Anthony Albanese’s arch-nemesis Max Chandler-Mather makes explosive claim about the Prime Minister

Ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has claimed he was ‘personally abused’ by Anthony Albanese during his time in Parliament.

The high-profile politician lost his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith after a 5.8 percent swing swing to Labor candidate Renee Coffey in Saturday’s federal election.

In his first interview since losing his seat, Mr Chandler-Mather said he had no regrets about his one-term stint but was relieved the abuse he received was now at an end.

Mr Chandler-Mather explained he was often ‘screamed and yelled at’ by Labor MPs to the point he felt like vomiting.

‘Every time I stood up, I got screamed and yelled at,’ he told Triple J Hack.

‘In terms of a workplace, it was bloody awful and frankly, a lot of the times miserable.

‘Oftentimes it was really exhausting. There was this one time where half of the Labor front bench was basically screaming at me, calling me a joke and an idiot, one minister made a comment about my mum.

‘I was just getting up there, saying that there should be caps on rent increases. I remember walking back into my office and almost throwing up out of stress.’

Mr Chandler-Mather said parliament was an ‘odd place’ as he often had Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ‘personally abuse’ 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.

‘Can you imagine you’re in a workplace and you have people in that workplace come up and just yell and scream at you while you’re trying to give a speech. It’s odd.’

Mr Chandler-Mather considered the attacks as a point of pride, as they demonstrated that his advocacy for low income earners and those who could not afford to own a home had resonated. 

In his three-year tenure, Mr Chandler-Mather said he was grateful for giving renters a voice on a national stage but ultimately felt as though he had let the people down. 

The 33-year-old blamed the loss in Griffith on the massive collapse for the Liberal Party vote.

When he was elected in 2022 he topped the primary vote, the Liberal-National candidate was second and Labor third, so Labor’s preferences saw him elected comfortably.

This time, his primary vote declined by three per cent and he ran second in the primary vote to Labor and the Liberal candidate was third so the Liberal preferences – which put Labor ahead of Green – saw Labor win easily.

The Greens look likely to lose all four of their House seats won in 2022 despite their overall share of the national vote being down only half a percentage point to 11.8 per cent.

Party leader Adam Bandt seems set to lose his seat of Melbourne to Labor, but Mr Chandler-Mather still praised his performance. 

‘This election is the second best election result in Greens history, topped only by the time Adam led the party in 2022,’ he said. 

‘Adam has helped transform the party. I think he did a brilliant job leading the party this election.’ 

Mr Chandler-Mather said he was excited for some much-needed time off to spend with his partner Jo and their 18-month-old son Felix and was unsure whether he would remain in politics.   

‘The last three years I’ve barely had a day off. I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest,’ he said. 

‘I’m definitely not going away in terms of fighting for a better world. You don’t have to be an MP to do that.’ 

Last year, he was confronted about why he does not own a home despite earning more than $233,000 a year as a politician.

Mr Chandler-Mather, a lifelong renter, revealed how he had been giving up a proportion of his income to charity, and that he was priced out of a home in his electorate. 

‘Honest answer, small family, we’re on a single income and I give up about $50,000 of my salary to run all the free meal programs in the electorate,’ he said.

‘Using that money we serve about 50,000 free meals, including our free weekly breakfast in state schools.

‘My view is when I got elected, I was elected by a lot of people who are low-income renters and it wasn’t right for me not to give up a big portion of my salary to people who are low income.

‘Because of giving up that money and being on a single income, and in an inner-city electorate with very, very high median house prices, it is difficult to buy a house there.’