FRESNOFORECLOSURE

Queensland senator Larissa Waters has been chosen to lead the federal Greens, replacing Adam Bandt.

Waters was unanimously elected at a party room meeting in Melbourne this afternoon, with fellow senator Mehreen Faruqi to continue as deputy leader.

The decision comes after Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne, becoming the second leader to be voted out of parliament at the election following Peter Dutton's loss in Dickson.

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In a statement following her election, Waters said she would be "firm but constructive" following criticism from outside the party about its parliamentary tactics during the last term.

"I call today for politics with heart – for a progressive parliament that gets outcomes for people and genuinely tackles the problems we're all facing," she said.

"This parliament could achieve real progress: climate and environment action, dental into Medicare and free childcare.

"The Greens will be firm but constructive in our approach with the Labor government, and work for outcomes that help improve people's lives and protect nature and the climate."

Waters will now be faced with leading the Greens after the minor party retained all its Senate seats during this month's election and will now hold the balance of power in the upper house, giving it significant influence in passing legislation through parliament.

However, the lower party also saw its presence in the House of Representatives gutted from four to just one seat.

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Alongside Bandt, prominent housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather was voted out of Griffith, while fellow first-term MP Stephen Bates lost his neighbouring electorate of Brisbane. 

Waters said the party would use its influence in the upper house to push the Albanese government to pass "bold" new laws.

"The Labor Party has a choice," Waters said.

"They can work with us. They can work with us and help people and protect nature, or they can choose to work with the Coalition.

"They're going to need to pick because they don't have the numbers in the Senate to pass the legislation that they want to work on.

"So we want the Labor Party to be bold, and we want to help them to fix the problems that people are facing… this is about the people that need our help and the planet that is slowly cooking because of the interests of the fossil fuel industry and big corporates."

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Born in Canada and an environmental lawyer by trade, Waters was first elected to the Senate in 2010.

She became Greens deputy co-leader in 2015, but resigned as one of the more than a dozen MPs and senators who were found ineligible to sit in parliament during the dual citizenship saga in 2017.

She returned to the Senate a year after having renounced her Canadian citizenship, and was re-elected in 2019 and at this month's federal election.

In 2017, Waters made history when she became the first person to breastfeed on the floor of Australian parliament, having taken her two-month-old daughter Alia into the chamber.

The Greens' four former leaders all backed the choice of Waters to lead the party, with Bandt saying his successor is exactly what Australia needs.

"As Australia faces a growing climate crisis and as inequality gets worse, Larissa's integrity, intelligence and strong sense of justice are just what this country needs," Bandt said.

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