Greens leader Adam Bandt concedes Melbourne seat to Labor

Australian Community Media

Adam Bandt has conceded defeat in the seat of Melbourne, with Labor’s Sarah Witty declared the winner. The high-profile contest drew national attention, with the result marking a significant win for Labor and ending the Greens’ 15 year hold on the seat. Watch highlights of his full speech here.

Transcript

00:00Look, thanks for coming out. I've got a few remarks that I'd like to make and won't be

00:04taking any questions at the end of it. A short time ago, I called the Labor candidate for

00:10Melbourne, Sarah Whitty, to concede, to congratulate her and to wish her all the best as the next

00:16member for Melbourne. The Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, but One Nation and Liberal

00:23preferences will get Labor over the line. To win in Melbourne, we needed to overcome Liberal,

00:30Labor and One Nation combined, and it's an Everest that we've climbed a few times now,

00:36but this time we fell just short. I want to thank Melbourne voters for regularly giving me

00:42the highest vote, including in this election, and to thank you for the last 15 years,

00:48and the chance to do some amazing things together. Together, we made marriage equality law after

00:55getting the highest vote in the country in a plebiscite that no one should have had to have.

01:01We've worked hard to get the highest vote in the voice referendum, sending a message of hope that

01:07big parts of Australia still want First Nations justice. Together, we got dental into Medicare

01:14for kids, and we got world-leading climate legislation. The price on pollution worked.

01:21It really worked. It's the only thing that's actually cut climate pollution in this country.

01:27In the middle of a climate crisis, we actually turned the corner. Fighting the climate crisis is

01:34the reason that I got into politics, and I want to thank everyone in Melbourne for helping us make a

01:39difference. This is an incredible, diverse, strong and proud community, and I've loved every minute of

01:47being your MP. I'm really proud of what I've achieved as Leader of the Greens. We've achieved the highest

01:56vote in Greens history. I leave with the vote for the Greens higher than when I started, and our biggest

02:03ever representation in Parliament. This election, we may also end up with a record high vote in the

02:09Senate too, of around 13%, with some Senators effectively getting a quota in their own right.

02:16I leave with the Greens now having the sole balance of power in the Senate. The Government now can't

02:24blame any independent Senator for not making reforms. The only thing, stopping getting dental into Medicare,

02:30stopping new coal or gas mines, or rebalancing unfair housing tax breaks, is the Government itself.

02:38There's also now a big number of seats across the country where the Greens are second. We know about

02:45the Greens, we know about the Teals, and now there's the Purples. Mix red and blue together and you get

02:52purple. There's now a swathe of seats where Labor MPs owe their political life to Liberal preferences.

03:00And the Greens are there in those seats as the real opposition to the two-party system.

03:05If the Government doesn't use its big majority to start actually cutting climate pollution and

03:10tackling Australia's massive inequality crisis, watch for a big swing at the next election

03:16and see those purple seats go green. Unfortunately, one of those purple-green seats is now Melbourne.

03:23What happened for us in Melbourne this time? I think three things. The boundaries of Melbourne changed

03:32and a lot of people in very high Greens voting areas who'd been with us on this journey were moved out

03:37and a lot of new people south of the river were moved in. People who we didn't have a huge amount

03:43of time with to make such a deep connection with. And this made the margin much, much tighter.

03:50Secondly, I think one of the most common points seem to be accepted to be made about this election are

03:58how votes massively swung from Liberal to Labor during the five weeks and how big an effect

04:04Trump had and how no one had really predicted that at the start. That huge riptide from Liberal to Labor had an effect on us as well.

04:16People in Melbourne hate Peter Dutton and with very good reason.

04:20They've seen his brand of toxic racism on display for many years. They've seen his time as Immigration Minister.

04:28They've seen him make comments about Melbourne. And like me, many of them wanted him as far away from power as possible.

04:37Despite us making it very, very clear that we shared their position,

04:42my initial take is that some votes leaked away from us to Labor,

04:46as people saw Labor as the best option to stop Dutton.

04:51I spent a few bit of time on polling booths in Melbourne, had quite a few conversations where

04:55people told me that they usually vote Green, but this time they didn't because of Peter Dutton,

05:00which is obviously disappointing for us. And whilst not a massive shift in the vote, it did make a difference.

05:08And I think on this, I just want to say hats off to the Prime Minister and to Labor,

05:14the Labor campaign machine on this point for making this such a central feature of the campaign.

05:20I think it's, I have to acknowledge that they did run a very good campaign.

05:24Labor did run a very good campaign and they linked Trump to Peter Dutton and made it clear,

05:33as we sought to do as well, but Labor made it very clear that Dutton was about

05:38trying to bring the Trump style of politics to Australia. And I think it became one of the key

05:43defining features of the election that drove a big part of that five-week riptide that we spoke about.

05:50But I think the third and the main thing that affected us here in Melbourne this time is preferences.

05:57Labor will win Melbourne on Liberal and One Nation preferences.

06:01As I said before, to win in Melbourne, we've had to regularly overcome the two major parties

06:08working together on preferences. It's not like traditional contests where Labor just has to

06:13beat Liberal. The Greens had to beat Labor and Liberal combined. It's climbing Everest and we've

06:21managed to do it a few times, but this time we fell just short. More people in Melbourne voted Greens

06:28than anyone else. We've got the highest vote, but Liberal and One Nation preferences will get Labor

06:34over the line. I don't know if any other minor party or independent MPs have done what we've done

06:40and win repeatedly without either major party sending them preferences, but we've done something

06:46pretty incredible over the years. This time everyone was gunning for us and we came very close,

06:52but we couldn't quite get there. I want to also particularly thank everyone who had the courage to

07:01speak up against the invasion of Gaza and spoke out for peace in Palestine. And I think as we see

07:12events continue to unfold and continue to unfold in the most tragic way, this is a massive moment of

07:19humanity. And we have been really proud and I've been really proud to continue to push for a just and

07:27lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel, which is going to be based on an end to the

07:34invasion and an end to the occupation. I want to thank everyone who's part of this amazing Greens

07:41organisation and movement. Our party officials, to every volunteer and supporter, you keep us all going.

