Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather for claims that parliament’s behaviour was ‘bloody awful’.
The high-profile politician said on Tuesday that he was often ‘screamed and yelled at’ by Labor MPs to the point he felt like vomiting.
Among the claims he made to Triple J Hack, Mr Chandler-Mather said Mr Albanese had often levied ‘personal abuse’ at him in the House.
‘The Prime Minister spent a lot of time in my electorate attacking me, the property industry, the mining industry, all coming after us,’ he said.
‘We would get up (in the House) and say “all we want is for the government to do something for the one-third of the country that rents” and I had the Prime Minister come up to me in the Chamber and call me a “joke” and personally abuse me.’
But Mr Albanese has said the former MP, who lost his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith to Labor in Saturday’s federal election, needed to look at his own behaviour.
‘He should have a good look at the way that he asks questions in the parliament,’ the Prime Minister told ABC’s 7.30.
‘Maybe what he needs is a mirror and a reflection on why he’s no longer in parliament.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) pushed back on Max Chandler-Mather’s claims that he was personally abusive towards the ex Greens MP, saying he ‘needs a mirror’
Mr Chandler-Mather said the Prime Minister called him a ‘joke’ and personally abused him during his time in parliament
‘This is a guy who stood before signs at a CFMEU rally in Brisbane describing me as a Nazi.
‘I think it’s a bit rich for him of all people…who has been rejected by his own electorate after just one term.’
The Prime Minister also took aim at Greens Leader Adam Bandt, describing the politician’s electoral seat of Melbourne as ‘under a cloud’ during the interview.
‘It’s very difficult to see a pathway in which he will resume his seat in parliament,’ Mr Albanese said.
Mr Bandt officially lost his seat, which he has held since 2010, to Labor’s Sarah Witty earlier on Wednesday.
It was despite a Greens’ press release claiming on Saturday night that he ‘expects the count to elect him in Melbourne’.
The Greens had been seen as a barrier to progress after they joined forces with the Liberals to block some of Labor’s housing reforms.
Renee Coffey, the Labor challenger who ousted Mr Chandler-Mather, said voters were most concerned with cost of living and housing issues.
Mr Chandler-Mather lost his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith to Labor in Saturday’s federal election
‘(The other seat) is fundamentally a progressive electorate and people were wanting to see real change and progress,’ she told the ABC.
‘So I think there was some disappointment with some of the blocking that went on and this idea of protest.’
Kos Samaras, a former Victorian Labor strategist and Redbridge Group director, said the Greens had turned into a ‘movement fuelling civil unrest and disruption’.
‘The party clearly recognised this too late after a string of poor results at state, territory, and local government elections,’ he said.
Mr Bandt and Mr Chandler-Mather join former Coalition leader Peter Dutton and Greens colleague Stephen Bates among the high-profile politicians unseated at the weekend.
