Greens leader Waters steps down due to kidney illness, triggering rapid leadership contest
Larissa Waters has resigned as Australian Greens leader after 16 months, citing worsening kidney disease. She will take medical leave but intends to return to the Senate. The party is holding an emergency meeting this week to elect a successor, with Mehreen Faruqi, Sarah Hanson-Young, and David Shoebridge among potential candidates. Critics note the party’s stagnant polling despite Labor’s decline, while supporters credit Waters with securing environmental and gun law reforms.