senator David Shoebridge Contact information

David Martin Shoebridge, an Australian politician and former barrister, was born on 17 September 1971. He is a member of the Australian Greens and was elected as the party’s lead candidate in New South Wales at the 2022 federal election, to a term starting on 1 July 2022. Shoebridge previously served on the Woollahra Municipal Council from 2004 to 2012 and in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2010 to 2022.

Shoebridge attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney before receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 1995 from the University of Sydney. After being admitted as a lawyer in 1998, he joined the NSW Bar in 2003, where he worked for 13 years as a barrister, specializing in personal injury law, employment, discrimination, and tort law.

Shoebridge’s political career began when he was elected to Woollahra Municipal Council in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. He served one term as Deputy Mayor of Woollahra from September 2004 to September 2005. He was also an executive of the Local Government Association from 2008 to 2010 and an executive of the Holdsworth Community Centre in Woollahra from 2004 to 2008.

In 2010, Shoebridge became a member of the Legislative Council after Sylvia Hale resigned from the Legislative Council. He was elected as a member of the Legislative Council at the 2011 state election after being preselected to the first position on the Greens’ ticket. During his time in the Legislative Council, Shoebridge held various positions, including Chair of NSW Parliament’s Public Accountability Committee, Deputy Chair of the Portfolio Committee No. 5 - Legal Affairs, and member of several other committees.

Shoebridge has worked with victims of child sexual abuse and introduced legislation in Parliament to overturn the Ellis defence, remove the statute of limitations, and reform sentencing procedures related to child sex abuse. He also took the record for the longest speech in the NSW Legislative Council on 2 June 2011, talking continuously for over five hours and 58 minutes against NSW government legislation affecting public sector wages and conditions.

Shoebridge campaigned successfully for the abolition of the Game Council NSW by the NSW government in July 2013, following the Dunn Report into the Game Council’s governance. In November 2013, he moved the motion that established a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Bowraville murders. In 2016, Shoebridge introduced a bill outlawing organ trade in New South Wales.