Greens go backwards at election as Bandt loses seat
'The result reflects the views of many fair-minded Australians,' says ZFA CEO Alon Cassuto
The Greens were “justly castigated by the voters at the ballot box” for the extremism of their policies and actions, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Peter Wertheim told The AJN this week.
Election analysts on Wednesday afternoon declared Greens leader Adam Bandt had lost his seat of Melbourne to Labor’s Sarah Witty, while the far-left party had earlier lost two of their Queensland seats. The result sees them go from four seats in the house to possibly just one – while Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown currently leads the count in Ryan, the seat has not yet been called.
“For 18 months, Australians have witnessed the Greens, led by Adam Bandt and Mehreen Faruqi, peddle dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theories, spew anti-Israel rhetoric, fail to call out terrorism, and demonise the Jewish community,” Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president Jeremy Leibler said. “This result reflects a message from fair-minded Australians; extremism has no place in our democracy.”
He said the election results “follow a consistent pattern of voter rejection of the Party since October 7”, with poor performances in the Queensland state election, the Prahran by-election, and local council elections in NSW and Victoria. “Across the board, Australians appear to be rejecting the Greens’ extreme politics,” he said.
Echoing those sentiments, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) executive director Colin Rubenstein said The Greens’ dismal results “show that Australia has largely rejected its hatred and inflammatory, divisive rhetoric”.
“While the electorate generally swung to the left, it didn’t swing to the far left, and the Greens were unable to capture any of that swing,” he noted.
“In recent years, the Greens have shifted from primarily focusing on the environment to a preoccupation with hard-left politics. Its obsession with Israel is just one facet of this transformation.
“It is certainly positive for Australian social and political cohesion that they were dealt a substantial blow at this election.”
Wertheim said The Greens “antisemitic policies on Israel, which seek to erase the Jewish people’s collective right of self-determination, are a symptom of a wider loathing for western liberal-democratic values, and a mindset that is ferociously intolerant of contrary views”.
“This blind, hard-left fanaticism is a massive turn-off for most people. Anecdotally, young professionals who previously supported the Greens are now deserting them droves. The Greens desperately need new leadership and a new direction,” he said.
Wertheim described Bandt’s loss in Melbourne as the most shattering defeat the Greens have suffered since their attempt to force Marrickville Council to boycott Israel in 2011.
“Under the failed leadership of Adam Bandt and his potential successor Max Chandler-Mather the Greens embraced ever more radical causes that were remote from the central concerns of mainstream Australians, and alien to their values”.
He said, “The electoral backlash against the Greens presents them with an historic opportunity to change course. They now have the chance to re-orient themselves away from the pet causes of the far left and move towards the political centre”.
Wertheim believes the Greens need to change the way they operate.
“The pig-ignorant moralising arrogance, the ludicrous oversimplification of complex issues, and the ferocious demonisation of those with different views all need to stop. The Greens could learn from the words of the Prime Minister: ‘In Australia we treat each other with respect.’”
ZFA CEO Alon Cassuto said, “On the streets and in parliament, the Greens have allowed extremist voices to dominate their platform. We call on all parties and leaders to reaffirm their commitment to constructive dialogue, a restoration of social cohesion, and principled foreign policy.”
The poor results follow the Coalition preferencing the Greens last and campaigns against the minor party being conducted by advocacy groups including Advance and Better Australia.
Better Australia spokesperson Sophie Calland said the group’s strategy in key seats was to shift progressive voters away from the Greens and back to Labor.
“We targeted seats like Melbourne, Richmond, Wills, Brisbane, Ryan, and Griffith with messaging that exposed lesser-known Greens policies—such as decriminalising hard drugs such as heroin and ice, defunding the ADF, and blocking key environmental and housing legislation,” she said.
The group also pushed back against rising antisemitism linked to local Greens activism.
“This included putting Jewish businesses on blacklists and harassing local residents with ties to Israel,” Calland highlighted.
“In Melbourne, our ground campaign reminded voters the Greens are no longer about peace and the environment, but division and extremism.”
Bandt has rejected suggestions that his party’s stance on Israel negatively affected its election performance, telling The Australian on Monday the results demonstrated strong backing for the Greens.
“We have been clear that we wanted to see an end to the invasion and an end to the occupation and we wanted to see an end to the bombs being dropped on children, and that was something that we took as a position of principle,” he told The Australian.
“I had people coming up to us regularly throughout the campaign and at polling booths saying, ‘thank you for being the only voice talking about peace and humanity’.”
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