A former general practitioner, and medical researcher with a PhD on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections, he currently serves as the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Health, Justice, Integrity and Science.

In Parliament, Read has campaigned on the issues of climate change, the over-incarceration and deaths in custody of Aboriginal Victorians, and the promotion of active transportation and bike safety.

His inaugural speech in Parliament listed Victoria’s biggest public health challenges as: heatwaves and climate change, our approach to drugs and crime, and diabetes.

[1] In 2019, he called for pill-testing and the decriminalisation of public drunkenness in his first two adjournment matters, for the later calling on the Attorney-General to ‘form a working group to establish a process to care for people found to be intoxicated in public’ and to ‘establish appropriate facilities, instead of relying on police cells’ – the path to decriminalisation ultimately announced by the Victorian government later that year.

[2][3] A prodigious drafter of private members bills, in his first term he was responsible for the Victorian Green’s bills to introduce pill-testing, reform Victoria’s bail laws, raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, and to strengthen political integrity laws and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).

[16] Despite support from the Australian Medical Association, the Victorian Premier criticised his calls as “pure rank politics”, stating, “I’m terribly sorry but I’m not taking public health advice from them (the Greens), I’m just not.”[17] The Premier reiterated that stance in a response to Read in question time on 7 June, stating: "On the notion that Victorians need to be reminded about the efficacy of mask wearing, the clear public health benefits of mask wearing, together with the benefits of getting vaccinated ...