NSW Senator and Pakistan’s Tamgha-i-Quaid-i-Azam awardee David Shoebridge has been elected the new leader of the Australian Greens after defeating Pakistani-origin Senator Mehreen Faruqi in a contested leadership ballot.
Shoebridge secured seven votes to Faruqi’s four in the final round of the 11-member Greens partyroom ballot on Wednesday, after South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was eliminated in the first round.
Victorian Senator Steph Hodgins-May was elected deputy leader.
The leadership contest followed the resignation of Larissa Waters, who announced on Monday that she was stepping down from the leadership to focus on her health.
Shoebridge, Faruqi and Hanson-Young had nominated for the leadership, in what was an unusual contested ballot for a party that has traditionally selected its leaders through consensus.
Shoebridge is now the sixth leader in the Greens’ history.
The new leader said the Greens would seek to fill what he described as a political “vacuum” left by Labor and would focus on issues including the cost of living, climate change, housing and corporate influence.
“This is an extraordinary moment in politics, and we can all feel it,” Shoebridge said after the result.
He said the Greens wanted to build a “mass movement” and argued that politics should serve Australians rather than corporate donors and billionaires.
“We’re here to beat down One Nation, and we’re here to replace Labor and return hope and faith to politics.”
Shoebridge also criticised Labor, saying the Greens would support legislation where the government put “serious material change” before parliament.
“We’re not here to make Labor better. They’re proving that’s not a project. That’s why we need to replace Labor.”
Following the result, Faruqi said she was disappointed and renewed her call for Greens leaders to be elected directly by the party’s wider membership.
“I’ve long advocated publicly that Greens leaders should be elected by members with enough time for thoughtful deliberation,” Faruqi said.
“I share members’ frustration that the opposite happened this week. Without a member vote, we cannot call ourselves a grassroots party.”
She called on the new leadership team to establish a timeline for a “one member, one vote” system.
Faruqi’s position follows similar calls from former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather for rank-and-file members to have a direct say in choosing the federal leadership.
Shoebridge said changing the leadership election system would remain an “ongoing conversation”.
“We got elected today on the rules that have been set by our party,” he said, adding that he would work with members on “further democratisation of the party”.
Faruqi, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, has served as a Greens senator for NSW since 2018 and previously served in the NSW Parliament. She became the party’s deputy leader in 2022.
Hodgins-May defeated WA Senator Jordon Steele-John and Tasmanian Senator Vanessa Bleyer in the contest for deputy leader, according to Greens whip Nick McKim. She had run on a joint ticket with Shoebridge.
Hodgins-May said she was “excited” to take on the deputy leadership and described climate action, housing affordability and the cost of living as major issues for her generation.
Shoebridge and Hodgins-May will now lead the Greens as the party seeks to define its direction following Waters’ departure and amid continuing negotiations with the Labor government in the Senate.
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