Queensland senator Larissa Waters has stepped down as leader of the Australian Greens after 16 months in the role, citing a pre-existing kidney disease that has worsened in recent months. The 49-year-old told colleagues of her decision in a virtual meeting on Monday, before announcing it publicly that evening.
In the party's statement, the Greens said Senator Waters' condition had "declined significantly over the course of recent months" and that, while her prognosis for recovery is positive, the demands of leadership — including the additional travel — were not compatible with giving her health the priority it needs. She will take a period of medical leave and return to parliament as a senator for Queensland as soon as she can.
"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. 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 the medical professionals supporting her, adding: "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."
Senator Waters took the leadership in May 2025, replacing Adam Bandt after he lost his lower house seat at the 2025 election, and winning a party room contest against Mehreen Faruqi, now her deputy, and Sarah Hanson-Young. She hailed the environment deal as a "significant win" of her tenure: in November 2025 the Greens used their Senate balance of power to secure amendments to Labor's overhaul of the national environment laws — tightening land-clearing controls and preventing coal and gas projects from being fast-tracked under a national interest exemption. After the Bondi Beach terror attack, the party also pushed to split gun safety measures from hate speech laws, helping the firearms changes pass in January.
She is one of the longest-serving Greens in Canberra — the ABC notes she is second only to Sarah Hanson-Young in the party room — and her career has had one earlier interruption: she was forced to resign in July 2017 during parliament's dual-citizenship crisis after discovering she held Canadian citizenship, returning to the Senate in September 2018 after renouncing it. As the party's spokesperson for women, she also helped shape the independent parliamentary workplace watchdog that followed Kate Jenkins' review of Parliament House culture.
She leaves the leadership at a difficult moment for the party, particularly in her home state. The Greens were reduced to a single lower house MP at the 2025 election — Elizabeth Watson-Brown, in the Brisbane seat of Ryan — after swings against Bandt and two Queensland incumbents, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates. The Guardian reports some members have voiced frustration with the party's cut-through under Waters as the major parties bleed support to One Nation.
The succession is moving fast. The party says a party room meeting will determine the next steps this week, and the ABC was told a decision would come "sooner rather than later"; the Guardian expects a ballot next week and names Mehreen Faruqi, Sarah Hanson-Young, David Shoebridge and Nick McKim as possible contenders. Whoever wins, Senator Waters' parting words framed the handover as a matter of timing: passing the torch now, she said, puts her successor "in the best position to take the Greens to the next election".