Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather announces his partner Joanna Horton is pregnant

Outspoken Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has revealed he is taking two months off to welcome the birth of his first child.

Mr Chandler-Mather announced in a Twitter post on Saturday that he and his partner, Joanna Horton, are expecting.

‘Exciting personal news! My partner Joanna and I are expecting our first child (a boy!) in early November,” he wrote.

‘That means that I will take paternity leave from November to the end of January.

‘In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about how incredibly unfair Aus childcare and paid parental leave is.’

Chandler-Mather rose to prominence in Parliament earlier this year for challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over Labour’s historic housing reform policies.

Chandler-Mather and his party announced earlier this month that they had squeezed an additional $3 billion out of the government for housing reform.

“Sit up straight and pay attention,” Chandler-Mather told Parliament.

‘If we stay at the negotiating table, we will get outcomes… (this is) proof that the Greens, who are in the balance of power, can push Labor kicking and screaming into taking meaningful action.

‘If we praise the Labor Party for offering crumbs, that’s all we get.’

Until 2013, Mr Chandler-Mather sang a very different tune – having once been a Labor activist himself.

He was a member of Labour’s left during his time at the University of Queensland. Both of his parents were also members and reportedly encouraged him to join.

He worked for the United Voice union before becoming a union organizer for the National Tertiary Education Union after graduating.

Chandler-Mather left the party in 2013.

In 2022, he spoke out about the decision, claiming he could not remain a member of a party willing to maintain offshore detention facilities in Nauru under Kevin Rudd.

‘I left the ALP in 2013 for the same reason why many people stopped voting for them. They have abandoned their principles, do not want to fix the rigged system and have no vision for a better life for all Australians,” he said in promotional material for the Greens.

Mr Chandler-Mather gained attention in Parliament this year for challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Labour’s housing policy (pictured, Mr Albanese glaring at Mr Chandler-Mather, bottom centre)

With the support of the Greens, Labor has finally secured the votes to pass its Housing Australia Future Fund – the landmark housing policy that took the ALP to the last election.

The policy aims to build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years, including 4,000 homes for women and children who experience domestic violence.

The main concern from both Greens and independents was that the bill does not go far enough to relieve pressure on the exploding housing market.

To secure the Greens’ support, the government has committed a further $3 billion in direct spending to boost social and public housing.

The Greens, urged on by Mr Chandler-Mather – himself a tenant – are still calling for a nationwide rent freeze, a move that economists say could be problematic in the long term.

The federal government does not have the jurisdiction to regulate rents; such a policy is in the hands of each state and territory. A referendum in 1948 attempted to give this power to the Commonwealth, but it was overwhelmingly defeated.

Albanese and Labor have accused Chandler-Mather of stoking the housing outrage because of his own political ambitions.

The Prime Minister said: ‘Vulnerable people cannot be the collateral damage in your manufactured political conflict.’

On the last day of the hearing before the midwinter break in June, after a particularly tense discussion about HAFF, Mr Albanese reportedly told Mr Chandler-Mather: “You’re a joke, mate” as he left the chamber.

On Saturday, Mr Chandler-Mather used his pregnancy announcement to challenge Australia’s system of “unfair childcare and paid parental leave”.

“When it comes to paid parental leave, countries like Sweden offer 16 months of paid leave that both parents can take – at almost full salary,” he said.

‘Meanwhile, Australia doesn’t even get six months until 2026 and for many this means a big pay cut. That’s before you go to daycare.

‘Good, universal, free childcare with a large-scale, high-quality public provider and an expansion of community childcare seems entirely possible in a prosperous country like Australia.

“We should be more than able to provide 16 months of paid leave that both parents can take advantage of!”

Mr Chandler-Mather (above) used his pregnancy announcement to brand Australia’s parental leave and childcare systems as ‘unfair’