Waleed’s surprise theory for Greens loss (2025)

Waleed Aly has shared his theory on why the Greens suffered such a disastrous defeat in the recent federal election.

The party suffered a shocking loss when Adam Bandt conceded defeat in the race for his seat of Melbourne, ending his 15-year hold on the inner-city electorate.

Following Mr Bandt’s concession, the Greens’ hopes for a presence in the House of Representatives has been reduced to the single seat of Ryan where Elizabeth Watson-Brown is slightly ahead of the Liberal and Labor candidates as voting continues.
This is despite the party securing its biggest national vote in history for the senate.

On Thursday’s edition of The Project, Waleed Aly spoke with Greens deputy leader Mehreen Saeed Faruqi and shared his surprising theory on why Bandt failed to win re-election.

“It is interesting the senate vote is intact,” said Aly. “It’s also interesting that wherever Greens had MPs in the lower house, that’s where they seemed to suffer the worst swings.

Aly questioned whether Greens MPs failed to truly represent their constituents and whether that spoke to a wider issue with the party as a whole.

“Clearly there was something from those that had Greens representatives that they weren’t satisfied with. Is it possible that the Greens are just an upper house party and that’s where Australia wants them and that’s their best place in parliament?”

Faruqi hit back at Aly’s suggestion, insisting that the party would now be hard at work on a new strategy to make a comeback during the next election.

“No, I think there were particular circumstances in this election. All our lower-house MPs have fought for their community. I think we do have to think about how we gain and retain lower house seats. I think we need to look at a strategy where we gain our own seats in our own right.”

She continued: “I don’t accept that the people of Australia don’t want us in the lower house. We have many lower seats in state parliaments and we still have one in the federal parliament as well. And Adam was in his seat for 15 years.”

Bandt, who is the second party leader to be ousted after Saturday’s federal election, confirmed his defeat on Thursday during a press conference in Melbourne.

He stood beside his wife Claudia, and team, and chose not to take questions from the media.

“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 told reporters.

He attributed his loss to an electorate redistribution, which pulled in more Labor voters, and said many constituents had “shifted their votes to Labor to keep Dutton out”.