David Shoebridge
David Shoebridge (born 17 September 1971) is an Australian politician and former barrister. He is a member of the Australian Greens and was elected to the Senate as the party's lead candidate in New South Wales at the 2022 federal election, to a term beginning on 1 July 2022. He previously served in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2010 to 2022 and on the Woollahra Municipal Council from 2004 to 2012.
David Shoebridge campaigns on the need to empower Aboriginal communities in the face of systemic discrimination from police and the criminal justice system and for greater recognition of Aboriginal heritage at all levels of society.
Shoebridge is widely seen as a member of the left-wing faction of the Greens, and is an ally of former Senator Lee Rhiannon.
Ceasefire Now!
Adam Bandt, Amal Naser, David Shoebridge.
We Say No"
Karina Lester, Barbara Pocock, David Shoebridge, Jason Bilney.
Reboot 24
Alison Battisson, Ronny Kareni, David Shoebridge.
Ilhan Omar
During a 2023 visit to the United States to meet Julian Assange's lawyers David Shoebridge met with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Local government meeting
Greens MP David Shoebridge with Hannah Middleton Communist Party of Australia.
Goodlass connection
David Shoebridge with Ray Goodlass
SEARCH Foundation
Anti-AUKUS
Wollongong Against War and Nukes
David Shoebridge, Gem Romuld, Arthur Rorris.
IPAN
David Shoebridge, Jordon Steele-John
Jack Mundey connection
Rita Mallia, Jack Mundey, Judy Mundey, David Shoebridge.
Comrade and mentor
SEARCH supporter
Amalina Wallace with David Shoebridge.
Rhiannon ally
David Shoebridge worked closely with Lee Rhiannon.
Lani West, Lee Rhiannon and David Shoebridge.
Green socialists
David Shoebridge, Mehreen Faruqi, Jenny Leong, Tom Raue.
David Shoebridge, Mehreen Faruqi, Lee Rhiannon, Tom Raue.
'Spend on climate and housing not war'
April 23, 2024, NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge spoke alongside anti-war activists on April 23 against the global rise in military spending.
“The world faces problems that cannot be resolved by military action,” said Peter Murphy from the Sydney Anti-AUKUS-Coalition (SAAC).
“While the government loudly asserts that Australia is sovereign, in fact US marines, navy and airforce personnel are today able to launch attacks on China from Australian soil without the knowledge of the Australian government,” said Denis Doherty from the Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition (ABCC).
Defence minister Richard Marles said on April 17 that military spending will rise to 2.4% of gross domestic product, up from the current 1.9%.
Pip Hinman, representing SAAC and ABCC, said Labor is spending more on the military than it does on education.
“Excessive spending on ‘defence’ is a product of a bipartisan approach to the US military presence in South East Asia.
“A government which truly had our interests at heart would allocate our taxes to help ease the cost-of-living crisis and fix our broken public health, housing affordability and welfare.
She said the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal alone contributes to this, with the allocation of $53 billion in the next budget and $100 billion over 2033–34.
Hinman said a US war with China could rapidly become nuclear and would be a “war no one can win”.
Shoebridge said Australia spends more on weapons than Brazil, Canada and Spain.
“Australia spends twice as much per capita as Russia. Moreover, this country spends more than double on military expenditure as Taiwan!”
Australia is “directly involved in Israel’s war on the people of Gaza through Pine Gap”, he said. The spy base is an “important agent” for the targeting of weapons systems of US allies, like Israel.
“The thought that Pine Gap would be used to better target weapons being splayed against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, is horrifying.
“Given the level of secrecy from both the [Anthony] Albanese government and the Joe Biden administration, it’s a credible and realistic threat that’s happening in the centre of Australia.”[1]
“No AUKUS! No war!"
Anti-war protesters marked the second anniversary of the secretive Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) pact at Sydney Town Hall on September 15, 2023chanting “No AUKUS! No war! This is what we’re fighting for!”
The rally, which attracted around 100 people, was organised by the Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition (SAAC). The new “Raucous Anti-AUKUS chorus” sang anti-war songs before speakers addressed the problems and solutions.
Miro Sandev from the New South Wales Teachers Federation noted the move by teacher unions across the country to boycott an AUKUS research project in the country’s schools.
Lil Beto from Wage Peace condemned Labor’s plan to expand Australia’s defence industry — aiming to make Australia one of the top 10 weapons exporters in the world. The huge investment required will take vital resources away from key social needs.
NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge condemned the secrecy behind the AUKUS deal, which has not changed under Labor. “Australia has now become an advance base for US forces, aimed against China.”
Nick Deane from Marrickville Peace Group said everyone was shocked when the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and now that the US is seriously considering war against China, “we must unite to campaign against this disaster”.
Denis Doherty from the Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition said Australia has become a vassal of US power as “US bases are now everywhere in the country”.
Pip Hinman from the Sydney Stop the War Coalition said the lesson from Iraq is that one huge protest did not stop that war. But she said there are plenty of allies in the struggle against a new war on China, including Pacific Island nations, unions, First Nations peoples and many community groups.[2]
Tom Raue connection
Tom Raue, former David Shoebridge staffer "most left wing person in NSW Parliament"
Left Renewal
“Richard Di Natale, I am a member of Left Renewal and I hope you can hear this because the Greens are my party too,” a woman said to great applause at a meeting of Left Renewal (LR) on January 25, 2017.
More than 100 people, including from Newcastle and Wollongong, came to the first public meeting of LR, an anti-capitalist grouping within the Australian Greens, to hear about its aims and objectives.
Three LR representatives spoke about why they had helped form the socialist tendency announced last December, its politics and how they were proposing to organise. This was followed by questions and comments from the floor.
LR has come under fire from former Greens leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne, and current leader Richard di Natale.
Brown, on January 27, repeated his call for LR members to be proscribed. The three senior Greens insist that the Greens are not anti-capitalist and that the politics of LR are inimical to The Greens.
LR describes itself as “a socialist tendency comprised of rank and file members of the NSW Greens”. Its positions are closer to the NSW Greens of the early 1990s, which formed around the four principles of the German Greens — ecological sustainability, grassroots democracy, social justice and equality and non-violence.
LR’s Chris Andrew said those four pillars “are fundamentally counterposed to capitalism” and he outlined the multi-tendency history of the early Greens.
He called for a united front against the undeclared right-wing of the Greens Party saying as they are organising, so too must the left.
Dylan Griffiths asked why when the socialism popularised by US Democrat Bernie Sanders and British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn had engaged so many people, especially young ones, the Greens here want to shift to “an ideology free” centre.
He said that LR would abide by the party’s democratic structures and rules governing various elected bodies.
Holly Brooke said The Greens were at a point where it needed to make a decision about whether the party was primarily about getting more parliamentary seats or wanted to build the movements for long-lasting change.
“It is necessary for a Greens project which is principled and engages in social movements. Parliamentary success is a means, not an end”, the LR charter said.
NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon and NSW MLCs Mehreen Faruqi and David Shoebridge have publicly defended LR.[3]
Australian Left Renewal Conference, 2013
The SEARCH Foundation's Australian Left Renewal Conference, 2013, was held, the weekend of April 6-7, 2013,University of Technology Sydney.
Workshop 2 Empowering Aboriginal & Torres Islander communities - Constitutional Recognition vs the Intervention
Panel:
- Nicole Major (AEU)
- Heidi Norman (UTS)
- Paddy Gibson (Stop the Intervention)
- David Shoebridge MLC (Greens NSW)[4]