What former Greens leader Adam Bandt did next

Former Greens leader Adam Bandt is not resting on his laurels.

There is persistent speculation that Bandt is heading to the Australian Conservation Foundation, which sounds like a great fit.

Adam Bandt at his final press conference after 15 years as the MP for Melbourne.Credit: Wayne Taylor

But so far, it is back to the future for the former Greens leader, who helped the party to unprecedented lower house success before it lost three seats – including his own – at the federal election.

CBD hears Bandt is working for the United Firefighters Union (UFU), a Labor-aligned union, at which an old mate and client, Peter Marshall, presides as secretary.

Bandt has been spotted attending the office from time to time in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, in his old federal seat of Melbourne.

Before running for parliament, Bandt was an industrial relations and public interest barrister and solicitor, and worked protecting the rights of coal miners in the Latrobe Valley after power station privatisation.

And he has previously represented the UFU, which often clashes with Labor governments, which would suit Bandt.

The firebrand union last put its head above the parapet when it challenged the Victorian state government’s plan to increase its fire services levy and convert it into an Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. Marshall also attacked the federal government’s demerger plans for the CFMEU after the Building Bad investigation – by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes – revealed corruption and links with bikies. Bandt also attacked the legislation.

The association is longstanding. The UFU backed Bandt in his 2010 election campaign for Melbourne when he took the seat off Labor, and several times since. Bandt was elected five times before losing his seat to Labor this year in a loss neither side saw coming.

In 2013, Bandt introduced legislation to the federal parliament extending protections for Commonwealth firefighters who contracted cancers. Support was unanimous. A nice win.

The Age reported in 2014 at the height of the dispute between the UFU and volunteer CFA and the Andrews Labor government: “Marshall is renowned for his loyalty to those who back him – like Bandt – and fierce on those who cross him.”

Neither man got back to us when CBD got in touch. We have said it before, and we will say it again: everything is connected, folks.

Public sector surprise

There has been an almighty union boilover at the Community and Public Sector Union Victorian branch, where secretary Karen Batt was composing a concession email to staff on Wednesday after nearly 33 years in the post.

Sources say Batt has lost the contested ballot to left-wing firebrand Jiselle Hanna, a Corrections Victoria project officer, who scrutineers say garnered about 66 per cent of the vote among 15,000 members. The result is yet to be officially declared by the Australian Electoral Commission.

Corrections Victoria officer Jiselle Hanna is set to win the Community and Public Sector Union election.Credit: Penny Stephens

Batt’s surprise was matched by those in the Allan Labor government, who are scratching their heads about how to take the loss.

The election campaign was one of the fruitiest in recent times. Regular readers will recall how Hanna was attacked by an anonymous email sent to prison officers about her supposedly “troubling campaign” that pointed out it had received a donation (later returned) purportedly from underworld identity Mick Gatto.

Supporters of Hanna were able to trace the email back to the account of a staff member of the CPSU. Awkward.

Victorian Community and Public Sector Union secretary Karen Batt has lost the election.Credit: Eddie Jim

It was the first fully contested election in more than 30 years, and there were 38 positions up for grabs.

Batt was apparently clearing out her desk on Wednesday, a source said.

“She was astonished,” one source told CBD. “The government is obviously very surprised.”

Public servants are in a mood after Treasurer Jaclyn Symes flagged a cull in the May budget of about 1200 full-time jobs.

Hanna’s campaign was launched by Victorian Socialists Senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, also known as PurplePingers, but Hanna said she was not a member of the Victorian Socialists.

And the email? Hanna referred it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Fair Work Commissioner, claiming breach of privacy and misuse of personal data. We guess when she is formally declared as secretary she can swiftly get to the bottom of the matter.

More, more, more

Readers might be bemused by the flurry of Labor staffers quitting their jobs just months after helping Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to a landslide election victory.

Why help to secure a stonking mandate and then, er, quit? It’s like pouring time and effort into baking a delicious cake and then refusing to tuck in.

CBD has one theory: staffers who leave in a two-month window after the election get a far more generous severance payout, about four times more, than they would had they left during regular times. Because Canberra. The deadline for those departures came this week, which explains the sudden rush for the exits.

And so, here are a few more. Former Labor deputy national secretary Nick Martin, once touted for a federal seat before Kevin Rudd intervened, has left as Health Minister Mark Butler’s chief of staff. He’s also the ex-husband of Labor strategist turned TikTok lobbyist Sabina Husic.

Albanese’s digital media guy Lachlan McKenzie is leaving the PMO. His other half, Liz Fitch, departed as the prime minister’s top spinner in late 2023, but has since landed a government relations gig at Microsoft.

Katie Connolly, strategic communications director, is also out Albo’s office door, as is media adviser Irene Oh. By our count, it still leaves eight bodies in the PM’s media team to dodge CBD’s calls.

Meanwhile, Lanai Scarr, formerly political editor at The West Australian has quit as deputy chief of staff and press secretary to Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth. Former ABC political correspondent and one-time press gallery journalist of the year Lyndal Curtis has left Infrastructure Minister Catherine King and jumped ship to assistant treasurer and Labor rising star Daniel Mulino’s office.

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