‘Awful, Miserable' Workplace: Departing Greens MP Claims He's Pleased to Leave Parliament
While Greens leader Adam Bandt's seat of Melbourne is still too close to call, two of the party's MPs already know they're not returning to Parliament: Stephen Bates and housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather.
But Chandler-Mather says he's far from upset to be leaving Parliament, which he describes as a 'sick place.'
'I'll be honest, one of the things I'm quite happy about at the moment is I don't have to spend more time in the House of Representatives, because basically every time I stood up, I got screamed and yelled at,' he told the ABC.
'In terms of a workplace, it was bloody awful, and frankly, a lot of the time, miserable.'
It was the people he represented and those who felt let down by Parliament that motivated Chandler-Mather to keep going.
'We were getting attacked because we said we should spend a bit more on public housing and give something to renters. I feel proud of that work … and I think if I had my time again, I would do it all again,' he said.
Related Stories
4/30/2025
4/23/2025
'[But] despite all of that and fighting hard work, we fell short, and I feel like I've let people down because I always feel like, at the end of the day, the MP has to take responsibility for that, and I suppose I do.'
He blamed the Greens' loss of lower house seats, including his own, on the decline in votes for the Liberal Party, which resulted in Liberal preferences flowing to Labor.
Despite this, Chandler-Green sees the outcome as 'the second most successful election in Australian Greens history' because of the gains made in the Senate.
'We'll end up with two to three lower house MPs and the largest Senate vote in our history,' he said.
'The only way the government is going to pass legislation through the Senate now is either with the Greens or the Coalition.'
Count Continues
The Australian Greens have failed to win seats they thought they could take from Labor.
This result contrasts with the performance of Climate-200-backed Teal candidates, who won seats from the Coalition.
In the seat of Ryan, Liberal candidate Maggie Forrest is leading the Greens' Elizabeth Watson-Brown on first preferences. But with preference flows from Labor, who are running just 800 votes behind the Greens in the current count, Watson-Brown is expected to hold the seat.
In the seat of Melbourne, the reverse applies. Bandt leads on first preferences with 40.3 percent to Labor's 31.5 percent, but the Green MP needs 33 percent of preferences from other parties to retain his seat.
The Australian Electoral Commission's official preference count currently shows flows of under 26 percent, which means Labor still leads the projected two-candidate preferred count and holds a chance of victory.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Potential replacements for Tennessee U.S. Rep. Green line up
U.S. Rep. Mark Green addresses supporters at the Montgomery County Republican Party on Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo: Anita Wadhwani/Tennessee Lookout) The list of possible candidates for a special election to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Mark Green is growing after his second decision to quit before his term ends in 2026, with one person confirming he will run for the seat. Tennessee Department of General Services Commissioner Matt Van Epps announced Tuesday he will seek the 7th Congressional District seat in the wake of Green's plan to depart. 'Congressman Green is an American patriot who has served our country on the battlefield and served Tennesseans in the halls of Congress,' Van Epps said in a release. 'From one West Point grad to another, I commend Congressman Green for his conservative legacy and his commitment to advancing President Trump's America First agenda on behalf of Tennessee.' Van Epps graduated from West Point and served multiple combat deployments as a helicopter pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment based in Clarksville. He continues to serve in the Tennessee Army National Guard. A Nashville resident, he was previously senior vice president of operations at Main Street Health, a rural healthcare company. Tennessee state Sen. Bill Powers and state Rep. Jody Barrett, as well as former state Rep. Brandon Ogles, told the Lookout Tuesday they are looking at potential candidacies. Powers, a Clarksville Republican, said he is 'seriously considering' a run for the 7th Congressional District seat after Green announced he will resign from the post once the House votes on President Donald Trump's budget and domestic policy bill. 'This is nothing I take lightly and am talking with family and friends as we carefully consider this major decision,' Powers, a second-term senator, said in a text message. 'We do need conservative leadership and someone who will support the president's agenda. I'm prepared to fill that role.' Barrett, a Dickson Republican, said he has consistently stated that he has no 'burning desire to climb any political ladder or get to the next proverbial level' but left the door open for a candidacy amid public support. 'If I were to run for Congress, it would be for the same reasons I decided to run for state representative. My family and I are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and encouragement from throughout the 7th Congressional District for me to jump into this race, but I have never been one to act impulsively or out of self-interest. We will continue to wait, watch and seek direction as to what is best for the Tennesseans that love living in western Middle Tennessee,' said Barrett, who is in his second House term. Ogles, who served two terms in the House before opting not to seek re-election, told the Lookout he and his family are praying about a potential run. His cousin, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, represents Tennessee's 5th Congressional District. Others being mentioned for the election include Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Green, chairman of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee, announced in February 2024 