Share and Follow
There have been mixed results for the Greens on election night, including the loss of two Brisbane seats.
Redbridge Group director Simon Welsh is predicting the Greens will lose the seat of Griffith to Labor. It is currently held by the Greens’ housing and homelessness spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather.
The seat of Melbourne, held by Greens leader Adam Bandt, is also at risk.
“It’s not certain yet, it’s too close to call, but it doesn’t look good for him,” Accent Research principal Shaun Ratcliff said.
In an Instagram post, Bandt said he thought the party would retain Melbourne as well as all its Senate seats.
He said the party was also looking good in the seats of Ryan, Wills and Richmond.
But he conceded the loss of two seats.
“While our national vote has increased, the collapse in the Liberal vote means Labor will win the seats of Griffith with Liberal preferences, and Brisbane too.”
In Brisbane, Labor’s Madonna Jarrett looks to have taken the seat from the Greens’ Stephen Bates.
Ratcliff said it was possible the Gaza conflict may have been a drag on the Greens’ vote in some inner city seats, particularly in Melbourne.
The Greens took a firm stance on Gaza, pledging to continue its calls for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories and urging Israel to halt what they describe as an ongoing genocide.
“The Greens definitely have gone backwards in some parts of inner city Melbourne and that is probably part of — I’m not saying that’s the only cause — but it might be a contributing factor,” Ratcliff said.
Welsh agreed and said research leading up to polling day found voters didn’t like the politicisation of the issue.
“I think the Greens — for those older progressive voters — strayed into being seen as policitising an issue they thought shouldn’t be dealt with in that way,” he said.
“There was this sense of wanting social cohesion around this issue, so that both Muslim and Jewish communities would feel safe in this country. So anything that had that sniff of one-sidedness was certainly problematic.”
While the Greens appeared to be attracting young voters, Welsh said they may be losing their middle-aged progressive voters.
“Their vote might overall be staying static because they’re picking up these younger voters, but they’re not picking them up in the seats that matter,” he said.
“They’re picking them up in the outer suburbs and being gutted by middle-aged progressive voters in the seats they’re trying to contest.”
But the Greens do have a chance of picking up the Melbourne seat of Wills, where Samantha Ratnam is facing off against Labor’s Peter Khalil.
“Labor is making up ground in Wills — [but counting] could go beyond tonight too,” Ratcliff said on Saturday night.
The Greens are also looking good in the NSW north coast seat of Richmond, where the Greens’ Mandy Nolan appears competitive against Labor’s Justine Elliot; and in the Brisbane seat of Ryan.
For the latest from SBS News, and .
Visit the to access articles, podcasts and videos from SBS News, NITV and our teams covering more than 60 languages.
