
BREAKING NEWS Major setback for the Greens as Adam Bandt falls behind in the vote count once again - and how he could lose his seat in parliament
Greens leader Adam Bandt is at risk of losing his seat after again falling behind in the vote count following Saturday's federal election.
Bandt has held the seat of Melbourne for more than a decade, but it could be taken by Labor's Sarah Witty, leaving the Greens without their leader in Parliament.
It would be a devastating blow for the party with two other high-profile Greens MPs, Stephen Bates and housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather, having both conceded defeat last night.
Ms Witty was ahead of Bandt with 52 per cent of votes compared to 48 per cent as of 10am AEST on Monday morning, with about two-thirds of ballots counted.
This represents an 8.6 per cent swing to Labor since the last election in 2022.
Preferences in postal votes are flowing 75.9 per cent to Labor and 24.1 per cent to the Greens in a particularly worrying sign for Bandt.
The Greens are facing the prospect of having no MPs in the lower house after Bates' and Chandler-Mather's departures and the remaining seats they have a shot at are far from assured.
The party is faring better in the Senate with it looking likely to claim 11 spots.
Bandt released a statement pointing to the Greens' highest ever general vote as a victory late on Election night, despite the potential wipe out in the lower house.
'We have secured the biggest national vote in our history. And together we have kicked Dutton out.'
He said at that point he was confident of retaining his own seat and of picking up three more.
'We'll retain all our Senators, Melbourne and we're looking good in Ryan, Wills and Richmond – we'll know more soon.
'While our national vote has increased, the collapse in the Liberal vote means that Labor will win the seats of Griffith with Liberal preferences, and Brisbane too.'
Firebrand Griffith MP Chandler-Mather lost following a huge 16 per cent swing to Labor candidate Renee Coffey.
Chandler-Mather had been called Anthony Albanese's nemesis after butting heads with him about Labor's housing policy, claiming the Labor government was abandoning renters behind during the cost of living crisis.
He previously said in Parliament he would have to drag Labor 'kicking and screaming to taking meaningful action' on the rental crisis.
'If we praise the Labor party for offering crumbs, that's all we'll get.'
Bandt said following his concession speech that: 'There's never been a first term MP who has had the impact of Max Chandler-Mather.
'He put the rental crisis firmly in the spotlight. He secured billions of dollars for social housing. He fed his local community with his own money. This is not the last we've seen of him.'
Brisbane Greens MP Stephen Bates also conceded defeat to Labor's Madonna Jarrett, finishing third behind the major parties.
They are both one-term wonders, despite the minor party's primary vote holding up.
Bandt said that 'Stephen Bates has been an incredible voice for Brisbane'.
'He has delivered 20,000 meals and holding more than 200 events in his community.
'He went from a retail worker into the halls of Parliament, to holding big corporations accountable for three years.
Bandt also gloated about keeping Peter Dutton out of Parliament.
The Opposition leader's political career looks set to be over after he lost his Queensland seat of Dickson to Labor's Ali France.
'Congratulations to Prime Minister Albanese and Labor on their campaign to keep Dutton out.
