“What this decision says is that Labor is happy for people who are struggling with heroin addiction to die on the streets of Melbourne. And it will be the local community and the families who will be left to deal with the consequences,” Sandell said.
“Back in 2017,Daniel Andrews himself said that you can’t rehabilitate people who are dead. That’s what we are talking about. We’re talking about people’s lives.”
The new Greens leader said the government would probably need her party’s support in the upper house to pass its short-stay accommodation changes,and she would not accept housing changes that tinkered around the edges.
“This is a housing crisis. We are in a dire situation,” she said.
Sandell,39,nominated the seats of Albert Park,Footscray and Northcote as among her party’s targets at the 2026 state election.
The member for Melbourne was a policy adviser and climate activist before entering parliament.
Tuesday’s party room vote made Prahran MP Sam Hibbins and first-term upper house MP Sarah Mansfield deputy co-leaders. Like Sandell,Hibbins was elected to the lower house in 2014.
Ratnam had led the Victorian Greens since October 2017,when she replaced Greg Barber in the Northern Metropolitan electorate,which takes in the federal seat of Wills.
The Greens hope their pro-Palestine stance will unite young progressives and conservative Muslim voters tounseat federal Labor MP Peter Khalil.
Khalil’s seat of Wills was held by Bob Hawke when he was prime minister and takes in the progressive enclave of Brunswick,as well as more working-class suburbs such as Glenroy and Fawkner.
Ratnam,who campaigned with Bandt in Brunswick in recent days,will remain in parliament until the party holds a ballot to replace her in the Northern Metropolitan region.
Two Greens sources,speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters,questioned the optics of Ratnam remaining in the upper house for too long while trying to campaign for Wills.
Multiple Greens sources said Ratnam’s replacement would most likely be one of the local Greens councillors from overlapping councils. Merri-bek mayor Adam Pulford and Darebin mayor Susanne Newton have been touted as strong options.
Both councillors were contacted for comment on Tuesday. Former Wills candidate and surrogacy lawyer Sarah Jefford,whose name has also been touted by party members,said on Tuesday that she did not intend to run.
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