the outgoing Greens leader in part blamed "hate" of Dutton for his loss in Melbourne.
Bandt on Thursday conceded defeat to Labor's Sarah Witty in the hotly contested electorate after he suffered a 4.4 per cent drop in his primary vote.
The ABC, Sky News, and pollster Redbridge had all predicted Bandt's loss in the hours leading up to his announcement.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Bandt thanked voters for allowing him to serve them for the past 15 years, and cited his major policy achievements as helping steer consequential climate reform and achieving "the highest vote" of any electorate in the
"To win in Melbourne, we needed to overcome Liberal, One Nation and Labor combined — it’s an Everest we’ve climbed a few times now, but this time we fell just short," Bandt said, blaming preferences for his loss.
Adam Bandt's loss means the Greens are now leaderless. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett
"People in Melbourne hate with a very good reason. They have seen his brand of toxic racism on display for many years, seen his time as immigration minister, seen him make comments about Melbourne ... many of them wanted him as far away from power as possible.
"Despite us making it very clear that we shared their position, my initial take is some votes linked away from us as people saw Labor [as] the best option to stop Dutton."
Bandt did not take questions at the press conference.
Dutton, who on Wednesday , later accused the Greens of "appalling" treatment of Australia's Jewish community, saying that's what cost Bandt — and other Greens MPs — their seats.
"Australians were rightly disgusted at their behaviour," Dutton wrote on social media.
"We were proud to preference the Greens last, helping to ensure Adam Bandt’s loss."
Some — but not all — Jewish groups were critical of the Greens' pro-Palestinian platform amid the war in Gaza, which was sparked on 7 October 2023 after Hamas launched a surprise assault on southern Israel — a dramatic escalation of the long-running .
"The election results have made it abundantly clear that the Australian people are looking for pragmatism, and have less and less time for ideologues of any kind," said Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim following Labor's federal election win on Saturday. "The electoral punishment meted out by the voters to the Greens and other ideologically-driven special interest groups is particularly noteworthy."
But the Australian Jewish Council's executive officer Max Kaiser said swings towards Greens and independents in seats including Wills and Blaxland showed that, although the incumbent Labor MPs held on, that "the Australian public is outraged by the atrocities in Gaza".
The Greens' nationwide primary vote was just under 12 per cent — a slight dip on the 12.2 per cent they secured at the 2022 federal election. They will also continue to hold the balance of power in the Senate.
"Clearly, if the Greens are too 'extreme', it’s an extremism shared by a significant and relatively stable share of Australians," wrote Josh Holloway, a lecturer in Government at Flinders University, for The Conversation on Thursday.
Bandt's defeat has left the Greens without a leader.
Earlier, while expressing hope Bandt could still win Melbourne, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi denied she had been canvassing leadership votes behind closed doors as the Melbourne seat hung 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's understood Greens senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Larissa Waters are also leadership contenders, although neither has officially declared their candidacy.
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 gains appeared temporary with Brisbane's Stephen Bates and Griffith's Max Chandler-Mather conceding defeat following Labor's landslide victory.
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
"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.
