JOHNATHAN Davis’ path to politics may not normally lend itself to life in public office and yet, as he describes it: “That’s a good thing”.

The former real-estate agent sings country music, does stand-up comedy, and was once a karaoke host.

“I’m exactly the kind of person that shouldn’t be in parliament, I’m under 30, I’m not tertiary educated, I’m not just gay, I’m shamelessly queer and I grew up with very little, all the things that mean you shouldn’t be here,” Mr Davis said.

Davis – who won his seat by just 82 votes – was one of eight new MLAs elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly at October’s election. 

At 29, the Green’s Brindabella MLA is the youngest Assembly member and strongly believes that someone with his lived experience can bring a different perspective to the chamber.

“We have to make an effort as a community to start considering our political leaders as individuals because there’s an intersectionality to all of our lived experiences that makes us all awesomely and interestingly complicated,” Mr Davis said.

Born and raised in Canberra, Mr Davis’ early life threw up plenty of challenges.

He was just 14 when the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and struggle to reveal his homosexuality to his family prompted him to move out of home. He got by couch surfing and working two jobs, all while attending school at Kambah High.

“I wouldn’t call it a troubled childhood, but I came from a lower socio-economic, working-class, public-school educated, pay cheque-to-pay cheque family, of which there is plenty in Canberra,” Mr Davis said.

His first experience with politics was at school when he campaigned against Labor’s 2006 decision to shut 39 schools including Kambah High.

“I credited that school environment and the people in it with my identity and the self exploration I did during those formative years, so to have it taken away felt egregious, it felt like a deeply personal attack,” said Mr Davis.

He left school at the start of year 12, shortly after joining the office of Liberal MLAs Brendan Smyth and Steve Pratt, throwing his lot in with the conservative side of politics for a while.

But after a time he felt he “didn’t fit in” and moved on to a career in real estate. 

During his time away from politics Mr Davis carved out a political ideal and set of beliefs of his own, which led him to the Greens.

“I struggled to find anything in the Greens’ manifesto that challenged me, so I thought I best go along to a meeting. They were all terribly nice people, it felt like a homecoming and the natural place to be for someone who sees the world as I see it,” Mr Davis said.

“What’s ironic is growing up in a working-class suburban home meant we were raised to hate no one more than the Greens, which I’m always struck by because I would now argue that with a fully formed political ideology, it is the Greens Party policy that best supports and rises up those with the least.”

Already more than six months into his term in the ACT Assembly, Mr Davis – the Greens’ health and education spokesperson – has wasted no time championing causes he’s passionate about, including drug reform and public education.

“What I’m really confounded by is the amount of parents who feel forced to send their kids to private schools and suffer the economic burden of school fees,” Mr Davis said.

“Parents want what’s best for their kids, so why isn’t what’s best for their kids a public school education… I don’t want any kids getting off the school bus wearing a polo shirt thinking they are less than kids who get off the bus wearing a blazer.”

In terms of the ACT government’s plan to decriminalise illicit drugs, Mr Davis, who sits on the select committee looking into the Bill and has cared for a family member with a drug addiction, is inspired by Portugal’s 2001 decision to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use.

“Not only has the sky not fallen in on Portugal, but they have a huge bank of evidence for us to look at. They have been able to treat more people quicker and, most importantly, get to the root cause of black-market drug manufacturing and distribution, which is really powerful,” Mr Davis said.

Mr Davis first ran for the Greens when he was 20, in the 2012 ACT election. He ran again in 2016 and in 2019 as the party’s federal candidate for Bean.

One of Mr Davis’ strengths has been his perseverance in overcoming people’s stereotypical reactions to his differences.

He has consistently worked at winning people over, gaining their trust and acceptance, skills that will stand him in good stead in politics. 

“I can still remember the start of my career as karaoke host at the Canberra Irish Club and people complained that they got this really queer, really camp gay boy to host their karaoke night,” Mr Davis said.

“But over time there was this transformation in people and they got to know me not as the gay guy but as Jono and they went from we don’t quite like you, to at the end of my tenure, we don’t want anyone here but you.

“That’s one of things I try to bring to my work, being able to genuinely empathise with and try to understand people who see the world differently to me, because I ask them to do that for me.”