2025-03-31
Greens Leader Adam Bandt today said renters and people in housing stress are a powerful voting bloc who will determine who wins the competitive seat of Wills.
The Greens are targeting Wills in Melbourne’s inner north this election and Mr Bandt will be campaigning there today with the party’s star candidate Samantha Ratnam, Victorian Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May and Macnamara candidate Sonya Semmens.
The recent federal AEC redistribution in Victoria approximately halved the margin in Wills, with Poll Bludger estimating the new margin to be 4.2 per cent between the Greens and Labor and ABC’s Antony Green estimating 4.6 per cent. Previous successful Greens campaigns in Melbourne in 2010 and Griffith in 2022 overcame a margin of over 10% to turn the seats Green.
Greens candidate Samantha Ratnam first contested the seat in 2016, securing a 10.32 percent swing to the Greens, before entering the Victorian Parliament and serving as Victorian Greens Leader. Ms Ratnam resigned from that role last year to stand for Wills this election.
Data compiled for ABC’s Four Corners earlier this year showed 78.5 per cent of renters in Wills are experiencing rental stress. 38 per cent of people in Wills are renters and over 9,000 households are experiencing housing stress, according to the 2021 Census. The total number of people currently in housing stress is expected to be higher following years of high rent increases and interest rates.
The Greens are running one of their biggest Victorian campaigns ever in Wills this election, with volunteers having knocked on over 50,000 doors before the election was even called.
In addition to Wills, the Greens are targeting Macnamara (VIC), Richmond (NSW), Sturt (SA) and Perth (WA). The party is also seeking to return its four Lower House MPs and all its Senators who are up for re-election.
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader, Adam Bandt MP:
“Renters and people in mortgage stress will determine the outcome of the federal election, and they can tell you tinkering around the edges has not made housing affordable.
“In a wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford a roof over their head, but in 2025 people are still being smashed by sky high rents and mortgages.
“Nothing changes if nothing changes - we can’t keep voting for the same old two parties and expecting a different result.
“A vote for the Greens is a vote to make big corporations pay to fund the things we all need, like capping rent increases and lower mortgages, putting dental into Medicare and making sure you can see the GP for free.
“We’ll act on climate by stopping new coal and gas and ramping up renewables and battery storage.
“With a minority Parliament expected, this election the people of Wills can send Samantha Ratnam to be a strong and independent representative for them in Canberra who will keep Dutton out and get Labor to act.”
Quotes attributable to Greens candidate for Wills, Samantha Ratnam:
“Voters in Wills are some of the most powerful in the country. They know the Greens will stop Dutton forming government and will get Labor to act on what matters: housing, cost of living and climate.
“Over the past year, we’ve knocked on over 50,000 doors and had thousands and thousands of conversations in Wills. Our community understands that if we want change, we have to vote for it, and more people here than ever before are planning to vote Green this election.”