TRANSCRIPT
The Greens' electoral losses continue to mount.
"A short time ago, I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne to concede."
Leader Adam Bandt has lost his seat of Melbourne - which he held for 15 years.
Mr Bandt made history by becoming the party's first lower house MP.
"And I want to thank everyone in Melbourne for helping us make a difference."
It was a close race that went down to the wire, and the result has defied expectations.
There was a significant swing against him, driven partly by a redistribution of electorate boundaries, but Mr Bandt still finished first with a convincing lead in his primary vote.
The Liberal Party placed third and preferenced Labor, sealing Mr Bandt's fate.
He concedes it was always going to be a tough fight.
"And it's an Everest we have climbed a few times now, but this time we fell just short."
Labor's candidate, Sarah Witty, has yet to offer any public comment on the vote.
Mr Bandt says he believes Peter Dutton's unpopularity played a key role.
"Some votes leaked away from us to Labor, as people saw Labor as the best option to stop Dutton."
The loss of Melbourne brings the tally of Greens lower house losses up to three seats, with the Brisbane-based seat of Ryan remaining as their last hope.
Despite this disappointing result in the House of Representatives, the Greens say they have recorded their highest national vote ever.
The problem for the party is that these votes weren't sufficiently concentrated in specific, targeted seats.
Mr Bandt has drawn some consolation from his expectation the Greens will hold the sole balance of power.
Here he is speaking on Monday.
"The Greens have achieved a record senate vote. We're nudging 14 per cent based on where the country is at the moment, and we'll see where it gets to at the end and I think that's a reflection of, now, the true Greens level of support. "
As Mr Bandt conceded defeat, SBS took to the street in his erstwhile electorate, to see how voters feel.
There was some disappointment.
"Urgh, crap! Am I allowed to say that on T-V?"
"I was a fan of his. I'm a little bit sad."
As well as ambivalence.
"I don't feel anything for that man."
"I don't really like him, and yeah, I don't really care."
It's that kind of sentiment the next party leader will need to shift if the Greens are to regain lost ground in the lower house.
The party will elect their next leader in Canberra next week.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party are also searching for a new leader, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to unveil his next cabinet Tuesday.
With Labor's landslide victory, Mr Albanese has knocked out two major political rivals.
And he's offered his diagnosis on what went wrong for his competitor on Labor's left flank.
"You know, The Greens political party I think lost their way during the last term. They held up important legislation."
Adam Bandt's stance against Israel's attacks on Gaza is also being seen as an issue that cost the Greens votes.
With hindsight, however, he still says he'd take the same tack.
"We were very, very clear, and had been clear from the beginning 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. That was something that we took as a position, a principal position. No, I had people coming up to us regularly throughout the campaign, and on polling booths saying, Look, thank you for being the only voice talking about peace and humanity."
What direction the party will take on this issue, as well as working with Labor in the Senate, will now fall to those that survived this election.
The Greens looks set to retain all their senators, forming a bloc of 11 votes in the upper house, and the path to power remains open for the seat of Ryan.
As Mr Bandt's departure makes clear, though, the results have fallen far short of what the Greens hoped for.
