EDITORIAL: Voters see through delusional, aggressive greens

There are three things to blame for Greens leader Adam Bandt losing his seat, according to Mr Bandt himself.

Firstly, a redistribution in his former electorate of Melbourne.

“A lot of people in very high Green voting areas who had been with us on this journey moved out, and a lot of new people south of the river were moved in,” Mr Bandt said.

Secondly, Peter Dutton and the Trump effect, which sent progressive voters into the arms of Labor.

“People in Melbourne hate Peter Dutton,” Bandt said.

“Many of them wanted him as far away from power as possible.

“Votes leaked away from us to Labor as people saw Labor as the best option to stop Dutton.”

And third, the preference flows from right wing candidates to Labor (though he’s not complaining about preferential voting in the Brisbane seat of Ryan, where preferences are the Greens’ sole hope of retaining a single seat in the Lower House).

“Labor will win Melbourne on Liberal and One Nation preferences,” Mr Bandt said.

Under Mr Bandt’s leadership the Greens have become a cancer in the Parliament, a rabble of wreckers determined to stand in the way of everything that doesn’t meet their lofty ideas of a green, socialist utopia.

“This time everyone was gunning for us and we came very close”.

Mr Bandt’s speech — made 24 hours after it was clear he had no hope of retaining his spot in Parliament — was remarkable among political concessions in its complete absence of accountability and self-awareness.

Not once did he accept so much as a skerrick of responsibility for the result which has seen the party he led for five years lose three quarters of its Lower House seats.

Under Mr Bandt’s leadership the Greens have become a cancer in the Parliament, a rabble of wreckers determined to stand in the way of everything that doesn’t meet their lofty ideas of a green, socialist utopia.

So they alienated a core part of their base by standing in the way of Labor’s housing reforms.

They spread hysteria and fear about the gas industry, which is essential to help Australia reach its 2050 net zero targets while also maintaining living standards and a functional economy.

They sided with the CFMEU when it was revealed the militant union was riven with corruption.

And they disgusted fair minded people with their rabid anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitism.

It’s a sign of the depth of Mr Bandt’s delusion that he used his speech to criticise Peter Dutton for spreading “toxic racism”, while being utterly blind to the fact that it is the Greens who are now the party of division and racial hatred.

And despite Mr Bandt’s insistence that the party was not bleeding voters, all of its MPs elected in 2022 suffered primary swings against them, including a 4.6 per cent swing in his own seat.

Gone are the Greens as a collective of friendly environmentalists. The Greens of today — thanks in part to Mr Bandt — are a mass of angry, belligerent extremists.

For them to have any relevance in a future parliament, they’ll need a leader who can indulge in a little bit of self-reflection and pull them back from the fringes. Looking at the cast of candidates, there’s little hope of that.