Australian Labor Spent Au$2.6m Ousting 2 Greens Rivals From Parliament

CANBERRA — The Labor Party spent AU$1.3 million in each of two inner-city Brisbane seats held by the Greens, including its successful bid to oust the prime minister’s antagonist, Max Chandler-Mather, from parliament.

Just months after the Albanese government legislated an electoral spending cap of $800,000 per seat, but before the new law took effect, Labor spent half a million dollars more than that to unseat Chandler-Mather from his Griffith seat. The party matched that spending to defeat Stephen Bates in the neighboring seat of Brisbane.

The new statistics on Labor’s campaign spending are contained in the Commonwealth’s defense to a legal challenge by two former independent members of parliament against the spending and donation caps, obtained from the High Court by POLITICO.

In February 2025, Labor and the Coalition combined to pass a bill to cap political donations, increase public funding and limit electoral expenditure, measures that will commence in 2027.

According to the defense, Labor's national secretariat and Queensland branch together spent $1.3 million in both Griffith, where it defeated Chandler-Mather 61% to 39% in two-party preferred terms, and Brisbane, where Bates was beaten into third place. The documents suggest the figures were provided by the Labor Party to the Commonwealth.

Chandler-Mather was a first-term Greens MP, one of a trio of Brisbane-based Greens elected at the minor party’s breakthrough 2022 election. As the party’s housing spokesperson, he quickly got under the skin of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — through tactics such as delaying government housing bills in a bid to fight for a cap on rent increases

Further figures obtained by POLITICO and not contained in the court documents reveal the seats were also key targets of the United Workers Union, which spent $86,000 in Griffith and $33,000 in Brisbane, more than in other Queensland seats including those held by the Liberal National Party.

In neighboring Ryan, Labor spent just $92,459 to unseat Elizabeth Watson-Brown. Watson-Brown narrowly retained her seat.

The Labor spending statistics reveal it spent $1.2 million defending Peter Khalil’s inner-Melbourne seat of Wills against the Greens’ Samantha Ratnam, which it won narrowly 51.43% to 48.57% in two-party preferred terms.

Former Greens leader Adam Bandt was unseated by Labor’s Sarah Witty with $115,821 in campaign spending.

In southwest Sydney, Labor spent $629,000 in its unsuccessful attempt to defeat independent MP Dai Le, who had defeated Labor’s Kristina Keneally in 2022 to win the normally safe Labor seat. By contrast, Labor spent just $9,100 in its failed bid to unseat Andrew Wilkie in the Tasmanian seat of Clark in 2025.

Independents object to the new spending limit of $800,000 per seat, arguing that it often costs campaigns more than $1 million to raise the profile of a candidate above the much-recognized brands of the major parties.

Separate statistics in the defense reveal that in both the 2022 and 2025 elections, at which 10 independents won lower-house seats, the average and median amount spent by successful independents exceeded $1 million. The highest amount spent by a successful independent exceeded $2 million in both elections.

However, the defense also notes that successful independents Zali Steggall, Helen Haines, Le and Wilkie spent less than the cap in 2025. All were sitting MPs up for reelection.

Chandler-Mather, at one point touted as a future leader of the party and now the executive director of its think tank The Green Institute, told POLITICO that Labor had “spent millions to create a more pro-corporate parliament.”

“We spent three years fighting for genuine change to an economic system that has pushed millions of Australians into severe financial and housing pain, so I can’t say I’m surprised" at Labor's campaign spending, Chandler-Mather added.

“Labor, the far-right Advance and Labor-aligned unions allied to spend millions of dollars attacking what they saw as the biggest threat to the political and corporate establishment,” he said.

A spokesperson for Labor referred inquiries to the Commonwealth. A government spokesperson said “it would be inappropriate to comment while this matter is before the court.”