New Greens leader says party’s focus is to “get shit done” on climate and environment

Larissa Waters has reaffirmed that The Australian Greens’ core mission remains to “get shit done” on climate and the environment, after being appointed as the new leader of the party this week.

Waters takes the helm at the Greens following a shock federal election shake-up, which saw party leader and climate warrior Adam Bandt lose his Melbourne seat, despite winning the popular vote.

The party’s post-election presence in federal parliament – despite winning the largest national Greens vote in history – has also been whittled down to one MP in the House of Representatives, leading to criticism that it has “lost its way” or become an “insular political cult.”

But Waters, a Queensland environmental lawyer (including for the newly defunded state EDO) turned federal Senator, says the party remains dedicated to its core “green” values while also being able to represent voters on broader social and global issues.

“People elected us to get shit done, and that’s what we intend to do in the service of people and the planet,” Waters told reporters on Thursday afternoon following her appointment – uncontested – as the new leader of the Australian Greens.

The former environmental lawyer has also suggested that the party is keen to work with the newly re-elected Labor government in the senate, where it still holds the balance of power.

“I am a different person [to Adam Bandt] and I bring a different style,” Waters told ABC News Breakfast on Friday morning. “I really want to get outcomes. I really want to work with the current government to try to improve peoples’ lives and protect the planet.

“We’ll look at everything on its merits, but we are now in the sole balance of power in the Senate, so the government does have a choice.

“They can work with the Coalition, you know … keep opening new coal mines and you know, see the planet just continue to burn, or they can work with the Greens – and we want to see action to protect nature.

“Climate and nature is at our core, and as an environmental lawyer, certainly that what … drove me to want to get into politics and try to help fix things, but we’ve got to make sure that people have their daily needs met,” Waters said.

“We should make sure that everyone can get world class education and the health care that they need, whenever they need it… Those basic things are really important, but we can do all of that and protect nature and biodiversity and have good, strong, cheap, clean, renewable energy.

“We don’t have to make choices there. We can have all of those things.”

Born in Canada, Waters was the first Greens senator to be elected in Queensland and is now the second-longest serving Green in parliament behind fellow federal senator, Sarah Hanson-Young.

She has served as the Greens’ Senate leader since 2020 – and has been a regular fixture at Senate Estimates hearings on the environment – and is the is the second woman to lead the party, after Christine Milne.