Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 29 July
12:45 PM - 1:15 PM
How Two-Party Politics Has Failed Australian Voters
Deep into both a State and Federal Election cycle, it’s hard not to stop and take stock of the choices being offered us. Election day is so much more than a handful of leaflets and a sausage sizzle at your old primary school: it’s your chance to decide how you want your electorate, your state, your country to look. But what are the assumptions and conventions that underpin the way we go to the polls? From compulsory voting to the Westminster system, our entire electoral process is underpinned with traditions and rules that shape our political world. But what are the notions and concepts we take for granted that aren’t an essential part of that framework?
Greens candidate for the Federal Seat of Melbourne, Adam Bandt, argues that far from being a symbolic presence to sway the tone of an election, smaller parties and independent candidates are an essential part of the democratic process. Two-Party Politics, he argues, isn’t only a thing of the past: it’s something best left behind.
Featuring
Adam Bandt
Adam Bandt is a Greens MP and the Federal Member for Melbourne. He was elected in 2010 when he made history by becoming the first Greens MP elected to the House of Representatives at a general election.
Adam was elected Deputy Leader in April 2012 and is the federal Greens spokesperson on industrial relations, banking, science and industry spokesperson. He was also participant in the government’s Multi-Party Committee on Climate Change.
Since being elected to Parliament he has successfully moved motions on marriage equality and condemning the government’s refugee deal with Malaysia. He has introduced legislation on protecting the Alpine National Park, banking reform, banning live animal exports and Parliamentary approval for sending troops overseas. Adam’s Bill to compensate fire fighters with cancer passed both houses in November 2012 and his Equal Marriage Bill is currently before a house committee.
Adam received undergraduate Law/Arts Honours degrees at Murdoch University, where he won the Sir Ronald Wilson Prize for Academic Achievement and he completed a PhD at Monash University in 2008.
His thesis looked at the recent trend of governments suspending basic human rights in areas such as migration, workplace relations and criminal law. He has written articles for many publications and has taught industrial relations law at RMIT.
For many years he worked at the labour law firm Slater & Gordon, where he became a partner in the industrial and public interest unit, the same job former Prime Minister Julia Gillard used to have. He is now a barrister who specialises in the field of industrial, employment and public interest law. Adam has represented many unions and low paid workers and has worked on cases involving freedom of speech and implementation of international covenants into Australian law.
Adam lives in Flemington with his partner Claudia and their two dogs.