"Following the Liberals' landslide loss, Australians have watched as the new government has failed to grasp the scale of the housing and climate crisis, continuing the denial that characterised the Liberals' decade in power. Ahead of the May Budget, Greens Leader Adam Bandt reflects on how the self-imposed irrelevance of the Liberals and the timid policy responses of the Labor government make the role of the Greens more important than ever. With a look back at the successful Safeguard negotiations, and casting forward to the upcoming fight over support for renters, Bandt will outline how the Greens will continue to exercise their power position in the Parliament and grow as Australia’s real social democratic alternative."*
Adam Bandt is the Federal Member for Melbourne and Leader of the Australian Greens. Adam is the Greens spokesperson for the Climate Emergency and Energy, Employment & Industrial Relations, Public Sector and Foreign Affairs.
Adam was elected to the Federal Parliament in 2010, making history as the first Green elected to the House of Representatives at a general election.
Adam has served as Deputy Leader under Christine Milne and Richard Di Natale. For a number of years Adam has been the Greens spokesperson on the climate crisis, energy, employment & industrial relations and science, research and innovation. He has previously been the Greens Treasury spokesperson.
In his maiden speech to Parliament, Adam warned of the coming climate emergency. Adam was a key participant in the Gillard minority government’s Multi-Party Climate Change Committee which developed the climate price and established the successful Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It was only because of Adam’s election and the signed agreement with Julia Gillard that the carbon price was introduced, the only time carbon pollution has decreased in Australia.
Before entering Parliament, Adam worked for many years as a public interest and industrial lawyer protecting workers from privatisation and big business. Adam represented some of Australia’s lowest paid workers, working with the current President of the ACTU Michelle O'Neill on legal action against corporate giant Nike to make them responsible for the wages and conditions of workers in their supply chain. Adam also worked to protect the rights of coal workers in the Latrobe Valley after their power stations were privatised. One of Adam’s first acts in Parliament was to introduce a private members bill extending protection for firefighters who contract cancer through their work, which passed into law with unanimous support, becoming one of only 7 private members bills to become law in the past two decades.
*provided by speaker's organisation
