Shoebridge says One Nation’s rise is a challenge across the board
New Greens leader David Shoebridge used a Wednesday interview with the ABC’s RN Breakfast to argue that Australians want a party willing to fight on their behalf, saying voters are “sick of the messaging without substance.”
“People are sick of the messaging without substance. What they’re asking for is they’re asking for a political party that’s going to go and fight for them and take on the 1% and take on the corporations. They want to see us fighting for that,” Shoebridge told the program.
Shoebridge said the Greens are in a “terrific position” with what he described as “robust support,” while the other major parties have seen their support “getting decimated and ripped apart.” He did not provide specific polling figures or name which parties he meant beyond a broad reference to the “major parties.”
Asked about the Greens’ legislative direction, Shoebridge pledged that the party would continue working to “not just deliver some message and some pathetic, half-baked pretend reform.”
Shoebridge also addressed the rise of One Nation, describing it as a challenge to politics across the board rather than a phenomenon affecting a single party. He said the Greens’ response would be to grow the party and bring members in amid a shift in the political landscape.
“We have an incredibly united membership base. We have an incredibly united party across the country. And I expect that to be how we operate as a party room, how we operate as a leadership team and how we operate as a growing movement,” Shoebridge told RN Breakfast.
The interview aired as part of the Guardian’s Australia news live coverage on 30 September 2026.