\u201cWell, this wasn\u2019t in my diary a week ago,\u201d the Greens\u2019 newly elected federal leader, David Shoebridge, said from the altar of an inclusive church in Melbourne\u2019s inner north.<\/p>\n
The New South Wales senator was a late addition to the launch of the Victorian Greens election campaign on Thursday, but delivered a rousing political sermon to the converted.<\/p>\n
There was no sign of animosity over the fact Max Chandler-Mather had jumped the gun on the night\u2019s headline announcement, unveiling a policy on Tuesday<\/a> through the party\u2019s thinktank to force the sale of 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets and replace them with government grocery stores.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 51 days, the whole country will be watching Victoria. I can already tell you are going to set the momentum,\u201d Shoebridge said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are going to get the ball rolling in what is going to be an extremely exciting, extraordinary moment for the Greens, but more fundamentally, for this country, because we\u2019re going to take our country back, and it starts right here in Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n Shoebridge drew the media\u2019s attention to Fitzroy North community church, where the Greens served up a buffet of vegetarian and vegan dishes, washed down with beers from Melbourne\u2019s Moon Dog Brewery and sold raffle tickets with prizes such as the \u201cjoy of free public transport\u201d (a $100 pre-paid Myki ticket), \u201cfree dental\u201d (a check up, clean and X-rays courtesy of a CBD dental clinic) and a Playstation controller signed by \u201cFortnite expert\u201d and Tasmanian senator Nick McKim.<\/p>\n Federal Greens leader David Shoebridge rallies the faithful in Melbourne on Thursday. Photograph: Con Chronis\/AAP<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever had this much media at one of these,\u201d one guest was overheard saying. A candidate said it felt like \u201celection night\u201d.<\/p>\n Shoebridge said he had to \u201cmuscle [his] way in through the door because of the sheer numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n Since taking on the role last week, Shoebridge has promised to reconnect the Greens with millions of disaffected voters<\/a> \u2013 people who, as he put it in his speech, read the headlines in the morning and are then tempted to \u201cpull the doona back over your head\u201d.<\/p>\n Figures released ahead of the event by the Greens suggest it is having some impact \u2013 the party recorded an additional 884 members in the past week, its biggest membership bump since the 2025 federal election. Shoebridge\u2019s Victorian counterpart, Ellen Sandell, said the state branch had added 230 members.<\/p>\n Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell on stage. Photograph: Con Chronis\/AAP<\/p>\n Within the span of seven minutes on Thursday night, it also collected $10,000 worth of donation pledges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are getting members coming into this party like never before, because right now, in this moment, we have rekindled hope in politics,\u201d Shoebridge said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have said the government is not there just for some kind of managed decline to make things slightly less shit than the other side would make them. Government is there \u2026 to make our lives better and richer and stronger and more united.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandell said the campaign would be the party\u2019s \u201cbiggest\u201d in the state and it was \u201con track to win more seats than any state Greens party has ever won before\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHonest to God \u2026 this is our moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Both Shoebridge and Sandell laid the blame for the rise of One Nation<\/a> at the feet of Labor, which they said both federally and at a state level had failed to improve voters\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n