Source : the age
Key posts
Greens leader Adam Bandt is addressing the media at 2.15pm AEST, after conceding his seat of Melbourne to Labor’s Sarah Witty.
You can watch what he has to say live below.
Bandt has emotionally thanked his children, wife and staff for their support.
Nearing tears as he thanked his wife Claudia Perkins, a former Labor adviser, Bandt said she had made the country better.
“Claudia … I am lucky enough to be married to one of the most beautiful political minds that I’ve known and someone who has an amazing history of activism and insight and love and warmth and compassion,” he said.
Bandt with wife Claudia Perkins and children Wren and Elke in 2020.Credit: Justin McManus
The Greens movement is full of hope and is going to keep growing, says Bandt, as he speaks to voters saying, “we have no choice but to fight”.
While speaking about hope, Bandt raised a piece of embroidery with words of hope written on it.“I want [you] to know that the hope is not hope in me but the hope in all of us.
“The hope in our movement, you are not alone, there are millions of you
“I want to say to you, that millions of people who want, in this country of ours, to have a decent future, did not give the political establishment a moment of peace.”
According to Bandt, the overarching reason for his loss was that to win Melbourne, the Greens had to overcome the two major parties working together on preferences.
“I don’t know if any other minor party or independent MPs have done what we have done and … repeatedly without either major party sending them preferences,” he said.
“This time, everyone was gunning for us, and we came very close, but we could not quite get there.”
Bandt went on to thank everyone who spoke up on the war in Gaza.
“I want to also particularly thank everyone who had the courage to speak up against the invasion of Gaza and spoke out for peace in Palestine, and I think as we see events continue to unfold … in the most tragic way, this is a massive moment of humanity, and we have been really proud,” he said.
Bandt said the Greens have had a record high vote in the Senate of about 13 per cent, meaning they will continue the party’s advocacy to get dental into Medicare, stop coal and gas mines and rebalance “unfair tax breaks”.
“If the government does not use its big majority to start actually cutting climate and tackling Australia’s massive inequality crisis, watch for a big swing at the next election. And see those go Green,” he said.
Peter Dutton (left), Anthony Albanese (centre) and Adam Bandt (right) at a wishing tree appeal event in 2023.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Bandt went on to say there were multiple reasons he lost Melbourne, including boundaries being redrawn, a section of votes “massively swung from Liberal to Labor”, and people wanting to vote Labor to get rid of Dutton.
“People in Melbourne hate Peter Dutton with a very good reason,” he said.
“I think on this, hats off to the prime minister and Labor, the Labor campaign on this point for making [Dutton’s likeability] such a central feature of the campaign.”
Bandt has thanked his colleagues, praising their intelligence and dedication.
“I want to thank my party room colleagues. They are some of the brightest, most dedicated people I have ever met. I have learnt so much from them,” he said.
“Together we have achieved so much, and I am sure they are going to achieve so much more. I want to thank them for their really strong support for me over the years, including the time I have been leader.
“We have been able to have robust discussions inside our party rooms and reach decisions and go forward and put [them] into practice.”
Adam Bandt has thanked the Melbourne community after conceding defeat, saying he was proud of the things his party has achieved.
“To win in Melbourne, we needed to overcome Liberal, Labor and One Nation combined, and it’s an Everest we’ve climbed a few times now, but this time we fell just short,” he said.
Adam Bandt conceding defeat in Melbourne.
“Thank you for the last 15 years and the chance to do some amazing things together.
“Together we’ve been powerful. As a community, we’ve been a progressive beacon for the nation. We’ve stood for justice, for compassion, and we’ve led the way on the national stage.”
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, Bandt is reading his statement that was sent out to media minutes earlier.
The former Greens leader looks visibly emotional as members of his party stand behind him in support.
“Together we’ve made marriage equality law after getting the highest vote in the country in the plebiscite no-one should have had to have,” he said.
“We worked hard together to get the highest vote in the Voice referendum, sending a message of hope that big parts of Australia still want to see First Nations justice.
“Together we got dental into Medicare for kids and world-leading climate legislation.
“The price on pollution worked. It really worked. It was the only thing that has actually cut climate pollution in this country. In the middle of a climate crisis, we actually turned the corner.
“Fighting the climate crisis is the reason I got into politics, and I want to thank you for helping us make a difference.”
Adam Bandt has conceded defeat in Melbourne after his seat was called for Labor’s Sarah Witty.
In a statement, Bandt said he had conceded.
“A short time ago I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne, Sarah Witty, to concede, congratulate her and wish her all the best as the next member for Melbourne,” he said.
“The Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, but One Nation and Liberal preferences will get Labor over the line.”
Brown defended the Greens’ focus on non-environmental issues such as renters and the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza war, saying that, despite the climate emergency, it was “very difficult to get the environment on the agenda at the moment”.
Those who accused the Greens of being blockers in the Senate “ought to go and read the Constitution,” Brown said. Asked if the Greens had been too hardline in pushing for their view in the upper house, he said, “I don’t think they were hardline enough” while the environment was in such peril.
“I think they’ve got to be very, very strong in the Senate.”
Bandt was first elected to the lower house in 2010, and, until the 2022 election was the only Green in the House of Representatives. That first election had been “a breakthrough” for the minor party, Brown said.
While Bandt was now very likely gone, the former leader said the party would rebuild and come back “stronger than ever at the next election” – partly on the basis of what he expected would be Labor’s “hubris” and over-reach.
“The Greens are absolutely essential on climate change and protecting the environment, and this is going to be a period of onslaught of both,” Brown said.
As for Bandt, Brown said he was “articulate, intelligent, very kind-hearted and a superb human being in the parliament”.
The elder statesman of the Greens, Bob Brown, has mourned what looks like the loss of Adam Bandt to parliament as the apparently outgoing member for Melbourne calls a press conference.
Speaking to this masthead on Thursday, Brown blamed what he called the vilification of the Greens leader and the candidate for Wills, Samantha Ratnam, by the “big parties” during the campaign, saying it had been despicable, relentless and effective.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer, Alex Ellinghausen
“It’s because of the targeted negative and false campaigning against the Greens … and the Greens are going to have to, in the future, work out how to respond to that,” Brown told this masthead.
After Albanese criticised the Greens, and particularly its ousted housing spokesman Max Chandler- Mather on ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday night, Brown said the prime minister had “no grace”.
“He’s got the grace of a cockroach,” said the activist and former politician, who spent 10 years in the Tasmanian parliament and 16 years as a senator, including in an arrangement between 2010 and 2013 to keep the Gillard government in power.
Brown also described foreign minister Penny Wong as the “Madame Lafarge of politics”, referring to a French woman who killed her husband in 1840 by feeding him an arsenic cake.
Labor relied on Greens’ preferences in several seats, Brown said, and in future, his party should not direct preferences to either major party.
