The Greens have made Australian political history winning their first ever seat in the House of Representatives at a federal election. Josh Kenworthy reports.

Adam Bandt celebrates after winning the seat of Melbourne. Image: Josh Kenworthy

Greens candidate for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, declared victory on Saturday night in a room packed with faithful Greens supporters and a large media contingent after winning the safe Labor seat of more than a century.

At the Victoria Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, Bandt said that the Greens won on the issues of climate change, the treatment of asylum seekers and gay marriage.

“Melbourne, together we have made history tonight,” Bandt said.

“In this election campaign we have seen… some of the world’s most vulnerable people used for political gain, we have seen the need to respond to the climate emergency pushed into the too hard basket and we have seen political leaders denigrate the love between two people just because of their gender,” he said.

Bandt won the seat against Labor candidate, Cath Bowtell, an ex-ACTU representative who recently replaced the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, the incumbent since 1993.

Bandt told the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien, that while the absence of Tanner’s popular vote had helped him take the seat, credit should be given to the Greens for running a positive, grass-roots campaign.

“I’d be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time someone told me that they liked what I stood for but they thought Lindsay Tanner was good. And he had quite a strong following… so it certainly did help, but against that there were a number of factors in play,” said Bandt.

“We ran a positive campaign based on getting hundreds of volunteers out doorknocking, leafleting over the best part of a year and it’s great to see that grass roots politics pays off and I think it’s really engaged people in the electorate,” he said.

The Greens’ win in Melbourne signaled a Greens trend across the nation where the party, according to the ABC, recorded a positive swing of 3.5 per cent nationwide, a positive swing in every state and territory and now holds the balance of power in the Senate.

Just over an hour after Bandt declared victory, Greens Senate candidate for Victoria, Richard Di Natale, took the stage to announce his victory in becoming Victoria’s first Green senator.

Di Natale said the Greens’ possession of their first ever lower house seat and the balance of power in the Senate was an “awesome responsibility.”

“It’s looking more and more like a hung parliament and we’re going to have Greens in the lower house, Greens in the Senate, playing a pivotal role in the life of the next parliament and that’s an awesome responsibility,” Di Natale said.

“Tonight’s a night to celebrate, we pat ourselves on the back we enjoy it, we savour it, tomorrow we role our sleeves up and we get to work to create a better Australia,” he said.