Labor has continued to stick the boot into the Greens after the minor party’s election bloodbath where they paid a heavy price for “blocking sensible polices”.
The Greens leader Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne after 15 years, while the minor party also suffered crushing defeats in the Queensland seats of Brisbane and Griffith.
The latter two electorates were only won by the Greens in 2022 when the minor party had a historic lower house result by claiming four seats in the House of Representatives.
The Greens lower house national primary vote dipped by 0.51 per cent to 11.74 per cent, with only Elizabeth Watson-Brown to return in her seat of Ryan.
Trade Minister and deputy leader of the government in the Senate, Don Farrell, told Sky News Australia on Thursday the Greens opposing key reforms cost them votes.
“The fact of the matter is, they paid a political price for blocking sensible policies, progressive policies, particularly in the housing space, in the last parliament,” Mr Farrell told First Edition host Peter Stefanovic
“And I’m hopeful that as a result of this, the Greens will learn a lesson and that they’ll support sensible, constructive policies from the incoming Albanese government.”
All three seats lost by the Greens have been claimed by Labor candidates as part of the Albanese government’s sweeping election victory which delivered them an increased majority.
Mr Farrell’s sentiments echoed comments made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during an interview with 7.30 on Wednesday night.
“What I hope comes out of the new Senate is a bit of a recognition that one of the reasons why the Greens political party have had a bad outcome in the election is the view that they simply combined with the Coalition in what I termed the no-alition, to provide blockages” Mr Albanese said.
Meanwhile, prominent Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser said the Greens losing three lower house MP served as a warning to the left.
“The loss of the Greens’ seats in the House of Representatives is a repudiation of the antisemitism of the Greens and a vindication of Peter Dutton’s decision to put them last,” the Berowra MP posted on Facebook.
“In November 2023, I called on all the major political parties to put the Greens last. We did so, but Labor continued to preference them second. Greens senators will now be elected on the back of Labor preferences.
“However, each Labor member elected to the House of Representatives to replace the Greens would not be there without Coalition preferences.
“It remains an indictment on Mr Albanese that he could not bring himself to put the Greens last. More broadly it is a warning to the Left about the electoral consequences of entertaining antisemitism.”
