While the overall result of the election is in doubt one thing is clear – there have been some great results for the Greens. Of course all results are not yet finalised, the figures quotes are the latest from the ABC website (or the AEC for any booth results)

Melbourne
I was confident about Adam Bandt winning Melbourne but was surprised at just how easily he did it. I thought it might be a nail biter but the result was clear pretty early in the night. Last time the Greens made history in Melbourne by getting ahead of the Liberals to be part of the two party preferred count, this time they not only easily won the two party preferred, but are actually starting to approach Labor’s primary vote  – Labor have 39.5% and the Greens 36.1%. The swing to the Greens is about 10%.

The Senate
At the last federal election The Greens had 3 senators elected (Tas,WA,SA). This time it is looking like 6 – one for each state. The only one that is close is NSW but it is looking good. In Victoria it looks like Richard Di Natale will be elected with over a quota, something the Greens have only previously achieved in Tasmania. This means he does not rely on preferences and is elected third out of the 6 Senators. Elsewhere there are other Greens also being elected before the last spot in the Senate count. Queensland has never elected a Greens senator before, this time Larissa Waters has received almost 13% of the vote, just short of a quota, but enough to be elected in 5th place – last time she missed out after getting 7.3%. Here in SA it’s another great result, we had a Senator elected for the first time in 2007, but an important factor there was the number of votes taken from ALP/Libs by Nick Xenophon, this time the Greens have over 13% of the vote and Penny Wright gets elected in 5th place. As expected Christine Milne and Rachel Siewert have been safely re-elected in Tasmania and WA. It is a shame that we couldn’t get a spot in the ACT but this was always very tough, it looks like the Libs have still managed to hold on to a quota. The Greens vote was an impressive 23%. The NT was never a chance, but the vote there is looking like about 14% which would be about a quota in a state.

Apart from the great result of now having 10 Greens in parliament, it is also notable that across the country the Greens vote has increased to a total of over 11%. In particular there are excellent swings in QLD, Vic and SA.

Queensland
In Queensland there were huge swings to the Greens which in many cases are a doubling of the vote, in particular in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. In Brisbane some of the swings to the Greens were Brisbane (9.5%), Lilley (6.1), Bonner (6.2), Griffith (7.3), Moreton (8.6), Oxley (6.4), Ryan (9.3), Rankin (6.8) and Blair (7.0). Other areas, particularly the northern suburbs, and the coast were lower but still there were many swings of over 4%. Also notable was the non-metropolitan seat of Wright (Gold Coast hinterland and up towards Toowoomba) with a 6.8% swing. On the Sunshine Coast there is Fisher (10.2) and Fairfax (9.4), both with a Green swing comparable to that in Melbourne!

Victoria
While the focus has rightly been on the seat of Melbourne, the overall vote for the Greens across many areas of Victoria is high, which has seen Richard Di Natale easily elected to a seat the Greens have never been able to get before. Apart from the seat of Melbourne there are other great results in inner city Melbourne, in particular the Greens are in the two party preferred count in Batman with a primary vote over 23%. Melbourne ports also has over 20%, and Wills is just below that. The Greens are in double figures or just short (quite a few eastern suburbs seats are between 9 and 10%) across much of metropolitan Melbourne. What’s also interesting are the gains in the seats outside the areas that have traditionally supported the Greens, outer suburban Calwell has a swing of over 7% to put the Greens in double figures, Corio (Geelong) has doubled to 12%, various  non-Melbourne seats  – Corangamite, Ballarat, Bendigo, McEwen, Flinders – all are over 10%. In Victoria it’s not just about Melbourne, the Greens have widespread support. The upcoming Victorian election in late November is a very exciting prospect.

South Australia
Here in SA we’ve also seen some big swings to the Greens. The highlights are Port Adelaide (6.3% swing), Hindmarsh (5.1), Kingston (6.6), Makin (5.5), Mayo (6.0) with a special mention to Jane Alcorn for getting an amazing 7.1% swing in Wakefield to lift the vote from 4 to 11% (must be all those latte sipping elites in Elizabeth and Gawler). Most SA seats have double figure percentage votes for the Greens, with exceptions being Sturt & Makin both borderline as to whether they’ll edge over 10, and the the two completely rural seats which still have both seen a significant increase in Green Vote (Grey 7.4%, Barker  8.4% – both almost double the 2007 figure). The best is Mayo which is now over 17% for the Greens. The electorate I know best is Adelaide, which had over 13% after just falling short of double figures last time. While we say a steady increase in our good areas (places like Unley, Goodwood, inner city, Mile End), what is really notable is the big swings in the northern areas of the electorate where we traditionally get few votes. These are working class areas which are very strong for the ALP (and some of the areas where I spent all day yesterday). Some of the individual polling booth swings to the Greens are Blair Athol (6%), Blair Athol North (4.8), Greenacres (5.3), Kilburn (4.5), Nailsworth (5.9), Northfield (7.5), Northfield South (6.6) and Northgate (6.2). In each case this corresponds roughly to a doubling of the vote to get the total percentage into double figures except for Northgate which went from 3% to 9%.

Grayndler
Of note in NSW is the seat of Grayndler where it looks like the Greens are going to get an excellent two party preferred result against Labor, though the ABC site still shows a 2PP with ALP/Libs. The Greens vote was over 25%. This is quite like Melbourne in 2007.

In general in the rest of NSW and in the other states the results were a bit more varied, but in all cases the Greens vote increased significantly.