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Dr Di Natale steadies and unifies Greens

Greens leader Richard Di Natale is a GP and public health specialist who has been a steadying influence on the disparate Greens.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale with Adam Bandt(L) and Janet Rice(R)
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says the party is relishing a long election campaign. (AAP) Source: AAP

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Source: AAP


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He might have only been in the Senate for one term, but Greens leader Richard Di Natale brings a healthy dose of experience.

The GP and public health specialist was elected in 2010, becoming the Greens' first Victorian senator.

In his previous career the 45-year-old worked on HIV prevention in India, Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and Victoria's health department as part of an outbreak investigation team.

The father of two, who lives with wife Lucy in Victoria's Otways Ranges, played VFA football for six years and labels himself a long-suffering Richmond Tigers fan.

He claims his achievements in parliament as securing almost $5 billion towards Medicare-funded dentistry and winning a campaign to divest $250 million worth of tobacco stocks from the Future Fund.

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He has also led Senate inquiries into issues such as dying with dignity, hospital funding, budget cuts, medicinal cannabis and gambling reform.

In 2015 he caused a stir with his one-man expedition to West Africa to get a first-hand look at the Ebola crisis - having been critical of the Abbott government's response.

Over the past year he's provided a steadying influence on the Greens, which bring together a disparate range of views from the hard left to centre-right.

Working with Melbourne MP Adam Bandt, he's steered the party towards a pump-priming economic policy which puts more onus on the rich to pay a fairer share of tax.

The son of Italian immigrants, Di Natale has also sought to champion multiculturalism in the face of a heated debate on terrorism and refugees.

However, environmental issues such as climate change, protecting the Great Barrier Reef and shifting to a clean economy remain a priority.


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