Who is David Shoebridge?
Sydney is where Shoebridge was born in 1971, and he went on to study arts and law at the University of Sydney. He worked as a solicitor, then as a barrister from 2003 to 2010, before moving into parliament. Representing the Greens, he sat in the state's Legislative Council between 2010 and 2022, gaining a reputation on government accountability and policing. In 2022 he won election to the Senate for his home state, and his Greens portfolios there have included justice, defence, immigration and foreign affairs. When Larissa Waters quit as leader on 28 September 2026, giving health as the reason, Shoebridge won a party room ballot two days later. Mehreen Faruqi and Sarah Hanson-Young were his rivals, and Steph Hodgins-May became deputy.
Previously: Senator for New South Wales (since July 2022) · Greens spokesperson on portfolios including justice, defence, immigration and foreign affairs (2022-2026) · Member of the NSW Legislative Council (2010-2022) · Woollahra councillor (2004-2012)
Documented positions
- Argues for a tax on corporate wealth, pointing to government data that over 1,000 companies paid nothing in tax during 2025.Source: thenightly.com.au
- Is against the AUKUS security pact, and with his deputy has run a campaign against it.Source: thenightly.com.au
- Alongside his deputy, wants no more coal or gas projects, and has said the aim of the Greens is to supplant Labor, not to reform it.Source: reneweconomy.com.au
- Led the Greens campaign, as party spokesperson, to make cannabis legal for adults, drawing on Parliamentary Budget Office costings.Source: crikey.com.au
- His party would make GP visits free and fold dental and mental health care into Medicare.Source: greens.org.au
- Speaking as immigration spokesperson in 2025, he announced that the Greens would close offshore detention for asylum seekers and call a Royal Commission on immigration detention.Source: greens.org.au
- Calls housing and climate national crises, and ranks cost of living among the leading priorities.Source: thenightly.com.au
- July 2025 saw him call for sanctions against Israel along the lines of those Australia used against Russia, with the two-way arms trade ended.Source: greens.org.au
Record
No ministerial post has ever been his. His main concerns, in the state parliament and the Senate alike, have been civil liberties, policing, digital rights and defence oversight. In the Senate his questioning at estimates hearings is well known. Back in 2025, speaking as foreign affairs spokesperson, he urged sanctions on Israel of the kind imposed on Russia, and Prime Minister Albanese brushed this aside as slogans. As leader, he has made corporate tax and the cost of living his central priorities. Press reports have also pointed to friction with Mehreen Faruqi after the leadership contest.
Supporters credit his government accountability work, as well as his attention to corporate tax and the cost of living. Labor and the Coalition are among the critics who label Greens policies on tax, AUKUS and fossil fuels unaffordable or unrealistic, and a few critics took issue with what he has said about Israel.
In their words
“We are not here to manage a broken system. We are here to replace it.”
