Greens leader showdown to occur at Sydney retreat

Greens MPs will elect a new federal leader at a two-day retreat in Sydney this week, as possible contenders go quiet on who will lead the party to the next election.

The party’s leadership was unexpectedly thrown into contention when current leader Larissa Waters announced her resignation on Monday night, citing worsening chronic kidney disease.

Waters has yet to speak publicly, but is expected to address a press conference alongside the newly elected leader following a pre-planned party room meeting on Wednesday or Thursday.

None of the party’s possible contenders have publicly pitched themselves for the leadership, though NSW senators Mehreen Faruqi and David Shoebridge, South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Tasmanian senator Nick McKim appear to be frontrunners for the top-job.

Those close to the leadership deliberations anticipate that contenders will seek to come to a consensus position before this week’s meeting, as some seek an uncontested ballot. After former leader Adam Bandt’s loss at the 2025 election, Waters took the leadership unopposed.

A spokesperson for Faruqi said the senator, who currently serves as the party’s deputy leader, was considering her options. First appointed to the Senate in 2018, Faruqi has expressed frustration that the party has not tapped into the same populist-left wave that has boosted the careers of New York City’s socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani and UK Greens leader Zack Polanski.

Hanson-Young, the party’s longest serving senator and another key contender, has become the main negotiator for the passage of legislation, particularly in the communications space where she is pushing for a toughening of Labor’s digital duty of care laws. Some in the party consider the senator, who has served the federal Greens for 18 years, too moderate.

Victorian senator Steph Hodgins-May’s office said she had no comment to make on the leadership, but the senator has increasingly been pushed into the spotlight with an extensive traditional and social media presence over the past year.

Other senators Penny Allman-Payne and Jordon Steele-John, alongside lower house MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown, are unlikely to challenge for the leadership, though the former two could be considered for deputy depending on who becomes leader.

Queensland senator Barbara Pocock has already announced her retirement at the next election, expected in early 2028, making her and Waters the only MPs ruled out of contention. In a post to Instagram on Tuesday, Pocock said she was “deeply saddened” that Waters had to step down, saying the leader had shown “tremendous leadership” over her tenure.

Newly appointed Tasmanian senator Vanessa Bleyer has yet to determine whether she would challenge for the leadership, but is unlikely to make a tilt having sat in the Senate for just over two months.

The offices of all sitting Greens MPs have been contacted for comment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said he had spoken to Waters and “wished her well”, saying the senator was attending further health checks on Tuesday.

“I just wish her all the very best on a personal level. I obviously have differences with the Greens political party, but this is a human issue, and I can also have compassion and I have a good relationship with Larissa,” Albanese said.

“I thank her for the constructive engagement that I’ve had with her. I work with people across the parliament. We have to do that in order to secure any legislation through our Senate. We haven’t always agreed, and we won’t always agree going forward, but I wish her all the very best.”

Waters took on the job just over 15 months ago at a tumultuous time for the Greens. At the last election, the party’s then-leader Adam Bandt lost his previously safe seat of Melbourne to Labor. The Greens also lost Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates’ seats in Brisbane, leaving the party with only one lower house seat and devoid of Chandler-Mather’s firebrand energy.

Waters, 49, plans to return to the Senate after time away dealing with her health, so her resignation as leader does not open an upper house vacancy.

She said the minor party had achieved significant wins, including protecting native forests in a deal with Labor to reform Australia’s 25-year-old environmental laws.

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