‘A bit rich’: PM lashes Greens as leader booted
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lashed the Greens for being a party of “blockers” and blamed them for their own losses in the federal election.
The Greens are facing a near wipeout in the lower house after the ABC called leader Adam Bandt’s seat for Labor’s Sarah Witty.
The Greens have lost three of their four lower house seats but are set to retain the balance of power in the Senate.
Albanese said the new senate should take lessons from the message voters have sent to the Greens.
He accused the party of “not wanting to look for solutions”, but instead “looking to play politics” during the last term.
He said the Greens and the Coalition were “blockers” on issues such as housing and the environment.
“One of the reasons why the Greens political party have had a bad outcome in the election is the view that they simply combined with the Coalition in what I termed the ‘no-alition’ — to provide blockages,” Albanese said.
Albanese took particular aim at Max Chandler-Mather who had described his experience in parliament as “miserable” in his first post-election interview.
A stern Albanese said the departing MP, who lost his Griffith seat after one term, should “have a good look” at himself.
“Maybe what he needs is a mirror and a reflection on (why) he is no longer in parliament,” Albanese said.
“His attitude – this is a guy who stood before signs at a CFMEU rally in Brisbane, describing me as a Nazi.
“So, you know, I think he should have a look at the way that he conducted himself in Question Time, including the questions that he asked of me, which I found pretty offensive and some of which were ruled out of order.
“So I think it is a bit rich for him, of all people, who has been rejected by his own electorate after just one term.”
Bandt’s departure could leave the Greens rudderless.
Bandt joins firebrand Chandler-Mather and member for Brisbane Stephen Bates in heading for the exit.
Fellow Queenslander Elizabeth Watson-Brown is expected to retain the seat of Ryan to be the sole Greens MP in the House of Representatives.
High-profile senator Sarah Hanson-Young and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi are possible contenders to take over the leadership.
The Greens, who campaigned heavily on housing and the war in Gaza, have faced criticism for straying from their core principles of advocating for action on climate change and environmental protections.
With the Greens set to keep the balance of power in the upper house, Faruqi said the party would analyse the election results and “figure out what needs to change” once all the results were declared.
Asked if the Greens had struck the right balance in pushing back against the government during negotiations, she said her party was there to push boundaries in parliament.
“When we thought that we had fought as hard as we could, then we negotiated and got the best outcome through that negotiation,” Senator Faruqi said.
Co-founder mulls Greens’ losses
The co-founder of the Greens has warned that party “group-think” and intolerance of free speech is hampering its electoral success.
Greens co-founder Drew Hutton said the Liberal collapse and preference flows played a major role in the election result, but the party needed to address internal issues.
“There’s a real lack of preparedness to countenance free speech in the Greens,” he said.
“They’re very intolerant of anybody speaking outside of the accepted wisdom in the Greens, group-think if you like.
“That’s partly why they can’t communicate with ordinary Australians because they’re so intolerant of other opinions.”
Hutton said the party had plenty of talent within its ranks and needed to drop the “moralistic tone” used in communicating with voters.
“If the Greens want to get out of their generation Z, young people’s sort of constituency, and expand it wider so they do become a more electable party … they need to learn better how to speak to ordinary Australians.”
Perceptions that the Greens stymied housing policies during the previous parliament had hurt them, Hutton said.
“They probably need to be a bit more pragmatic and a bit more outcomes-focused in their dealings with government,” he said.
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“A lot of people probably gave the vote to Labor ahead of the Greens this time because of that. I think they were probably a bit too hard-nosed in their dealings.”
Hutton has had his membership suspended with the Queensland Greens because he defended someone who spoke out about transgender issues.
Former Greens senator Andrew Bartlett said while the counting needed to be completed, a post-election review was required.
“The Greens need to have a really solid, self-critical review of how things have gone, and do that in an objective, ideally independent, way – which I’d have to say they haven’t been particularly good at doing in the past,” he said.
“They’ve got plenty of capacity to regroup, to still have an effective role in parliament.
“Suggesting it’s catastrophic or the end … is just absurd.”
Bartlett said the party’s members should be allowed to put forward their perspective “without fear of speaking up”.
Seats still too close to call
A prominent teal independent is among incumbents still waiting to learn if they will keep their seat in federal parliament.
Monique Ryan’s anxious wait for a result in her leafy inner-east Melbourne electorate of Kooyong will continue into Thursday as she faces a challenge from Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer.
It is one of 11 seats still classified by the ABC as too close to call, five days after Labor claimed a landslide victory at Saturday’s election.
With about 5000 postal votes still to count, Kooyong could go either way, election analyst Kevin Bonham said.
Fellow teal independent Nicolette Boele is facing a tight race to capture the Sydney north shore seat of Bradfield against Liberal hopeful Gisele Kapterian.
The movement suffered a blow in the Melbourne bayside electorate of Goldstein, where former Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson unseated Zoe Daniel.
The Greens have lost three of their four lower house seats with Elizabeth Watson-Brown fighting to defend her Brisbane seat of Ryan, but the minor party is set to hold the balance of power in the Senate.
Labor is projected to win at least 89 seats, consigning the coalition to about 40 seats.
Despite its election dominance, Labor faces an uncertain battle to retain two seats: Bendigo in regional Victoria, where the Nationals have splashed the cash, and the ACT seat of Bean, which is under threat from independent Jessie Price.
The count was turning to the tail-end of postal and absentee votes and out-of-division pre-polls, Bonham said.
On primary votes, absentee votes tended to favour the Greens and be bad for the Liberals, which Bonham said could be a boost for struggling inner-city teals.
“Often independents crash and burn on absent votes,” he said.
“But if Labor and the Greens are doing well, they might get preferences out of them.”
Labor’s caucus will meet in Canberra on Friday before the likely unveiling of a new-look cabinet on Monday.
The ministry is set to be sworn in on Tuesday and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will travel to Indonesia the following day to meet President Prabowo Subianto.
“We have no more important relationship than Indonesia,” Albanese said.