07:48Your tireless work is just absolutely inspirational. Everyone who stood on a polling booth, everyone who

07:54attends a meeting that goes for much longer than they would like it to, you have, I can hear some

08:01knowing laughs behind me, you have just done amazing, amazing work and I really want to thank you all.

08:07And you've helped build us into the third political force in this country and I know and I hope I'm going

08:12to get a chance to thank you all in much greater detail over coming weeks and months. And I want to

08:18also, as part of that, to acknowledge the work of our incredible Victorian MPs here, who I've been

08:23really, really proud to work so closely with, as well as our local councillors too.

08:28I want to thank everyone who voted Greens across the country, including in record numbers.

08:35People will have their commentary to say about me and that's okay. But to everyone who is feeling

08:46the climate crisis and watching it unfold in front of them, to everyone who's hurting from

08:52soaring rents and massive debts, to the young people who are wondering whether or not this country is going

08:58to give them the same kind of future that previous generations have had, I'm really sorry that I'm

09:05not going to be able to represent you anymore. I was so lucky to meet so many of you during the course

09:12of this campaign and one of the things many of you said to me was that we gave you hope. I want you to

09:20know that the hope is not hope in me, but the hope in all of us, the hope in our movement.

09:26You are not alone. There are millions of you. There are millions of people who want a safe future

09:34and who think that in this wealthy country of ours, everyone should be able to get a roof over their

09:39head and not have to go into debt to get an education, to not have to skip meals to pay the rent

09:46or avoid going to the doctor or the dentist because they can't afford it. Our movement has a big future.

09:52It is a movement with a lot of heart and we are going to keep growing. I want to say to you, to those

10:00millions of people who want in this country of ours to have a decent future, don't give the political

10:10establishment a moment of peace. It's going to be hard and at the moment, as we've seen, including at this election,

10:16they are throwing everything at us. There will be setbacks, but in many respects, we have no choice.

10:24We have no choice. In the middle of one of the biggest inequality crisis that the country has ever seen,

10:30and in the middle of a climate crisis that looks like it is getting worse, we have no choice but to

10:36fight. One of the slogans that has, my sayings that has kept me going, that my amazing wife Claudia

10:46has amazingly embroidered for me and has hung on my wall for a while, is give it a red hot go.

10:52Give it a red hot go. That has guided me all the way through this building of this incredible movement

11:00of ours to the point where we've had more people voting for us over the last few years than ever

11:06before. Give it a red hot go. And even though there will be times where there will be setbacks,

11:14this movement is unstoppable. We've seen at this election just how many forces they've had to

11:21corral together to try and stop us. Well, they can't do that forever. Before I finish up, I want to

11:28give a little bit of free advice to the media, if I can. I can see the grimaces here, but

11:34um, we're in a climate crisis. We're in a climate crisis. I really want the media to stop reporting

11:45on climate as a political issue and start thinking about it as if our country was being invaded.

11:53Like there's, you should treat the climate crisis as if there is a war on. Um, one of the refrains

12:02I've heard was, well, we don't hear people talk about climate as much anymore. During the course of

12:08this parliament, for a large part of it, pollution, climate pollution was actually higher under this

12:14government than it was under Scott Morrison. We were knocking on your doors, um, trying to get you

12:20to write stories about it. We were asking questions about it in parliament. We were holding press

12:25conferences about it. Uh, and we really struggled to get anyone to, uh, to take that seriously.

12:33And when we would get up and say, we've got to stop opening coal and gas mines, there was this kind

12:37of shrug of, well, we'd expect the Greens to say that because, uh, that's your, that's your point

12:43of differentiation. It's like, I would just ask the media, um, now every time you get a press release

12:48talking about a new renewable energy project, um, or every time you get told that the climate crisis

12:56is being taken seriously, please don't just treat this as a, well, we're going to report that what

13:02the political, different political parties say, look behind it and look at the science because your

13:09kids, our kids, everyone's kids are in for a hellish future in their lifetimes if we don't get the climate

13:15crisis under control. You know, we've been nudging 20 degrees overnight in Melbourne in May. We're

13:21hitting one and a half degrees now of warming. We are seeing this unfold. Now the government's been

13:30lucky to have, um, a climate denialist Peter Dutton for many years as their foil because it made them

13:38look good, right? It made them look good. But in this, as the political debate became about renewables

13:45versus nuclear, we tried really hard to get people to pay attention to coal and gas and the over 30

13:51new coal and gas projects that have been adopted, but it was treated as a political point.

13:56Please, please start taking the climate crisis seriously and holding this government and any

14:03future government to account. Act as if our country is being invaded when you consider what our

14:10governments are doing in response to the climate crisis and don't let them get away with simply a

14:16press release. And this is only going to become more pressing. The reason I got into politics was

14:25after being at Damien Lawson's, I think it might have been your sister's place, reading a paper about the

14:33science of climate change and thinking, oh, well, this is really serious and surely our governments

14:39have got this under control. Realising that pollution is not coming down in the way that it needs to is

14:44why I quit my job and started running in politics in the first place. The climate crisis is only going

14:50to get worse unless we tackle it. And this movement of ours that I am so incredibly proud to have been a

14:57part of is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger as we make sure that everyone in this beautiful

15:04country and this beautiful planet of ours has a safe place to live and everything they need to live a good life.

15:11Thanks very much, everyone.

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