Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt has kept his Melbourne seat, a sign he says that bodes well for the minor party boosting its numbers in parliament in future elections.
Mr Bandt says he managed to hold the minor party's only lower-house seat despite Liberal and Labor working to oust him.
"I'm thrilled with the result," he told reporters on Sunday.
"This is a great victory for people in Melbourne and right across the country who want politics to be about reaching for new heights not racing to the bottom."
Mr Bandt won on the back of Liberal preferences at the 2010 federal poll but this time faced an uphill battle after the Liberals preferenced Labor ahead of the Greens.
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He won 55 per cent of the vote on a two-candidate preferred basis against Labor's Cath Bowtell's 45 per cent, with 67 per cent of votes counted.
Mr Bandt says the result in Melbourne holds the party in good stead for future elections including the November 2014 Victorian election.
"They've judged us well in Melbourne and I think that bodes well for the state election," he said.
But he has no plans to one day lead the party.
"I just managed to do something together with my team that no one else has done - we have won a seat in the lower house in the face of Labor and Liberal. And one of the reasons I was able to do that was because of the great leadership of Christine Milne," he said.
But Victorian Labor opposition minister Gavin Jennings says Mr Bandt's career has peaked.
"His influence on the federal parliament will diminish from this day forward and by the time people come to vote in Victoria, there'll be many, many examples where they'll realise a vote for Labor is how to get progressive outcomes," he told reporters.