he would be leaving the U.S. House but reneged within two weeks. He had been dogged at that point by revelations he and his wife were going through a divorce as she said publicly he started carousing in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress. Trump selected Green, a graduate of West Point, to serve as secretary of the Army in 2017. But questions about his stances on vaccines and whether former President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen or a Muslim left him short on support and he withdrew from consideration. Green said this week he decided to step down from Congress because of a private sector opportunity 'too existing to pass up.' His vote is expected to be critical in passing Trump's budget plan because Republicans hold a narrow House majority. District 7 includes 14 counties in Middle and West Tennessee, with more than half of votes cast coming from Davidson, Montgomery and Williamson Counties. The district was redrawn after the 2020 census and with the inclusion of portions of Nashville, picked up more Democratic territory but is still considered a safe Republican seat by the Cook Political Report, which provides nonpartisan analysis of federal campaigns and elections. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
House panel demands records of over 200 NGOs that nabbed billions of taxpayer dollars to ‘fuel' border crisis
WASHINGTON — A House Republican panel is demanding records from more than 200 non-governmental organizations that nabbed billions of dollars in taxpayers' money to settle migrants in the US under ex-President Joe Biden. One of the targeted groups is among those embroiled in the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and Subcommittee Chairman Josh Breechen (R-Okla.) fired off letters to the 215 organizations Tuesday, accusing each of having 'helped fuel the worst border crisis in our nation's history.' 5 House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) fired off letters to 215 non-governmental organizations Tuesday accusing them of having 'helped fuel the worst border crisis in our nation's history.' Bloomberg via Getty Images The powerful Republican chairman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee leader said the groups created a 'pull factor' in providing taxpayer-funded transportation, translation, housing and other services to migrants, most of whom were released into the country after crossing the border illegally. 'The Committee remains deeply concerned that NGOs that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars benefitted from the border crisis created by the Biden Administration, and stand ready to do so under future Democrat administrations,' Green and Breechen wrote, citing a 'near-total lack of accountability' for how the money was spent. They also noted that they are investigating how much the funding incentivized 'human trafficking and smuggling' operations as well as whether the 'NGOs are now actively advising illegal aliens on how to avoid and impede law enforcement officials.' 5 The ICE crackdown in Los Angeles rounded up convicted sexual abusers, drug dealers and gang members to put into removal proceedings, federal officials said. REUTERS One of the groups, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), took nearly $1 million in DHS grants to 'offer both citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to lawful permanent residents' starting in 2021. Its last tranche of funding was yanked by the Trump administration in March. CHIRLA organized a rally Thursday to denounce the ICE arrests of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles before protests devolved into full-blown riots that destroyed property and led to the assaults of federal law enforcement. 'We have not participated, coordinated, or been part of the protests being registered in Los Angeles other than the press conference and rally,' a CHIRLA rep previously told The Post in a statement. The group did not respond to a Post request for comment Tuesday. The ICE crackdown in the city rounded up convicted sexual abusers, drug dealers and gang members to put into removal proceedings, DHS officials said. 5 'The committee remains deeply concerned that NGOs that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars benefitted from the border crisis created by the Biden Administration,' Green wrote. REUTERS Southwest Key Programs, another group being probed by Green's panel, was the largest housing nonprofit for unaccompanied migrant kids who entered the US and took around $3 billion in taxpayer funding from Biden's Health and Human Services — before Trump officials pulled the plug in March. Between 2021 and 2023, Southwest Key's top five executives saw their salaries inflated on average from $420,000 to $720,000 — even as the organization outspent its revenue by millions of dollars. The Justice Department sued Southwest Key Programs in July 2024, alleging that some supervisors and employees had committed 'severe' and 'pervasive' rape and sex abuse against kids between 2015 and 2023. The civil suit was dropped by the DOJ in March 2025, the same month that Trump's HHS cut off federal funding for the organization. 5 Green led the GOP charge in the House to impeach former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. AP Southwest Key 'strongly denied the claims relating to child sexual abuse in our shelters,' a rep previously said. The group did not respond to a Post request for comment Tuesday. Of the more than 550,000 migrant kids who entered the country between February 2021 and January 2025, at least 291,000 were released from federal custody to domestic sponsors — thousands of whom have since been flagged as sex abusers or gang members — and 32,000 went missing entirely, according to an August 2024 report from DHS's inspector general. On average, 2.4 million immigrants entered the US every year between 2021 and 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Roughly 60% crossed the border illegally, a Goldman Sachs analysis found. DHS subagencies such as ICE and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were tapped to 'coordinate with nonprofit organizations that provide services such as food, shelter, and transportation' for those non-citizens who were released, according to a Government Accountability Office report in April 2023. 