The Greens’ only House of Representatives member, Adam Bandt, is the party’s new leader, elected unanimously, writes political columnist MICHELLE GRATTAN.
THE Greens’ only House of Representatives member, Adam Bandt, is the party’s new leader, elected unanimously after Richard Di Natale on Monday announced he is leaving parliament.
Bandt, 47, has held the inner city seat of Melbourne since 2010, and most recently served as co-deputy of the parliamentary party. He is the Greens’ spokesman on climate change.
His challenge will be to manage what is essentially a Senate party – the Greens have nine senators – from the lower house. The party’s previous leaders – Bob Brown, Christine Milne and Di Natale – were senators. Given the fact the government is in a minority in the upper house, tactics are important there and the play can move quickly.
Bandt said before the ballot he would talk to his colleagues “about how we share leadership across the House and the Senate as we fight the climate emergency and inequality”.
In 2015, when the leadership last came up, Bandt lost to Di Natale.
Di Natale has cited family reasons as driving his decision to resign.
Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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