'The Greens are set to be a powerful force in the next Parliament, as part of a strong progressive crossbench and holding the balance of power in the Senate, pushing for more action on the climate, housing and cost of living crises.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Voters reveal if Trump would have won election without Elon Musk and weigh in on his new political party idea
During their face-off last week, Elon Musk boldly claimed that he was the reason President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk claimed on Thursday. 'Such ingratitude,' the billionaire added. The billionaire SpaceX, X and Tesla head contributed around $277 million to Trump and Trump aligned candidates in the 2024 race and Musk personally hit the campaign trail in support of the Republican nominee. But in a Daily Mail poll conducted by JL Partners and released Friday, more registered voters sided with Trump than Musk. The polling found that 45 percent believed that Trump would have won the election without the help of Musk. Another 34 percent said Trump needed Musk to win. Finally 21 percent of respondents said they were unsure. When broken down by party, Republicans were more likely to say that Trump would have won without Musk's help. Among Republicans, 71 percent said Trump won on his own, while just 15 percent said that Trump wouldn't have won the November presidential election without the DOGE leader's help. Fifty-three percent of Democrats credit Musk for Trump's win, while just 24 percent said that Trump did it on his own. Amid their fighting, Musk suggested the idea of starting his own third-party. He floated the idea of forming the 'America Party' to represent the '80 percent' of people he said were in the political middle. When voters were asked what party they'd vote for if candidates in their area were running for office, a party created by Musk received only 4 percent backing among all the poll's respondents. Overall Democrats had an edge - with 42 percent saying the Democratic Party - while Republican candidates received 35 percent. When voters surveyed were broken down by party, Musk's third-party did the best with unaffiliated voters, with 7 percent backing that option. Just 1 percent of Democrats would vote for a Musk-party candidate, while 5 percent of Republicans said they'd make that choice. Democrats and Republicans largely stayed in their camps - with 86 percent of Democrats saying they'd support a Democrat and 84 percent of Republicans saying they'd vote Republican. On Friday, the Daily Mail and JL Partners released the first batch of numbers from the new poll - finding that Republicans overwhelmingly took Trump's side in the fight despite Musk's almost year-long association with the MAGA movement. Among GOP voters, 59 percent sided with the U.S. president, while just 12 percent chose Musk. Another 28 percent said they were unsure. Since April Trump has lost some support with GOP voters, while Musk's has grown - but Trump still has nearly five times as much support. Previous polling found that 70 percent of Republicans backed Trump, while 6 percent selected Musk. 'Republicans are clear: Donald Trump is their man. As our polling showed before, Trump voters are sticking by the person they backed in November over Elon Musk,' said J.L. Partners pollster James Johnson. The fresh poll was conducted Friday with a sample of 1,006 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.


The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
WA senator Dorinda Cox accuses Greens of being ‘deeply racist' and says ‘I am not a bully'
The former Greens senator Dorinda Cox has accused the Greens of being 'deeply racist' and insisted that she has never been a bully. Cox, a Noongar Yamatji woman and Western Australian senator, announced last Monday she had defected to Labor, saying her views were more closely aligned with Labor than the Greens. In a resignation letter sent to Greens leader Larissa Waters' office on Tuesday night, Cox claimed the party had 'cultural problems they refuse to acknowledge or address' and that she had experienced an 'unremitting campaign of bullying and dishonest claims'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'I have seen and survived trauma, discrimination and harassment in previous work environments. I have seen the impact of psycho social violence on my family and my community. I am not, and have never been, a bully. I do not perpetrate it,' she said. Cox has been the subject of a number of workplace behaviour complaints, as first reported by the Nine newspapers last October. At the time, the WA senator apologised for 'the distress this may have caused' but said there had been 'significant missing context' in the reports of bullying allegations within her office. Cox said in her letter that at the time she resigned, there were no grievances pending against her in the party's conflict resolution process, and none had been put to her during the period she was a senator. 'The Greens failed me as its last First Nations MP, and continue to fail First Nations people,' Cox wrote. 'In my experience, the Greens tolerate a culture that permits violence against First Nations women within its structures. In this respect, the party is deeply racist. 