[4] He graduated from Murdoch University in 1996 with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees, and was awarded the Sir Ronald Wilson Prize for Academic Achievement, "which is given to the graduate who best combines distinguished academic performance in law units with qualities of character, leadership and all-round contribution to the life of the university".

[8] Bandt later stated he had left the party because of the removal of free university under Hawke and Keating, and blamed the Higher Education Contributions Scheme.

Writing for the ABC, former Liberal MP and Minister Kevin Andrews said that this made it clear "Bandt views the Greens as a vehicle for his ideological pursuits".

[15] During the period before his election to parliament in 2010, he lived in Parkville, Victoria and worked as an industrial and public interest lawyer, becoming a partner at Slater & Gordon, with unions for clients.

[15] He had articles published on links between anti-terror legislation and labour laws[16] and worked on issues facing outworkers in the textiles industry.

[18] In 2008, having gone part-time at Slater & Gordon in order to do so,[15] Bandt completed a PhD at Monash University, supervised by cultural theorist Andrew Milner, with his thesis titled "Work to Rule: Rethinking Pashukanis, Marx and Law".

In 2012, he described his thesis as looking "at the connection between globalisation and the trend of governments to take away peoples' rights by suspending the rule of law", saying he "reviewed authors who write about the connection between the economy and the law from across the political spectrum", ultimately arguing "that governments increasingly don't accept that people have inalienable rights".

[20] In 2009, Bandt published a paper arguing that emergencies, such as the 2007–2008 financial crisis and war on terror, have been used by neoliberal "strong states" to "undermine basic rights".

[4][21] Bandt was preselected to stand as the Greens candidate for the federal division of Melbourne at the 2007 election against Labor's Lindsay Tanner, the incumbent Shadow Minister for Finance, who retained the seat.

[28] His main policy interests are environmental and human rights issues, having "nominat[ed] pushing for a price on carbon, the abolition of mandatory detention of asylum seekers and changing the law to recognise same-sex marriage as his top priorities in parliament.

[35] In 2017, the Party's co-deputy leaders Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam were found to be ineligible to sit in Australia's Parliament owing to their status as dual citizens.

[40] On 3 February 2020, Richard Di Natale announced his resignation as leader of the Greens and imminent retirement from politics, citing family reasons.

[44] Under Bandt's vision, the party aspired to develop a power-sharing situation with a Labor government at the 2022 election, similar to the Gillard era.

[45] Whilst serving as party leader, Bandt also acts as the Greens' spokesperson for: the Climate Emergency, Energy, Employment & Workplace Relations, and the Public Sector.

His action received varied responses, including condemnation, with newly-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stating that Bandt should "reconsider his position and work to promote unity and reconciliation.

Former Liberal Party Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke labelled his words as "truly graceless and bereft of common decency".

Political journalist Paddy Manning stated in 2020 that he viewed Bandt as ideologically on the "hard left", similar to former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.