Do we like Larissa Waters?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A long, consistent record on LGBTQ+ rights, climate and refugees, held back by one apologised-for attack tweet and a contested stance on hate speech laws.
Waters was born in Canada to Australian parents who were studying and working there briefly, and left at 11 months old. She became an environmental lawyer, won a Queensland Senate seat in 2011 and in May 2025 became the first Queenslander to lead the Greens. Colleagues picked her unanimously after Adam Bandt lost his Melbourne seat.
Her best-known stoush was an accident of birth. In 2017 she resigned from the Senate after finding out she was a Canadian citizen, which made her ineligible under section 44 of the Constitution. She said she had no idea, and said she took “full responsibility for this grave mistake and oversight”. She renounced the citizenship and was back in the Senate in 2018.
The real black mark is from 2021. She attacked Peter Dutton in a tweet, and after his lawyers got involved she apologised on Twitter, accepting there was “no basis for those allegations” and that they were false. It's a single incident rather than a pattern, but it shows a sharp tongue can cost you.
Two positions are contested, and where you land depends on how you read them. In January 2026 she said the Greens wouldn't back Labor's hate speech package, saying it risked criminalising “legitimate political expression”. She also said the protections should cover everyone. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley called the bill unsalvageable and a Jewish community leader said it had shortcomings. On Gaza, she has said the Greens will keep calling out a genocide, while the Coalition has accused the party of being antisemitic. She rejected that, saying there is no antisemitism that is acceptable anywhere.
Her exit as leader is recent and it's not scandal-driven. She said it had been a tremendous honour, the party room chose Shoebridge on 30 September, and she said she'd be a “humble backbencher” and that “It's been a wild ride.” She said she will keep working for Queenslanders.
The good stuff is a sustained record. She told Labor that approving new coal mines undercuts its environmental credentials, said she and her colleagues were elected to get things done for people and the planet, and rejected the label of wrecker. Her votes back that up: against new thermal coal mines, for ending fossil fuel projects, and for refugee children out of detention. Fair warning, she is firmly left on everything, so if that's not your jam, you'll disagree with a lot of it. For people who put LGBTQ+ people and the planet first, she's an easy yes.