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National

Who are the Greens and what do they stand for?

Brisbane candidate Stephen Bates ran a campaign that even used dating apps for advertising. (Supplied)

The Greens Party has been around for 30 years, but it's only in recent elections they've started to make a real claim on the crossbench seats.

This election, it is possible they could pick up four seats, up from just one in 2019.

Here's what you should know about the party that shook up this election.

The prospective MPs

In a win that was never really in question, Greens leader Adam Bandt won his seat of Melbourne. He has held the seat for more than a decade, and took the reins of the party after Richard DiNatale stepped down in 2020.

On Saturday night, it was three neighbouring electorates in Brisbane that caught the attention of the nation.

Inner-Brisbane Greens candidates Stephen Bates, Max Chandler-Mather and Elizabeth Watson-Brown. (ABC News)

The seat of Brisbane is currently swinging from Liberal Trevor Evans towards Stephen Bates, who joined the Greens in 2019.

Mr Bates drew attention to himself when he took the unorthodox strategy of taking out a Greens advertisement on gay dating app Grindr.

Mr Bates was born in the UK before moving to his mum's home state of Queensland.

He says an incident while working in hospitality in the US, in which he stumbled upon a coworker in tears over having to choose between paying for insulin or rent, fostered his belief in the Greens' values.

The electorate of Griffith is close to shifting from Labor's Terri Butler to Greens' candidate Max Chandler-Mather, who also contested the election in 2019.

Mr Chandler-Mather grew up in Brisbane's inner-city southside, where he currently lives. 

He says he strongly backs policies that roll back the privatisation of services like electricity. 

And in Ryan, Elizabeth Watson-Brown defeated Liberal MP Julian Simmonds.

Ms Watson-Brown comes from an architecture background, which she says focused on sustainable design. 

She says she is particularly passionate about Greens' policies on affordable housing and greening urban spaces.

What are the Greens' policies?

Most know the Greens for their, well, green policies. Here's where they stand on more of the key issues this election.

Environment

The Greens are best known for their emphasis on environmental policy.

The party believes the world is in a climate crisis and Australia should work towards achieving a net-zero economy by 2030, two decades sooner than Labor or Coalition policies.

The Greens are best known for their environmental policies. (ABC News: Jess Davis)

In order to do so, the Greens believe Australia should completely transition out of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas and into renewable energy within the next eight years.

The Greens acknowledge Australia relies heavily on fossil fuel exports to support the economy, and says it envisions kicking off a renewable export industry to replace it. 

Education

The Greens stand for free education, from early childhood through to tertiary degrees.

They also stand for abolishing student debt and reinvesting in the TAFE system.

Key in the lead-up to the election was the cost of childcare, and the Greens support free childcare access seven days a week.

Health care

One of the poster policies for the Greens this election was to include dental in Medicare subsidies.

Greens leader Adam Bandt claims major credit for the introduction of childhood dental into Medicare in 2010.

The Greens want dental fully covered by Medicare. (file photo: ABC TV News - file image)

The party also has a strong viewpoint on mental health support. 

It has a policy of increasing the mental health help Australians can claim under Medicare by scrapping the limit of sessions that can be claimed.

It also pledges to increase funding for the NDIS.

Housing

A key housing policy the Greens spruik is to build one million new homes across Australia to decrease the pressure on the housing market.

For renters, it pledges to put a cap on rent increases and put money into renter advocacy groups.

Cost of living

The Greens say its policies on health care, childcare, rent and housing, as well as an increase to income support payments, will ease the cost-of-living burden.

The party also pledges to amend labour laws to increase the power of workers, legislate against insecure work and increase wages.

Voice to Parliament

The Greens stand for a Treaty with Australia's Indigenous populations.

Without going into specifics, the party's policy platform also describes an opposition to "racist policies" and "over-policing" of Indigenous communities.

Taxes

By this point, you may be thinking the policies outlined above are sounding expensive. 

The Greens plan to fund their policies by greatly increasing the tax rate of billionaires and big corporations.

More recently, the party says it will also force companies who received JobKeeper payments while making profits during the pandemic to return their payments.

New Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's victory speech in full
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