Ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has claimed he was ‘personally abused’ by Anthony Albanese during his time in Parliament.
The high-profile MP lost his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith after a sizeable swing to Labor candidate Renee Coffey following the federal election on Saturday.
In his first interview since losing his seat, Mr Chandler-Mather said he had no regrets in his one-term stint but was happy to not spend more time in Parliament.
Mr Chandler-Mather explained he was often ‘screamed and yelled at’ by Labor MPs to the point he felt like vomiting.
‘Basically, every time I stood up, I got screamed and yelled at,’ he told Triple J.
‘In terms of a workplace, it was bloody awful and frankly, a lot of the times miserable.
‘Oftentimes it was really exhausting. There was this one time where half of the Labor front bench was basically screaming at me, calling me a joke and an idiot, one minister made a comment about my mum.
‘I was just getting up there, saying that there should be caps on rent increases. I remember walking back into my office and almost throwing up out of stress.’
Mr Chandler-Mather said parliament was an ‘odd place’ as he often had Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ‘personally abuse’ him while in Chambers.
Ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather revealed the pressure of working in parliament, claiming he was often ‘yelled and screamed’ while fighting for renters and low-income earners
The former Greens housing spokesperson said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had called him a joke and ‘personally abuse’ him in Chambers after he would propose policy for renters
‘The Prime Minister spent a lot of time in my electorate attacking me, the property industry, the mining industry, all coming after us,’ he said.
We would get up [in Chambers] and say “All we want is for the government to do something for the one-third of the country that rents” and I had the Prime Minister come up to me in the Chamber and call me a “joke” and like personally abuse me.
‘Can you imagine you’re in a workplace and you have people in that workplace come up and just yell and scream at you while you’re trying to give a speech. It’s odd.’
Mr Chandler-Mather said the attacks were a point of pride as it showed he was fighting for lower income earners and the millions of Aussies who rent across the country.
In his three-year tenure, Mr Chandler-Mather said he was grateful for giving renters a voice on a national stage but ultimately felt as though he had let the people down.
The 33-year-old blamed the loss in Griffith on the massive collapse for the Liberal Party vote, which saw Aussie voters opt for the Labor party instead.
Mr Chandler-Mather said he was confident Greens Leader Adam Bandt would win Melbourne, desptie Labor’s Sarah Witty currently leading in the race for the by an estimated 4,043 votes with a swing of 9.2 per cent
The 33-year-old said he was confident Greens Leader Adam Bandt would win Melbourne (pictured, Mr Bandt and Mr Chandler-Mather in Parliament)
‘This election is the second best election result in Greens history, topped only by the time Adam led the party in 2022,’ he said.
‘Adam has helped transform the party. I think he did a brilliant job leading the party this election.
‘We’ll end up with two to three lower house MPs and the largest Senate vote in our history.’
No longer having to travel to and from Canberra, Mr Chandler-Mather said he was excited for some much needed time off to spend with his partner Jo and their 18-month-old son Felix.
He said it was ‘way too early’ to think about whether he would give politics another shot, but would continue ‘fighting for a better world’.
‘The last three years I’ve barely had a day off. I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest,’ he said.
‘I’m definitely not going away in terms of fighting for a better world. You don’t have to be an MP to do that.’
