David Shoebridge, now a prominent Greens senator, began his career as a corporate lawyer helping wealthy clients minimise tax. In the late 1990s, while riding an elevator to work, he decided he could no longer continue this work. He walked into the senior partner’s office and resigned, saying he could not restructure people’s finances to avoid tax.
Shoebridge then transitioned into politics. He was briefly a member of the Labor party in Sydney’s inner west but left after six months, frustrated that branch resolutions for progressive change were ignored. He later became a barrister specialising in employment law and was sent to state parliament by union clients to oppose Labor’s proposed changes to workers’ compensation.
It was there he met hard-left Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, who became his mentor. Bob Brown, co-founder of the Greens, says Rhiannon gave Shoebridge determination not to be dismissed as radical. Shoebridge defended the Left Renewal faction, which Brown had condemned, arguing the Greens should welcome those seeking radical change.
As a Greens MP in New South Wales and later the federal Senate, Shoebridge has been described by a senior Liberal MP as “easily the most effective Green”. He has been arrested outside the prime minister’s home, clashed with defence chiefs, and questioned Australian military strategy. In 2023, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong accused him of spreading disinformation about defence exports to Israel, but Shoebridge maintains his actions are about making parliament relevant to community movements.
