Greens wipeout: Adam Bandt fighting to hold seat as Max Chandler-Mather ousted
Facing a complete wipeout of his party, Greens leader Adam Bandt took to social media just before midnight on Saturday to declare he would retain his seat.
That’s despite early results indicating the seat of Melbourne, which he has held since 2010, being a very tight race and yet to be called. Depending on preference flows, the final count could go against the incumbent.
The Greens are licking their wounds this morning after a reversal of the minor party’s 2022 election result, thanks in large part to a massive collapse of the Liberal vote bleeding seats to Labor.
Four years ago, the Greens bloc grew when three Queensland seats fell their way. They won Brisbane and Griffith and cemented the southeast corner of the state as heartland for the left-wing party.
But their rising star, Max Chandler-Mather, was ousted in Griffith and Stephen Bates lost in Brisbane to Labor’s Madonna Jarrett too after major swings against the Greens there.
Elizabeth Watson-Brown, the party’s other Queensland MP for the seat of Ryan, also looks like losing her seat in a devastating blow to hopes of a repeat of 2022.
But it is Chandler-Mather who the party will miss most. He had been hugely popular and established a profile for himself as a future party leader by campaigning hard on housing policy.
His notoriety grew around the country on the back of passionate speeches to parliament and fiery clashes with Labor. But things started to come undone for him after an appearance at a CFMEU rally in Brisbane in August.
Among the crowd were placards that portrayed the prime minister Anthony Albanese as Adolf Hitler next to the word “Albanazi”.
Labor pounced on the move, with Deputy PM Richard Marles declaring: “The Greens throw their lot in with thuggery” and Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten among those to pile on.
The CFMEU would later be linked to widespread corruption and criminality.
Chandler-Mather was also outspoken about the war on Gaza and his strong pro-Palestinian stance did not land with the electorate.
The brutal defeat in Queensland saw him front supporters on Saturday night.
“It is going to take time, it is going to be tough,” he said, before turning his focus back to the party.
“There is a reason that so much of the political establishment is happy about this result for us tonight — not because they think we’re beat, because they know what we’re capable of,” he said.
In a post to social media on Saturday night, Bandt claimed Chandler-Mather would be back.
“There’s never been a first term MP who has had the impact Max Chandler-Mather has had,” he wrote.
“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.”
He lamented the loss of Bates, too, in Brisbane.
“Stephen Bates has been an incredible voice for Brisbane. He went from a retail worker into the halls of Parliament, to holding big corporations accountable for three years. He has great things to come.”
Bandt, who tried to woo young voters by appearing for a DJ set with influencer Abbie Chatfield in March, is in a battle with Labor candidate Sarah Witty for the prized seat of Melbourne. That race remains too close to call.
With 60 per cent of votes counted as of Sunday morning, Bandt leads by a slim margin. Ex-AFL star Anthony Koutoufides threw his hat in the ring but the Independent candidate received just 3 per cent of early votes.
“The collapse in the Liberal vote means that Labor will win the seats of Griffith with Liberal preferences, and Brisbane too,” Bandt wrote.
But there was something to celebrate for the Greens, too.
“Together we have kicked Dutton out,” he wrote.
The Greens’ Samantha Ratnam is in a tight race for the Victorian seat of Wills, holding the slimmest of margins from Labor’s Peter Khalil.
In the NSW seat of Richmond, Labor’s Justine Elliot leads from Greens candidate Mandy Nolan with 71 per cent of the votes counted.
The Greens had focussed campaigning on young voters ahead of Saturday’s vote.
Bandt said the cohort would have an “incredibly powerful vote at this election”.
“They could (change) the outcome in a number of seats around the country,” he said.
“We’re facing some big challenges in this country that are really impacting on young people – rising house prices, rental stress, supermarket prices and the climate crisis, young have an amazing opportunity this election to keep Peter Dutton out and get the next government to act on those big issues.”