'Instead of dealing with its toxic culture, the Greens sought to shut me down. The Greens failed in their duty of care for my staff and me, and disregarded the reported and obvious impact of what was occurring.' Cox accused the federal and Western Australian Greens' leadership for embracing 'untrue' claims and amplifying them. The WA Greens announced an external inquiry into grievances it received against Cox in mid-January by former staff members within the party after the allegations were publicly reported. The inquiry has now ceased. The WA Greens said 'the co-convenors of Greens (WA) went to great lengths to ensure the process was culturally safe and delivered due process to all parties'. An Australian Greens spokesperson said the claims were 'disappointing' and ignored the 'substantive work undertaken by the party to find a resolution to the complaints made both by and against Senator Cox, and to address the breakdown in her relationship with Greens' First Nations members'. 'As the IPSC [Independent Parliamentary Standards Committee] and PWSS [Parliamentary Workplace Support Service] are the bodies created by Parliament to address complaints from staff, they can continue to investigate ongoing matters. This is unchanged by the senator's decision to move to a party that continues to destroy First Nations cultural history through approving coal and gas projects.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Anthony Albanese was asked about historical bullying complaints against Cox last Monday. The prime minister said Labor had 'examined everything that had been considered in the past' and felt that the 'issues were dealt with appropriately'. In October 2024, Cox said she took responsibility for 'any shortcomings' in her office and apologised for any distress that may have been caused but said there had been 'significant missing context' in the reports of bullying allegations within her office. Cox said she had an 'immense amount of respect and gratitude to my team who prepare and support me for the work I undertake' and that she had 'always taken a proactive approach to staff wellbeing, including my own' and had undertaken executive coaching and mentoring from former MPs. Cox's former colleague, Lidia Thorpe, revealed last week she was one of the people to complain to the parliamentary watchdog about Cox, disputing Albanese's claim that allegations about Cox had been 'dealt with'. Thorpe, a former Greens senator who is now independent, said she raised a complaint against Cox in late 2022 to the Greens' leader's office and PWSS. Thorpe formally submitted the complaint to the PWSS in March 2023. Thorpe said on Wednesday her case remained unresolved because Cox declined to attend a mediation. Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator, told ABC on Wednesday morning she had also experienced racism in the Greens. 'There's a lot of work that the Greens and many other organisations need to do to stamp [racism] out, particularly the parliament of this country,' she said.


The Herald Scotland
9 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Spirit of Tasmania ferry scandal threatens to sink government
For six months, the Tasmanian Government has wrestled with its decision spend £450m on two new ferries to link it with Australia, despite not having ports large enough to accommodate them. In a startling mirror-image of Scotland's own ferry fiasco, costs to build the both the dual-fuel ferries and their berths have ballooned since the plan was laid down – and now the ports are not expected to be ready till next year at the earliest. Since December, one of the ferries – Spirit of Tasmania IV – has languished at the Port of Leith in Edinburgh, at a cost of £22,000 per week to the Tasmanian taxpayer. And this week the bill came due for the state's Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff, who faced the collapse of his 'rainbow coalition' and lost a no confidence vote, with the ferries one of several reasons he had lost the faith of parliament. In October, the scandal cost the frontbench position of the government's Treasurer and Deputy Premier Tasmanian Liberal Michael Ferguson. Tasmania's ferry fiasco is not too dissimilar to Scotland's woes (Image: Jane Barlow) Now the state stands poised to head to the polls if a new deal cannot be worked out and a replacement for Mr Rockcliff be found. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Spirit of Tasmania in Scotland isn't going anywhere soon. While Spirit IV was docked at Leith, its state-owned operator, TT-Line, searched for an someone to lease it until the port was completed in Tasmania. But negotiations collapsed in early March. The state government told TT-Line to bring Spirit IV back to Tasmania and it was due to depart on 26 May, before being delayed by poor weather. During that time, engineers found technical problems with the ship's liquefied natural gas systems. 'The government is awaiting further details in relation to a new expected departure date, but it is understood that this work will take some time,' the state's transport minister, Eric Abetz, said last week. READ MORE: Huge fiasco ship mothballed in Scotland at a cost of £23k a week 'Farcical': Newly-built ferry to be mothballed in Edinburgh 'for two years' When questioned about the delays in parliament, Abetz accused the Labor opposition of 'talking [the ferry] down all the time'. 'I say thank goodness for the weather, because she might have been well into the deep oceans and then suffer a mechanical issue, the full extent of which I am not appraised of,' Abetz said. 'We want to make sure the ship is safe and, even more importantly, the crew is safe. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure the protection of the crew.' However, the ship has become something of a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, despite its status as a national embarrassment Down Under. Ian Stirling, who founded a whisky distillery right next to where the Spirit of Tasmania is docked, told the Guardian his long-term nautical neighbour has delivered patrons, with a side of political drama.