Max Chandler-Mather
MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for Griffith
Assumed office
21 May 2022
Preceded byTerri Butler
Personal details
Born (1992-02-15) 15 February 1992
South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia[1]
Political partyGreens (since 2016)
Other political
affiliations		Labor (until 2013)[2]
Residence(s)Woolloongabba, Queensland[1]
EducationBrisbane State High School[3]
Alma materUniversity of Queensland[3]
Signature
Websitewww.maxchandlermather.com

Max Chandler-Mather (/-ˈmeɪðə/ -⁠MAY-dhə;[4] born 15 February 1992) is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He is the Greens member for the Division of Griffith following the 2022 Australian federal election, having defeated the incumbent Labor Party member Terri Butler.[5]

A resident of Woolloongabba, Chandler-Mather is a member of the Queensland Greens and worked for the party prior to being elected to parliament.[6]

Early life and career

Chandler-Mather grew up in the suburb of West End.[6] His parents, Tim Mather and Kim Chandler, were members of the Labor Party (ALP).[3]

Chandler-Mather completed a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in History at the University of Queensland.[3] While at university Chandler-Mather was a member of the Labor Party (ALP), and a member of the Labor Left faction, after being encouraged to join by his parents.[3] During this time, he worked part-time as a call centre worker at the trade union United Voice.[3] Chandler-Mather quit the party in 2013, stating in 2022 that he could not remain as a member of the Labor Party following Kevin Rudd's establishment of off-shore detention centres in Nauru.[3]

After graduating, Chandler-Mather was a trade union organiser for the National Tertiary Education Union.[7][8]

Despite not being a member of the Greens at the time, Chandler-Mather was employed as Jonathan Sriranganathan's campaign manager for his successful 2016 campaign for Brisbane City Council.[7][8] Chandler-Mather and Sriranganathan organised their campaign around the left-wing social theory of the right to the city, arguing that property developers and banks have turned cities such as Brisbane into 'the new factory', resulting in people believing they do not have power over local communities.[8]

Political career

After Sriranganathan's successful campaign, Chandler-Mather was employed as a full-time campaign strategist for the Queensland Greens, and aimed to take the seat of Griffith.[3] Chandler-Mather contested Griffith at the 2019 Australian federal election and achieved a 6.6% swing, but failed to get elected.

Chandler-Mather re-contested Griffith at the 2022 Australian federal election, and won with a 10.9% swing. His campaign was aimed at community engagement with politics, particularly local aircraft noise and housing affordability campaigns, and reportedly had over 1,000 volunteers who door-knocked 29,000 homes.[3] Following his election to the Australian parliament, Chandler-Mather was appointed as the Greens' spokesperson on housing and homelessness.[9]

Chandler-Mather was at the center of complaints made by Independent Helen Haines and Michelle Landry regarding personal attacks against him during sessions of parliament. The comments made attacking Chandler-Mather were done in the midst of the Albanese government policy attempting to boost affordable housing which had hit a stalemate in parliament.[10]

Political positions

In a 2020 interview with Tom Ballard, Chandler-Mather expressed a desire to turn the Queensland Greens into a mass party that was primarily supported by the working class, though he stated he did not identify as a socialist ideologically, instead claiming that his priorities merely overlapped with what is often perceived as socialism.[8] Chandler-Mather's positions were deemed by the Green Left Weekly to be firmly on the left-wing of the Greens, with him supporting a four-day workweek and public ownership of the electricity and telecommunications industries.[11] Chandler-Mather describes his politics during his time at university as supporting democratic socialism.[3]

Electoral history

House of Representatives[12][13]
Year Electorate Party First Preference Result Two Candidate Result
Votes  % ±% Position Votes  % ±% Result
2019 Griffith Greens 23,562 23.65 Increase   6.67 Third Excluded
2022 36,771 34.59 Increase 10.94 First 64,271 60.46 Increase 60.46 Elected
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References

  1. 1 2 "About: Hi, I'm Max and I'm your MP for Griffith". maxchandlermather.com. 2022. Archived from the original on 29 October 2022 – via Wayback Machine. I live with my partner in an apartment in Woolloongabba. I was born in the Mater Hospital in Brisbane and grew up in West End, Highgate Hill and Kangaroo Point.
  2. ↑ Caldwell, Felicity (18 May 2018). "One in five Labor voters must defect to make Griffith Green: Candidate". The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Walker, Jamie (25 June 2022). "The Max factor: how Max Chandler-Mather and the Greens ambushed Brisbane". The Australian.
  4. ↑ Chandler-Mather, Max [@MChandlerMather] (6 April 2022). "If you feel like it's getting harder to tell Labor and the Liberals apart, you're not alone. But there's hope. We only need a 3.5% swing to win Griffith and push the next government to tackle the housing and climate crises and bring dental into Medicare" (Tweet). Retrieved 29 September 2022 – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ Trajkovich, Marina (22 May 2022). "How Queensland voted: Greens win key seat in parliament as Peter Dutton in line for leader of the opposition". Nine News. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Candidate Profile: Max Chandler-Mather for Griffith". Westender. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Griffith (Key Seat) – Federal Election 2022". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Ballard, Tom; Chandler-Mather, Max (27 October 2020). "How Australia's Greens Are Winning a Left-Wing Vote in the Heart of "Conservative Queensland"". Jacobin. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  9. ↑ Marsellos, Brad (22 June 2022). "Rent caps, Airbnb limits and a million homes: Greens push from city to bush in housing crisis". Wide Bay. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  10. ↑ Sakkal, Paul (26 May 2023). "'Vicious' personal attacks on Greens MP draw complaints from cross-party MPs". The Age. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  11. ↑ Bainbridge, Alex (11 May 2022). "Greens make a strong push to win Griffith in Qld". Green Left. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  12. ↑ "Griffith, QLD - AEC Tally Room". AEC Tally Room. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Griffith, QLD - AEC Tally Room". AEC Tally Room. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
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