Federal election 2025: Greens firm as key crossbench party in Senate for Labor Government

The Greens are set to define Anthony Albanese’s second term, with the minor party firming as the key crossbench party in the Senate for the Government, despite going backwards in the Lower House.

As counting continued on Sunday, Labor’s landslide victory was flowing through to the Senate, the Government was projected to win between 27 and 30 seats and were ahead in NSW, Victoria, WA and South Australia for three senators from each State.

The Coalition was on track to win just two senators per State, bringing their numbers to 27. But a second in Tasmania — former minister Richard Colbeck — was looking shaky on Sunday.

Such a result — with the Greens holding at 11 seats in the Senate — makes Labor reliant on either the Opposition or the minor party to get to the 39 votes required to pass legislation.

It comes despite the Greens going backwards in the lower house, losing seats in Queensland and leader Adam Bandt under threat in his own electorate of Melbourne.

Labor’s Sarah Witty had a 5 per cent swing towards her in the Victorian capital, with the count still uncertain on Sunday.

In Queensland, after winning three seats in 2022, Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather failed to hang onto Griffith, with Mr Bandt vowing it was not the last Australia had seen of the firebrand former MP.

The party also lost Brisbane, held by Stephen Bates, but was expected to hang onto the seat of Ryan, despite suffering a swing against incumbent Elizabeth Watson-Brown.

A bid to target five key seats across Australia mostly failed, with the party going backwards in Macnamara and Sturt in South Australia, and seeing the vote grow by less than two per cent in Richmond in NSW and Perth.

In Wills, held by Labor’s Peter Khalil, former Greens Victorian leader Samantha Ratnam was in a tight contest to win the seat, but looked to be falling short.

In a media statement released late on Saturday, Mr Bandt said more voters than ever before had supported the Greens, despite the national vote falling by 0.3 per cent in the House.

“This support across the country has pushed the Greens to our highest vote ever, returning all our senators, and putting us in position to win between one and four seats, even during an overwhelming swing to the government,” he said.

“The Greens worked to keep Dutton out, and he’s been kicked out. While Dutton’s far-right mask began to slip in the final weeks of the campaign, voters have rejected Dutton’s Trump-style politics.

“The Greens are set to be a powerful force in the next Parliament, as part of a strong progressive crossbench and holding the balance of power in the Senate, pushing for more action on the climate, housing & the cost of living crisis.”

The big winner looked set to be Pauline Hanson, who was looking at winning Senate spots in as many as six states, in close counts against the Government in the sixth and final Senate spots.

On the crossbench, Jacqui Lambie vote count fell in Tasmania, putting her in a tough spot to retain her seat, while ACT’s David Pocock doubled his share of the Senate vote, seeing him returned.

With 34 per cent of the vote counted in WA, Labor State secretary Ellie Whiteaker had won a seat in the Senate, while Liberal Slade Brockman, Greens’ Jordan Steele-John and Labor’s Varun Ghosh were all re-elected.

Despite a falling Liberal vote, Matt O’Sullivan would likely be returned, with a fight between Labor’s Deep Singh and One Nation’s Tyron Whitten for the last spot.