Adam Bandt picked up a further 2.8 per cent of the primary vote in the seat of Melbourne on Saturday, giving the Greens leader a massive 50.8 per cent of first preference votes in an election which has brought an end to the nine-year run of the Liberal-Nationals Coalition government.
Counting continued as Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia's 31st Prime Minister on Monday, with Labor looking set to secure the 76 lower house seats needed to form majority government.
In a result which also saw blue ribbon Melbourne and Sydney seats fall to "teal" independents campaigning on climate change, women's issues and an anti-corruption commission, the Greens have had their best ever result.
The party has taken two or three lower house seats in Brisbane and up to six in the Senate, delivering them the balance of power in the upper house.
Bandt's result in Melbourne compared to first-time Labor candidate Keir Paterson's 24.8 per cent, which was an improvement of 3.7 per cent for the party on its 2019 candidate Luke Creasey's result.
Melbourne's Liberal vote was down 7 per cent on the last federal election, with young first-time candidate James Damches attracting 14.1 per cent of votes compared to Lauren Sherson's 21.4 per cent in 2019.
The next highest result was for Socialist Colleen Bolger, who attracted 3.7 per cent of votes in the division, an improvement of 3.4 per cent on the Socialists' previously negligible result.
The United Australia Party, Liberal Democrats, Animal Justice Party, One Nation and independent Scott Robson all polled under 2 per cent, with Walter Stragan, of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, recording the lowest result, with just 579 votes, or 0.85 per cent.
The Greens have described their national result as "a greenslide" and "a mandate for action on climate and inequality".
"Voters have made it clear they want the Greens to push the Albanese Government to go further and faster on climate change and inequality," Bandt said.
"We want to work with Anthony Albanese to deliver the stable, effective, progressive government that Australians have voted for, but he will need to work constructively with the Greens and the rest of the crossbench."
