{"id":911579,"date":"2026-09-30T23:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911579\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:56:13","slug":"im-up-for-a-red-hot-fight-polarising-new-greens-leader-david-shoebridge-is-taking-on-the-top-1-and-one-nation-australian-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911579\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m up for a red-hot fight\u2019: polarising new Greens leader David Shoebridge is taking on the top \u20181%\u2019 \u2013 and One Nation | Australian Greens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Greens leader, David Shoebridge<\/a>, has said he is \u201cup for a red-hot fight\u201d and hit out at One Nation\u2019s \u201cpolitics of hate\u201d, signalling a more confrontational style of delivery under his leadership.<\/p>\n

The New South Wales senator, elected as leader on Wednesday afternoon after Larissa Waters\u2019 shock resignation<\/a>, said the minor party would show people it understood their anger and mistrust with mainstream politicians, and \u201cshow them who their real enemy is\u201d \u2013 the elite 1%.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what people are looking for in this moment is a red-hot fight \u2013 a red-hot fight for them, a red-hot fight for their kids, a red-hot fight for a safe climate,\u201d Shoebridge told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my political career shows that I\u2019m up for a red-hot fight on these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering federal parliament in 2022 after more than a decade in NSW state politics, the 55-year-old becomes the sixth federal Greens leader since the party was created in 1992.<\/p>\n

Shoebridge leads the party after its devastating 2025 election outcome<\/a>, which resulted in its former leader, Adam Bandt, and two up-and-coming lower house MPs losing their seats.<\/p>\n

While the Greens have maintained their primary support at about 10% to 12%, the rise of One Nation has meant they are no longer the main minor-party threat to future Labor and Coalition governments.<\/p>\n

The one-time barrister and corporate lawyer from Sydney\u2019s wealthy eastern suburbs said his mission now was to show voters One Nation was not the answer they were looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get out and meet with Australians who are facing these kinds of challenges \u2026 working two jobs and still not being able to afford the rent, no one would criticise people for being angry with politics in those moments and searching for whatever answer they can find,\u201d Shoebridge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to is to take them away from the politics of hate, the politics of racism that One Nation wants to provide in that moment, and show them who their real enemy is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not their neighbour who\u2019s from the Philippines who\u2019s working at the local emergency department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the 1%, the corporates that are literally stealing their future from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Shoebridge and Steph Hodgins-May after the press conference announcing the Greens\u2019 new leadership team. Photograph: George Chan\/AAP<\/p>\n

Shortly after Shoebridge emerged the victor of Wednesday\u2019s party-room ballot, the former deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, posted a stinging criticism of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve long advocated publicly that Greens leaders should be elected by members with enough time for thoughtful deliberation on who is best to grow our party,\u201d Faruqi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI share members\u2019 frustration that the opposite happened this week. Without a member vote, we cannot call ourselves a grassroots party. I call on the new leadership team to set a timeline for one member, one vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoebridge said he would give the membership a \u201creal and direct say on the next choice of a federal leader\u201d before the next federal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a process that will take months to work through with the party and work collaboratively with the party to deliver, and we are committed to having that in place before the next federal election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the election [it] will trigger an automatic vote for the next leader. That\u2019s the timeframe we\u2019re working to, and that\u2019s the timeframe we\u2019re committed [to].\u201d<\/p>\n

The polarising NSW senator<\/p>\n

Shoebridge is one of the minor party\u2019s newer additions but almost all of his upper house colleagues have an opinion about him.<\/p>\n

In his four years in Canberra, he has built up a reputation for being one of the most effective senators and political communicators.<\/p>\n

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The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said Shoebridge and his deputy, Steph Hodgins-May, would \u201cbring new energy and grow momentum on the issues that Larissa\u2019s laid the groundwork for\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the crisis in politics across our country right now, that is very welcome, and I think it will make a difference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The popular independent Australian Capital Territory senator, David Pocock<\/a>, described Shoebridge as \u201csmart\u201d and a \u201chard worker\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe recognises politics in our country is in a time of flux and I\u2019m sure he will keep pushing hard and holding the major parties accountable as leader of the Greens,\u201d Pocock said.<\/p>\n

\"GreensGreens senator criticises Albanese government for \u2018rushing\u2019 to back strikes on Iran \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Shoebridge\u2019s role as the grand inquisitor of Senate estimates \u2013 of which many of his performances are clipped up and shared on social media to a much larger audience \u2013 has earned him praise and criticism.<\/p>\n

One of his Senate colleagues said no one gets under Labor\u2019s skin more than Shoebridge.<\/p>\n

This month the government\u2019s Senate leader, Penny Wong, took issue with his interjections.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, the smartest man in the Senate is speaking again! So good to hear from you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Labor sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, described Shoebridge as annoying but \u201cvery effective\u201d in the Senate, while others said he had \u201chuge ego\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of an insurrection among the grassroots led by Mehreen Faruqi, Senator Shoebridge will have to convince the membership and his Canberra colleagues that the straight, white man from Woollahra is their best hope,\u201d one Labor source said.<\/p>\n

A senior Labor figure said their honest assessment of Shoebridge was that he did not invest in relationships, liked things done his way and was not a natural negotiator.<\/p>\n

They pointed to a scenario when Labor offered the Greens the final seat on a joint artificial intelligence committee, as long as it didn\u2019t go to Shoebridge. Waters refused, so Labor sent it to a vote in the Senate, where Shoebridge lost decisively to Pocock, 49 votes to 12.<\/p>\n

A former party colleague, Lidia Thorpe<\/a>, said Shoebridge wasn\u2019t a \u201cteam player\u201d.<\/p>\n

While they had personal differences, Thorpe said she respected Shoebridge\u2019s strong support for reducing Indigenous incarceration rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want outcomes for my people and if it means that he\u2019s going to platform the same issues, then that\u2019s what I\u2019ll work with,\u201d the independent Victorian senator said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Greens leader, David Shoebridge, has said he is \u201cup for a red-hot fight\u201d and hit out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-911579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}