David Shoebridge has been elected leader of the Greens, defeating fellow NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi and South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young after Larissa Waters stepped down for health reasons.
Shoebridge secured the party’s top job following a vote during a party retreat in Sydney on Wednesday morning.
Victorian senator Steph Hodgins-May was elected deputy leader after running on a joint ticket with Shoebridge.
Former leader Larissa Waters announced that she would be stepping down due to ill health earlier this week.
Greens senator Nick McKim revealed on Wednesday that Shoebridge won the party’s leadership ballot after securing a majority of votes from the parliamentary party room.
Shoebridge topped the first-round vote with six primary votes, ahead of Faruqi on three and Hanson-Young on two.
After preferences were distributed, Shoebridge defeated Faruqi by seven votes to four.
Shoebridge enters the role as one of the Greens’ most prominent public figures, particularly on issues including artificial intelligence, AUKUS, defence policy and the Middle East.
David Shoebridge has been elected leader of the Greens
A visibly emotional Larissa Waters on Wednesday said it had been an ‘incredible honour’ to lead the Greens, but said she could not continue because of her deteriorating health.
‘I hope to be OK, but I need to look after myself,’ she said.
Fighting back tears, Waters said she was proud of what the party had achieved during her 16 months as leader, noting the Greens were polling strongly despite the shift towards One Nation and Pauline Hanson.
Waters thanked her colleagues and staff for their support and said she would return as a Queensland senator after taking medical leave.
Shoebridge used his first address as Greens leader to praise Waters’ leadership before launching a blistering attack on Labor, arguing the major parties had failed ordinary Australians and created the conditions for the rise of One Nation.
‘Politics as usual is not providing the answers that people are desperately calling for now,’ he said.
‘After four years of this government and years before, these are decisions that have been forced on people after decades of Labor and the Coalition and now their new mates in One Nation, driving privatisation, delivering for corporate and vested interests,’ he said.
Steph Hodgins-May (pictured) has been elected as Deputy Leader alongside Shoebridge
Shoebridge declared the Greens were no longer interested in merely influencing Labor from the crossbench.
‘We are not here to make the Labor Party any better, the Greens are here to replace them,’ he said.
‘Labor has created the circumstances for One Nation, and Labor is not the answer,’ he said.
‘The Greens, the progressive alternative, we’re here to beat down One Nation, and we’re here to replace Labor and return hope and faith to politics.’
More to come.
