Greens leader Adam Bandt has lost his seat of Melbourne, with the ABC projecting that Labor’s Sarah Witty will win after a tight count.

Bandt, who has held the seat for four elections and became party leader in 2020, suffered a 4.4 per cent drop in his primary vote.

The Greens had been confident he would retain the seat, although with just over two-thirds of ballots counted earlier on Wednesday he had fallen behind Witty by 4043 votes.

The Greens were all but wiped out in the lower house, also losing two seats in Brisbane.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown is expected to retain the Queensland seat of Ryan to be the sole Greens MP in the House of Representatives.

The party’s primary vote largely held up and it will retain the balance of power in the Senate.

About a dozen seats remain undecided with Labor leading in six, the Liberals in four and independents in two.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who also lost his seat in the election,  returned to Canberra on Wednesday afternoon, the first time he has been seen in public since losing his seat on Saturday.

When asked who should replace him, he suggested it was best for former leaders to “maintain a graceful silence”.

“I’ve spoken to my colleagues, and the Liberal party rebuilds from here, and that is as it should be.”

As to his next steps, he said he was looking forward to spending more time with friends and family.

Coalition problems

Meanwhile, the federal coalition’s political marriage is looking shaky as recriminations fly over its devastating election loss.

Earlier in the day, Senator Matt Canavan blamed the coalition’s nuclear policy for the defeat, telling told Nine News on Wednesday that it was designed to “reduce emissions not power bills”.

He suggested his party should run in more suburban seats, given their electoral success at previous elections, after the Liberals bled MPs in Saturday’s poll.

“We just fight for people and that’s the most important thing in politics… so look, well, if that leads to us [the Coalition] breaking up, good, fine,” he said.

The Liberals were decimated across metropolitan areas in the election, while the Nationals maintained most of their seats in the regions, outperforming their coalition partner for the second consecutive election.

Deputy Nationals Leader Perin Davey is set to lose her NSW Senate seat after a large swing against the coalition in the state and she was placed third on the joint Senate ticket behind two Liberals. Her upper house seat is likely to be picked up by Labor after an 8 per cent swing against the coalition.

“We held all incumbent seats while the Liberals lost seats,” Senator Davey told AAP on Wednesday.

“We need to go to the Liberals now to say we deserve to have the second Senate spot each election, as they do in Queensland.”

The first two coalition Senate candidates in NSW are essentially guaranteed their place, and the ranking of Nationals and Liberal candidates can impact the delicate coalition party-room balance.

The balance has flow-on effects for cabinet spots and portfolios.

MPs are divided over the coalition’s energy policy, with Liberals wanting the dump it after blaming it for dragging on their inner city vote and some Nationals saying it was popular in the regions.

“… we should review all of our policies,” Nationals MP Kevin Hogan told Sky News, while pointing to positive swings in regional seats where the proposed plants would have been built.

The coalition now holds only about one in 10 metropolitan seats while Labor is saturated in every capital city.

Such a devastating loss means the nuclear policy needed to be scrapped as it was overwhelmingly rejected by Australians at the election, Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said.

Liberal moderate Bridget Archer, who lost her Tasmanian seat of Bass, also criticised the nuclear policy. There was a disconnect between what the opposition offered and what Australians wanted, she said, adding the national campaign had missteps and there wasn’t a big enough focus on local issues.

Wilson defies ‘political gravity’

Former Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson – who is set to become the first Liberal to knock off a sitting Teal independent – isn’t backing away from the coalition’s nuclear energy policy.

“Nuclear power is part of building the future industrial base of our country,” he said, after claiming victory over Zoe Daniel in the seat of Goldstein in Melbourne’s south-east.

“If we don’t do that, then we are saying we’re either going back to coal or we as a nation are going to de-industrialise.”

Goldstein has come down to the wire after Daniel took a commanding lead on election night and danced to David Guetta’s “Titanium” on stage. Postal votes have since swung the contest in Wilson’s favour, with the Liberal pulling ahead by 676 votes on Wednesday morning.

“We have won,” an emotional Wilson told reporters in Brighton in front of supporters. “We had to defy political gravity to get here.”

Several media outlets have called the win for Wilson, who served as the local member from 2016 to 2022 and on the front bench of the Morrison government.

Daniel has not called Wilson to concede, wanting to wait for counting to continue.

With the party in turmoil after Peter Dutton’s stunning exit, the ambitious Victorian has hinted he’ll push for a senior position in the coalition’s decimated leadership ranks, but was tight-lipped on Wednesday.

“I’m very proud to be part of a Liberal team, but it is a Liberal team that is going to have a lot of work ahead of it,” Wilson said.

Wilson may be the Liberals’ lone representative from inner or middle Melbourne this parliamentary term, with opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar turfed out of Deakin and promising first-term MP Keith Wolahan trailing in Menzies.

Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer’s hopes are still alive in neighbouring Kooyong against teal incumbent Monique Ryan, who also may have gone the early crow on Saturday night.

Ryan’s lead over Hamer narrowed from about 1000 to 622 votes on Wednesday morning.

The ABC has called the seat of Wills in Melbourne’s north for Labor’s Peter Khalil over Greens hopeful Samantha Ratman.

-with AAP