Greens Leadership Race Puts Labor's New Coal and Gas Decisions in Focus
Former Greens leader Adam Bandt says grassroots members will push the party's next leader to stop the Labor government approving any new coal and gas projects "by whatever means". Guardian Australia
Bandt told Guardian Australia there would be no excuse for the new leader to let the Albanese government approve new fossil fuel development. His comments come before a leadership vote expected at a two-day retreat in Sydney starting 30 September 2026.
The contest follows Larissa Waters' announcement on Monday night that she would step down as Greens leader. Waters said she had been managing chronic kidney disease, which had declined significantly in recent months.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Tuesday she would run for leader. Deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi said she would run on a joint ticket with Nick McKim as deputy. NSW Senator David Shoebridge has not ruled himself in or out. Shoebridge, Faruqi and Hanson-Young were seen as frontrunners to succeed Waters. Former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather wrote an open letter calling for ordinary members, not only MPs, to choose the new leader.
Bandt now leads the Australian Conservation Foundation as chief executive. He named three tests for the next leader: whether the government approves Woodside's Browse gas project near Scott Reef in northern Western Australia, whether it allows gas fracking, a method that cracks rock to release gas, in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory, and whether data centres are allowed to use fracked gas. In February, Bandt had threatened to mobilise half a million environmental supporters in a campaign against fossil fuel projects.
Former leader Bob Brown called Waters a "splendid" leader and said her successor must show they can win major reforms from Labor. Brown said the next leader must be ready to challenge Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson and negotiate for large changes, not only small steps.
The party's national vote was almost unchanged. The Greens won 12.22% of first-preference votes, the primary vote, in the 2025 Australian election, compared with 12.25% in 2022. On 3 May 2025, Bandt, then leader, said the party had won its largest vote ever and would keep pushing on housing, climate and cost of living.
Recent climate policy has involved negotiation with Labor. Australia was set to rewrite its environment laws after winning Greens support, according to November 2025 reporting. Reuters The Greens said Labor's plan to give coal and gas projects faster approvals on "national interest" grounds would be dropped. In earlier disputes, the Greens called for no new coal and gas projects, which Labor said it could not support, and for a stronger 2030 emissions-cut target than Labor's 43% target, which Labor refused to raise.
The broader context here is leverage and its limits. Like a tie-breaker in a close vote, a minor party with balance-of-power influence, meaning its support decides outcomes in parliament, can win changes to process such as approvals rules while still failing to move a major party on core issues like new fossil fuel supply or the headline emissions target. Grassroots calls for a veto on every project narrow the space for deals, and Labor's past refusals narrow it from the other side. The Sydney vote will decide who manages that narrow space.
