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“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
Bandt also cited “hate” for the former Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who presided over one of the on Saturday, as a factors that pushed voters in Melbourne away from the Greens towards Labor.
Bandt did not take questions at the press conference.
“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.
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
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
Chandler-Mather acknowledged the party had fallen short when it came to lower house seats — which was “bitterly disappointing”.