Richard Di Natale, elected as Greens leader on Wednesday after Christine Milne’s shock resignation, is a former GP who has worked in disadvantaged communities in Australia and overseas.
The son of Italian migrants, Di Natale was born in 1970 and grew up in Melbourne. He studied medicine at Monash University, and later completed a master’s of public health and master’s of health science at La Trobe.
The new Greens leader worked as a GP before entering politics. He has worked variously on Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and HIV prevention in India.
He led the Greens’ charge against the government’s now-abandoned proposal for a co-payment to visit the doctor, and campaigned strongly for the liberalisation of euthanasia and medical marijuana laws.
“I’ve got a medicinal cannabis bill in the parliament that has the support of members across political spectrum. I want to get things done,” Di Natale said during his first media conference as leader on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re going to try and negotiate on issues that we can reach agreement.”
“Things like same-sex marriage where we’ve led the debate in the Australian parliament is now a mainstream issue with popular support. Again, dying with dignity, medicinal cannabis, all have mainstream public support.”
But environmental issues remain his focus. “We’ve got to get climate change back on track. If we do not address climate change as a nation and as a planet, well then everything else is sort of redundant, isn’t it?” he asked.
Di Natale also spoke of his Italian heritage. “I’m a product of the great Australian experiment called multiculturalism,” he said. “It’s taken a beating at the moment. The debate on terrorism and refugees means that the multiculturalism issue needs a champion, and I’m going to be that champion.”
“I come from a traditional, working class, Italian family. My parents weren’t particularly political, but my extended family were all Labor voters,” Di Natale said. “There’s a good chance that if I was born 30, 40 years ago maybe I’d be in the Labor party right now.”
The new leader told ABC Radio’s youth current affairs program he would consider supporting moves to lower the voting age to 16, saying young people who were engaged and interested in politics knew more about the system than some older voters.
In 2010 Di Natale became the first Greens senator to be elected in Victoria. He had been on the Greens ticket in 2004, but missed out on a Senate spot.
He also campaigned to be lord mayor of Melbourne in 2004, and twice stood for the Victorian legislative assembly.
Di Natale is a self-confessed AFL tragic and diehard Richmond Tigers supporter.
He and his wife, Lucy, have two young sons, and live on a farm near Victoria’s Great Ocean Road in the Otway ranges.
