Hi!
Biography pages like this are usually written in the third person, but we might as well be honest about the fact that it's not some public relations consultant or political staffer drafting this - it's just me. And I suppose if you've clicked over to this page, you're interested in reading about who I actually am, rather than a finely-workshopped, over-sanitised simulacrum.
So here goes...
My name is Jonathan Sriranganathan. I'm a 35-year-old writer, musician and community worker who was elected back in March 2016 as Brisbane's first ever Greens city councillor, representing the Gabba Ward on the city's inner-south side. I stepped down from the council in April 2023, after 7 years of service in that role.
I'm now running as the Greens candidate for Mayor of Brisbane in the March 2024 local government elections.
I'm running to win, but I'm also running because I think our entire political system is fundamentally unjust and unsustainable, and I think the city council campaign is a solid opportunity to elevate ideas, policy solutions and campaigning methods that don't usually get enough attention.
I think a lot of people don't fully appreciate the radical potential that local government offers for positive transformation, but I'm hoping to change that.
One of my primary goals as mayor would be to reshape local government systems to be less centralised and less hierarchical.
Wherever possible, decisions should be made at the neighbourhood level, rather than top-down from City Hall.
I'm passionate about improving public and active transport, and I believe that housing should not be treated as a speculative commodity to make profit from. I want to transform our political and economic systems so that we can put the long-term needs of the wider community ahead of the short-term financial interests of big business and major property developers.
To get a better idea of what I think about stuff, you might like to check out some of the podcasts and long-form interviews I've participated in over the years. You can also see some of the old videos I've produced about various issues on my Youtube page.
If we haven't met before, hopefully I'll get to know you over the course of this campaign. If you'd like to hear more from me, you can sign up for email updates via this page or come along to one of the events we're organising.
In case you're wondering, I currently live with my partner Anna on an old, occasionally-leaky houseboat in East Brisbane, and in my spare time I enjoy kayaking, chess, reading and writing poetry, and rapping with my hip-hop band, Rivermouth.
There's more about my personal background below, but you can also check out this short doco that a film student made about me a couple years ago.
My Background
I was born in Brissie and grew up in West Chermside. During my university years, I moved to Indooroopilly/Taringa and then into sharehouses in Highgate Hill and West End. For the past 10 years, I've lived in the suburb of East Brisbane, first in rental sharehouses, and then on a small houseboat named Afterglow, with my partner Anna.
Prior to becoming a city councillor, I primarily worked as a tutor, a law clerk and a musician. I've also worked as a poet, a writer, a policy researcher, a band manager and events organiser, and in various youth worker roles (both in Brisbane and northeast Arnhem Land).
I hold a dual Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Journalism & Mass Communication and in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies) from the University of Queensland, and I've also completed a Graduate Certificate in Writing, Editing and Publishing, mostly just for the fun of it.
