Vegetarian buffet and a ‘free dental’ raffle prize: Greens launch bullish bid to ‘take our country back’ in Victoria

New federal leader David Shoebridge says November’s poll will herald the start of an ‘extraordinary moment’ as the party hopes for its best-ever state result

“Well, this wasn’t in my diary a week ago,” the Greens’ newly elected federal leader, David Shoebridge, said from the altar of an inclusive church in Melbourne’s inner north.

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.

There was no sign of animosity over the fact Max Chandler-Mather had jumped the gun, announcing a policy on Tuesday through the party’s thinktank to force the sale of 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets and replace them with government grocery stores.

“In 51 days, the whole country will be watching Victoria. I can already tell you are going to set the momentum,” Shoebridge said.

“You 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’re going to take our country back, and it starts right here in Victoria.”

Shoebridge drew the media’s attention to Fitzroy North community church, where the Greens served up a buffet of vegetarian and vegan dishes, washed down with beers from Melbourne’s Moon Dog Brewery and sold raffle tickets with prizes such as the “joy of free public transport” (a $100 pre-paid Myki ticket), “free dental” (a check up, clean and X-rays courtesy of a CBD dental clinic) and a Playstation controller signed by “Fortnite expert” and Tasmanian senator Nick McKim.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had this much media at one of these,” one guest was overheard saying. A candidate said it felt like “election night”.

Shoebridge said he had to “muscle [his] way in through the door because of the sheer numbers”.

Since taking on the role last week, Shoebridge has promised to reconnect the Greens with millions of disaffected voters – people who, as he put it in his speech, read the headlines in the morning and are then tempted to “pull the doona back over your head”.

Figures released ahead of the event by the Greens suggest it is having some impact – the party recorded an additional 884 members in the past week – its biggest membership bump since the 2025 federal election. Shoebridge’s Victorian counterpart, Ellen Sandell, said the state branch had added 230 members.

Within the span of seven minutes on Thursday night, it also collected $10,000 worth of donation pledges.

“We are getting members coming into this party like never before, because right now, in this moment, we have rekindled hope in politics,” Shoebridge said.

“We 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 … to make our lives better and richer and stronger and more united.”