Larissa Waters steps down as Greens leader due to ill health

Greens leader Larissa Waters has announced she will step down due to ill health, with a party room meeting scheduled for next week to choose her successor.

Waters revealed on Monday night she has been managing a pre-existing kidney disease, but that her health had “declined significantly over the course of recent months”.

She said while her prognosis for recovery was positive, the pressure of the party’s leadership, including additional travel demands, was detracting from a focus on her health.

Waters replaced Adam Bandt as Greens leader after the 2025 election, in which Bandt lost his lower house seat in a shock result.

But some Greens members have expressed frustration with the party’s position under Waters, including its cut-through with voters as the major parties haemorrhage support to One Nation.

Waters said in a statement she would take a period of medical leave, before returning to parliament to represent Queensland in the Senate.

“It has been a tremendous honour to be leader of the Greens, fighting for people and the planet,” she said.

“I’m really sad that illness means my time as leader has been cut short, but our movement needs a leader in good health to lead us to success at the next election.

“Passing the torch on to the next leader of the party will put them in the best position to take the Greens to the next election, fighting for people, not the corporate interests that run Labor, Liberals and One Nation.

“Our fight is too important, and it needs more time and energy than I am able to give while I focus on my recovery.”

She thanked her colleagues and doctors for their support, citing successes including negotiations with Labor on environmental law reforms and tougher gun laws introduced after last year’s Bondi Beach terror attack.

“I will keep working for the people of Queensland, for women’s safety and for climate action when I am able to return to parliament.”

Deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, and high profile senators Sarah Hanson-Young and David Shoebridge could contest the leadership ballot.

Waters was first elected to the Senate in 2011 but was forced to resign in July 2017 after discovering she held Canadian citizenship during parliament’s eligibility crisis.

After renouncing her citizenship, she returned to the upper house in September 2018 to fill a vacancy.

Waters was a co-deputy leader to Bandt, and to former leader Richard Di Natale at various times between 2015 and 2022.

As the party’s spokesperson for women, Waters played a role in shaping the independent parliamentary workplace watchdog based on recommendations from Kate Jenkins’ report into the culture in Parliament House.

The Greens have been reduced to a single lower house MP – Ryan’s Elizabeth Watson-Brown – after the May election, with minor primary vote swings against Bandt and two Queensland incumbents, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates.

The party maintains the losses were due to a drop in votes for the Liberal party favouring Labor candidates, as well as a reduction in favourable preference flows.