5 President Trump pulled taxpayer funding for many immigration NGOs after returning to the White House. AP A March 2023 DHS Office of Inspector General audit revealed that 'more than half' of FEMA funding that went to NGOs couldn't be accounted for, Green notes in his letter. The GOP leader has previously called out $81 million in possibly 'illegal' funds that helped cover migrant stays in luxury New York City hotels. Conservative immigration groups have previously estimated that the influx of migrants cost New York City residents as much as $10 billion and bilked US taxpayers up to $150 billion in 2023, the year when illegal border crossings reached their highest level in recorded history. Green led the GOP charge in the House to impeach former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for allegedly failing to comply with federal immigration law and lying to Congress that the border was 'secure.' The Republican missive requests the total dollar amount of federal grants, contracts or payments received by the NGOs between Jan. 19, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025. It also demands to know whether any organization sued the feds and what services it provided to migrants. Influential left-leaning groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and the Southern Poverty Law Center have all been asked to respond to the queries.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Who's responsible for online harms? Responsibility for troubled file floats between ministers
OTTAWA — As ministers settle into their new roles, discussions are underway about who is best suited to steer the government's efforts to legislate against online harms, cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault said on Tuesday. Questions have arisen about which minister and department would be best suited to handle the complicated issue after the Liberals' proposed Online Harms Act died in Parliament when Prime Minister Mark Carney triggered a federal election in March. 'It's a good question,' said Guilbeault, who oversees the Canadian Heritage department, told reporters on his way into the Liberals' weekly cabinet meeting. 'We're having conversations to see what would be the most appropriate department to bring this forward.' Canadian Heritage had been the first department to develop and later introduce the Liberals' initial plan to combat the harms Canadian users experience online. That proposal, which was released in 2021, was met with widespread backlash over concerns about the requirement for social media companies to remove content within 24 hours after receiving a complaint. Experts had warned the provision was overly broad and risked infringing on free expression, given that companies could remove legal content. The Liberals then struck an advisory group and got to work on figuring out a Plan B. Responsibility for the bill also shifted from Canadian Heritage to the Justice Department. In early 2024, former justice minister Arif Vriani introduced Bill C-63, which proposed to create a new digital safety regulator that would be tasked with ensuring social media giants took steps to reduce users' access to content, such as child sex abuse images and incite extremism and violence. That bill was also met with backlash over its proposal to introduce stiffer sentences for hate-related offences and reintroduce a controversial section to the Canadian Human Rights Act to allow people to bring forward complaints of hate speech, which civil liberties advocates and Parliamentarians said risked violating free speech. Virani spent months defending the need for the tougher Criminal Code measures to be included in the online safety bill, but last December announced the government was prepared to split the bill to help get it passed. In January, former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation and that Parliament would be suspended until March. Emily Laidlaw, a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, who sat on the government's expert advisory group, said it was a mistake for the government to have combined different provisions into the same legislation and that by the time it announced the legislation would be split, 'it was too late.' 'What I'm hoping is, when they reintroduce it, they have very firmly the platform regulation law,' she says. Should the Liberals want to propose changes to the Criminal Code or the Canadian Human Rights Act, that should be separate, she said. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told reporters on Tuesday that the government was going to look at different measures when it comes to protecting children online, but would have more to say in the months ahead. One new factor in how the Liberals may decide to proceed is the fact that Carney named to his cabinet the country's first minister responsible for artificial intelligence and digital innovation, a position currently held by former broadcaster Evan Solomon, who was elected in late April's general election. The Liberals in their last bill listed AI-generated sexualized 'deepfakes' as one of the harms companies would have to take steps to tackle. Asked whether online harms would fall under his mandate, Solomon told reporters on Tuesday that it was 'up for debate.' 'But probably yeah.' Laidlaw said while she does not believe the government needs to start a new round of consultations, it ought to take a second look at the scope of harms it is seeking to tackle. For example, she suggested there was room to include the issue of identity fraud. 'I actually think it should be broadened to include some of the ways that AI can be used to facilitate harm, so it might not just be the typical social media on Instagram.' National Post staylor@ Hate crime laws to be split from Liberals' online harms bill after blowback PBO: Creating proposed online harms regulators estimated to cost $200M Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
