Stirling Griff

During the 2013 Federal Election campaign Griff was the campaign director for Nick Xenophon Group (as the party was then known). He also was instrumental in developing a computer programme that assisted the campaign. Griff was second on the NXG ticket behind Xenophon. Despite receiving more votes than the Labor Party, only Xenophon managed to win a senate seat.[9] This was because of preference flows against NXG.

Following the establishment of the Nick Xenophon Team as a formal political party, Griff served as party secretary from 2013 to 2014 and party treasurer from 2014 to 2016.[10]

In 2015, Griff was interviewed by Adelaide-based online newspaper, InDaily. The paper declared Griff "the power behind the Xenophon throne".[11] In another article, Griff said he did not support ongoing assistance from the government towards the Australian automotive industry, saying "I stray a little bit with Nick [Xenophon] on this one".[12] Griff also described how NXT was selecting candidates for the 2016 Election:

You start bringing in other personalities, if you like, other egos that need stroking…is that going to mean we push the agenda we want to push or are we pushing their agenda? It's not about looking for celebrity candidates; I can tell you we’re very strong in our resolve not to go for ‘name brands’ and celebrity candidates. We want like-minded passionate people … we’re not looking for academics, we’re not looking for political groupies, we’re not looking for people who have been ticket-holding members of parties. We wanted people that have been involved in small business in some form … people that have experienced real life, rather than people that have gone up through a structure being staffers of MPs.[13]

Griff was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2016 federal election, taking his place from September 2016. He was made Deputy Leader of Nick Xenophon Team in August 2016.[14] In his first speech, Griff called for the public ownership of electricity, water, gas and broadband utilities.[15]

He is reported to be a "strong advocate for emissions reductions".[16]

Griff brokered an ACCC inquiry into digital platforms such as Facebook and Google as a condition of his former party supporting the Turnbull governments media reforms.[17]

During his first term he supported same-sex marriage.[18] He also provided support for a ban of "preferred" providers of medical and dental services, as well as the disclosure of doctors fees online by the government so that patients can better identify lower-cost services.[19]

Griff supported the federal Territories Rights Euthanasia Bill stating he has "faith that none of us, no matter our upbringing or faith, desire to see people and particularly those close to us suffer a distressing death"[20]

In June 2018, Griff attended the Rambam Israel Fellowship Program sponsored by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. The lobby group funded "transport, accommodation, meals and other associated costs".[21][22]

He has a particular interest in health genomics and was the principal advocate for a national Genomic Cancer Medicine Program that will treat more than 5,000 patients nationally.[23] Griff also brokered a deal with the Morrison federal government to secure funding for a $80m South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGEN) to complement the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy for which his party helped secure for SA in 2017.[24][25]

Griff has a strong interest in preventing in-utero exposure to alcohol that is known to cause life-long developmental, physical, mental and behavioural problems and was successful in having the Senate undertake an inquiry into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).[26] He also successfully negotiated a $25m national awareness campaign for FASD.[27]

Griff is a strong advocate for medical transparency, considering that "much of the medical industry operates like a secret society".[28] The IVF industry has been a particular focus where he introduced a bill to ensure reporting of patient outcomes.[29] This bill "spurred the IVF sector to finally start working towards disclosure of success rates for individual clinics".[30]

Griff gave a speech to parliament in February 2020 calling for a motion to ban anime and manga depicting "child exploitation"[31]