What happened to the Greens at this federal election?

You might’ve noticed that over the weekend, there was a federal election in Australia.

At that election, Labor won a significant majority, while the Coalition had their standing in Parliament weakened considerably.

In this piece, we’re going to focus on what’s happened to the Greens.

At the time of writing, the party has not secured a single seat in the House of Representatives, but has retained all 11 Senate seats.

Here’s why there is a mixed result for the party.

Results

The election is made up of two types of races: a Senate (upper house) race for each state and territory, and a local race for an electorate (lower house).

There are 150 electorates across the country that make up the House of Representatives.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)’s results show the Greens’ vote for the lower house has declined by 0.5% nationally.

For the upper house, the Greens’ vote has increased by 0.4%.

How?

Good question!

It appears the Greens have gone backwards in numerous local races for house seats, culminating in the losses like Griffith and Brisbane in Queensland.

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Meanwhile, in the Upper House, the party has recorded swings in its favour in every state and territory, except for Queensland (0.49% drop), the ACT (2.4%) and Northern Territory (0.07%).

Seat races

The Greens are mostly locked in three-cornered races with Labor and the Liberal Party. Each of the three parties receives about a third of the votes.

Under the preferential system, the candidate that finishes third will have their preferences flow to the final two contenders.

In the seat of Griffith, the Liberal Party ended in third place. The Liberals’ preferences flowed to Labor more than the Greens, meaning that Labor was able to win the seat overall.

Adam Bandt

At the time of writing, the leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, has not secured his seat of Melbourne. It has been deemed too close to call.

There’s been a 4% swing away from Bandt, who previously held the seat with a 6.5% margin.

The AEC is now tallying a two-candidate preferred preference count between Bandt and Labor’s candidate, which could take days.

ABC’s chief election analyst, Antony Green, predicts Bandt could hold on to the seat.

Losses

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, the party’s housing spokesperson, has conceded defeat in Griffith. In a social media post, he said: “The major party vote combined was too big to overcome this time.”

He thanked his staff and local volunteers.

Greens MP Stephen Bates also published a statement, attributing the loss of his seat of Brisbane to “the collapse of the Liberal vote”. He called his political career the “privilege of a lifetime”.