Adam Bandt has made headlines this election campaign for proposing a tax on billionaires, telling a journalist to "Google it, mate," and for presenting the Greens as an alternative to the traditional Australian two-party system that he says supports coal and gas.
Mr Bandt, who was elected party leader in 2020 following the resignation of Richard Di Natale for family reasons, has continued to highlight the Greens' focus on environment and social justice issues.
On Tuesday, Mr Bandt reinforced his ambition to tackle the climate crisis if the Greens clinch the balance of power in a hung parliament.
"Now, in the next parliament ... we can have discussions about how quickly to get out of coal and gas. How we do it in a way that supports workers in communities in affected areas. And we’ve got a comprehensive plan to do that," Mr Bandt told ABC Radio National's Patricia Karvelas.
"But we think everyone should be able to agree: you can’t put the fire out while pouring petrol on it.
"And we have to stop opening new coal and gas mines. So at a time when Labor and Liberal want to open new coal mines, in fact using public money to do it, that will be our number one demand."
Mr Bandt's focus on climate change and taxing the rich can be traced back to his days at university and his early career as an industrial lawyer.
Early life
Mr Bandt, 50, was born in Adelaide to Moira and Allan Bandt, a school teacher and former social worker respectively.
He grew up in Perth, and following school attended the city's Murdoch University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 1996.
He joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as a teenager and was a member between 1987 and 1989, but left the party because its free university policy under former leaders Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.
"I joined the Labor party at high school, but left in university because the ALP started making education so expensive and putting people in debt, " he wrote in a 2020 article for The Guardian.
During university, he was a member of Left Alliance, a national organisation of socialist, feminist and progressive students. In 2008, he based his PhD on an examination of the labour theory of Karl Marx.
After working with student unions during and after university, Mr Bandt entered a career as an industrial lawyer in Melbourne, working closely with unions and public workers facing privatisation.
Parliamentary career and policy positions
In 2010, he was elected to parliament after successfully running as the Greens’ candidate for the federal division of Melbourne. His main policy priorities were addressing climate change and abolishing mandatory offshore detention facilities — two of the main interests still on Mr Bandt’s agenda today.
He retained the seat of Melbourne twice, winning re-election in the 2013 and 2019 federal elections.
When Mr Di Natale announced his retirement from politics and resignation as leader of the Greens, Mr Bandt was elected unopposed as the party's new leader.
The Greens won 10.4 per cent of votes in the House of Representatives in the 2019 federal election, retaining their singular seat. The party has nine Senators in parliament.
Mr Bandt says the Greens are hopeful of holding the balance of power after the 21 May election, giving the party the opportunity to implement its policies.
The Greens' 2022 election campaign features the slogan “Tax the billionaires,” referring to the party's proposal to implement Australia’s first billionaires' tax, which would see the super-wealthy pay an extra 6 per cent income tax.
Mr Bandt says the tax would help provide free dental and mental health care through Medicare, ensure free education, and increase the JobSeeker payment.
"The Greens will make Clive Palmer pay more tax so you can fix your teeth," Mr Bandt said during an address to the National Press Club in mid-April.
“Dental care must be universal. It is a human right."
Addressing the climate crisis has continued to be at the forefront of the Greens' agenda under Mr Bandt's leadership, with the goal of phasing out Australian coal and gas.
Mr Bandt has said victims of the 2022 floods in NSW and Queensland should be able to sue coal and gas corporations, as he claims they are responsible for the damage.
He’s criticised the Labor party for following suit on the Coalition’s support for Australian fossil fuel industries, claiming both major parties are in the pockets of corporations that profit from the industries.
“Coal and gas are the biggest causes of the climate crisis. We should be taking urgent action for a safe future – but instead, Labor and the Liberals take millions in donations from big coal and gas corporations and billionaires,” Mr Bandt writes on his campaign website.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said during the federal election campaign that Labor’s stance would be the same as the Coalition’s towards new Australian coal, and ruled out signing the global pledge to end the use of coal over the next two decades.
Mr Bandt wants to immediately ban the construction of new coal, oil and gas infrastructure, and end government subsidies to those sectors.
He's campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis, matched with a reduction in usage of tobacco and alcohol.
As part of the Greens' drug, substance use and addition policies, Mr Bandt is pushing for more education on the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco, particularly in First Nations communities.
Mr Bandt has also reaffirmed the Greens' condemnation of the Coalition and Labor’s support for boat turnbacks and offshore detention facilities, which Labor MP Tanya Plibersek reinforced during a television interview on Tuesday.
"Election after election has been a race to the bottom on refugees, " he wrote on Twitter on 15 April.
"Asylum seekers asked for our protection yet they've received torture & misery instead.
"They deserve better than a bidding war between Liberal & Labor on who can treat them the cruellest."
He wrote on Twitter 'Scott Morrison is a threat to life' and 'this government is a threat to life' in separate posts about the government's approach to climate change and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Bandt made headlines in week one of the election campaign when he told a journalist from the Australian Financial Review to "Google it, mate," after being asked to state the wage price index, a request he labelled a "gotcha question" which he said took away from more pressing political topics.
Mr Bandt and his wife Claudia Perkins, a former Labor staffer, live in Melbourne with their two daughters.
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