The federal election will be a tight race. Australia will be watching these marginal seats.

The seats that will decide the election

The Greens are hoping to capitalise on growing discontent with the two major parties at the federal election and shore up their power in parliament.

The party, however, has struggled with negative press, a wide policy platform and the battle to separate themselves from progressive Labor candidates.

Leader Richard Di Natale has said he wants to win 25 seats in parliament within 25 years, but recently emphasised his main focus was maintaining the party’s senate representation and holding Labor to account.

So what is his background and what are his beliefs?

WHAT’S HIS POLITICAL CV?

The former GP became a Greens’ Senate candidate in 2004, when he came second in the race for Melbourne’s mayor.

In both 2002 and 2006, he was narrowly defeated in the seat of Melbourne in the Victorian lower house by Labor health minister Bronwyn Pike.

In 2010, he became the first Greens senator elected in Victoria, and became the party’s federal spokesperson for health. He was elected unopposed as Greens leader in May of 2015 after Christine Milne’s resignation.

His party lost a senator during the 2016 election and did not win any extra seats, but Dr Di Natale argued its strategy had been successful, and it was now seen as a major party. The Greens did not however hold the balance of power, as they had in the past.

The Greens have nine senators in parliament and one member of the House of Representatives, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt.

WHAT DID HE DO BEFORE POLITICS?

Dr Di Natale has a medical degree from Monash and masters in public health and health science from La Trobe University. He was a general practitioner and public health specialist, working in the drug and alcohol sector, Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and HIV prevention in India.

He places a strong emphasis on health and the economy, speaking out on harm reduction drug policies, medical marijuana, reforming euthanasia law, the health effects of climate change, wider access to medicine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and science-based public policy on vaccination.

He also played footy at a high level before a knee injury, and remains a diehard Richmond fan.

WHAT ARE HIS BIGGEST SUCCESSES?

He successfully campaigned for the Future Fund to divest its holdings in tobacco and against the GP co-payment.

The senator has helped establish senate inquiries into medicinal cannabis, superbugs, hospital funding, air pollution, pharmaceutical transparency, sports science and gambling reform.

He also secured almost $5 billion for Medicare-funded dentistry, which he said was “laying the foundations for Denticare” — the Greens’ policy of universal Medicare dentistry.

WHAT CONTROVERSIES HAS HE BEEN INVOLVED IN?

The Greens leader was suspended from the Senate in November after he called Liberal senator Barry O’Sullivan a “pig” responsible for spreading “sexist filth”. Mr O’Sullivan had said Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young had “a bit of Nick Xenophon in her”.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek accused the Greens of “breathtaking” hypocrisy after it emerged the party would field just two female candidates in its 12 strongest lower house seats in the May election, compared with eight in 2016.

The ABC in August uncovered multiple claims by women that the party mismanaged complaints about alleged sexual misconduct and harassment.

Dr Di Natale has been criticised by the Coalition for unveiling a plan to phase out the burning and export of thermal coal over a decade.

The plan suggests redirecting defence funding to lift the aid budget, says Australia should renegotiate its alliance with the United States and calls for the closure of foreign military bases in Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the Greens a “serious danger to Australia” and said the party had “actively worked against the safety of Australians”.

WHO ARE HIS FAMILY?

The 48-year-old was born to Italian Catholic immigrant parents in Melbourne in 1970. His father learned English while training as an electrician, aged 29, and his mother opened a grocery store in Brunswick.

“I’m a product of the great Australian experiment called multiculturalism,” he said in his first news conference as leader. “The debate on terrorism and refugees means that the multiculturalism issue needs a champion, and I’m going to be that champion.

“I come from a traditional, working class, Italian family. My parents weren’t particularly political, but my extended family were all Labor voters. There’s a good chance that if I was born 30, 40 years ago maybe I’d be in the Labor Party right now.”

He married Lucy Quarterman in 2007 and the couple live with their two sons on a farm in Victoria’s Otway Ranges.

WHAT DOES HE WANT TO ACHIEVE?

The Greens leader believes his party’s role is putting pressure on Labor to pursue progressive policies.

“We need the Greens in the Senate right across the country if we want to stop Adani, if we want to put pressure on the Labor Party to show some decency to innocent people who are currently being tortured in those hell holes offshore,” he told the National Press Club in September.

“If we want to have an economic system that works for them, not for the Labor Party’s corporate donors, you need to have the Greens in the Senate.”