David Shoebridge elected Australian Greens leader after contested ballot
Senator David Shoebridge has been chosen to lead Australia’s Greens after defeating Mehreen Faruqi seven votes to four in a party-room ballot. Steph Hodgins-May became deputy leader. The contest exposed calls for future leadership elections to be opened to the wider membership.
David Shoebridge has been elected leader of Australia’s Greens after winning an unprecedented contested ballot within the party room. Senator Shoebridge defeated former deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi seven votes to four after preferences. Steph Hodgins-May was elected deputy leader by six votes to five over Vanessa Bleyer.
The decision followed the resignation of Larissa Waters, who said she was stepping down to manage chronic kidney disease. The Greens had previously selected leaders by consensus rather than through a contested vote. Senator Shoebridge, a New South Wales senator since 2022 and a former barrister and NSW parliamentarian, said he wanted the Greens to fill what he described as a political vacuum created by Labor moving to the right.
He identified corporate interests, the gas lobby, AUKUS, artificial intelligence and fossil-fuel billionaires as issues the party would challenge. He called the result an important moment for Australian politics. Senator Faruqi said she was disappointed by the outcome and declined to seek the deputy leadership.
She renewed her call for leaders to be elected by the broader membership, arguing that the party could not call itself grassroots without a member vote. Senator Waters, speaking publicly after her resignation, described leading the party as an honour. She became leader after the 2025 election defeat of Adam Bandt, who lost his long-held Melbourne seat, and said she was proud of the party’s polling despite the growth of right-wing politics.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.