The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has conceded defeat in his electorate of Melbourne, saying he “fell just short” of holding the seat.
“A short time ago I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne, Sarah Witty, to concede, to congratulate her and to wish her all the best as the next member for Melbourne,” Bandt said in a statement.
“The Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, but One Nation and Liberal preferences will get Labor over the line. 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.”
In a press conference in Melbourne, Bandt took no questions from reporters, but implored media to report on climate change more seriously, and rebuffed criticisms that the Greens hadn’t spoken enough about environmental issues.
“We are in a climate crisis. I really want the media to stop reporting on climate as a political issue and start thinking about it as if our country is being invaded,” Bandt said.
“You should treat the climate crisis as if there is a war on.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the Australian Electoral Commission’s official online results put Labor’s Witty ahead with 53% of the two-party vote, compared to 47% for Bandt, with 80% of ballots counted. Witty leads Bandt by more than 3,800 votes, an 8.6% swing against the sitting member.
While several media outlets and polling experts had called the seat for Labor on Wednesday afternoon, including the ABC’s Antony Green, the Greens had not conceded defeat. As late as Thursday morning, the deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, said the party was still waiting for absentee ballots and others to be counted.
In a statement on social media, Witty thanked Bandt for his service and wished him well for the future.
“There’s a lot to do including to strengthen Medicare, slash HECS, and build more renewable energy, and I can’t wait to be part of a Labor team that delivers for our community,” she said.
Bandt said in his statement that the Greens would meet next week to discuss the new party leadership. Greens MPs and senators had been reluctant to talk about a future leader but Faruqi and the South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young are considered potential frontrunners.
“I want to thank the Melbourne community for regularly giving me the highest vote, including this election, and to thank you for the last 15 years and the chance to do some amazing things together,” Bandt said.
Bandt’s statement said there were now “a large number of ‘purple MPs’ across the country: seats where the Labor MP is only elected on Liberal preferences and the Greens are the opposition”.
The Greens have conceded defeat in two other seats, Brisbane and Griffith, while the Ryan MP, Elizabeth Watson-Brown, looks likely to hang on to her Queensland seat.
Bandt claimed media had not paid climate change enough attention, saying the Greens had regularly campaigned for no new coal and gas mines, and tried to draw focus to rising temperatures. Bandt noted that temperatures in Melbourne, where he was speaking from, were unseasonably warm. He added that he was optimistic about the future direction of the party, despite their electoral defeats.
“The climate crisis is only going to get worse unless we tackle it,” he said.
“This movement of ours, that I am so incredibly proud to have been a part of, is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger as we make sure that everyone in this beautiful country and this beautiful planet of ours has a safe place to live and everything they need to live a good life.”
Despite their numbers in the lower house being slashed, the party has pointed to its share of the national vote holding up against previous elections, and Senate results shifting that will likely deliver the Greens the sole balance of power in the upper house.
Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, dismissed the Greens’ spin, claiming “it’s pretty hard to see that they have a reason for any joy arising out of this election”.
“The Greens political party, I think, lost their way during the last term. They held up important legislation,” he said.
“How do you hold up legislation to have more public housing, to have emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence? That was held up for month after month after month. How do you hold up environmental protections as well?”
Bandt had held the seat of Melbourne since 2010, winning five consecutive federal elections. He won what turned out to be a high-water mark primary vote of 49.6% at the 2022 federal election, increasing his popularity by 0.3 percentage points from 2019.
The former party leader told ABC 7.30 on Thursday evening that it was “obviously not the outcome that I wanted” to lose his seat, but pinned his loss on changed boundaries to Melbourne, a dip in the primary vote and preferences.
“It is the case that even though we got the highest vote, it will be One Nation and Liberal preferences that do get Labor over the line,” he reiterated.
Asked whether he regretted the Greens blocking policies on housing and the establishment of an environmental protection agency, Bandt said his party had secured an extra $3.5bn for public and community housing.
“I do wish we’d been able to get the government to the point of not opening new coal and gas mines, but I think these crises, like the climate crisis, the housing crisis, the inequality crisis, they’re only going to get worse unless the government acts,” he said.
