Victorian Greens Launch 2026 Campaign on Groceries and Housing
The Victorian Greens launched their 2026 state election campaign on Thursday in Melbourne's inner north. The Guardian
State leader Ellen Sandell addressed the launch at Fitzroy North community church. She was joined by David Shoebridge, the senator for New South Wales and newly elected federal leader of the Australian Greens, who attended as a late addition to the event.
Organisers had scheduled the State '26 Campaign Launch for 8 October from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Registration was listed as sold out, with no tickets available on the door.
Sandell told the launch "This is our moment." The Canberra Times She said the 2026 campaign would be the party's biggest campaign in the state. She said the state branch had added 230 members. She said the party was on track to win more seats than any state Greens party had ever won before.
The launch pitch centred on a public grocery pledge. The published platform also lists cutting stamp duty, the tax paid when you buy a property, doubling the number of public homes, and freezing and capping rent increases.
In my view, that 230 figure matters as much as the seats claim. Members are the people who do the doorknocks and polling-day shifts that decide close seats.
The broader context here is federal-state alignment after a leadership change. A new federal leader turning up to a state launch, even late, is basic party management. It puts Shoebridge in front of volunteers early. It lets Sandell show Canberra and Spring Street, the federal and Victorian parliaments, are reading from the same script.
In my view, the telling choice is the order. Cost of living first, housing second, both framed as things a state government can pull. Public groceries is the one-sentence stall pitch. Stamp duty, public homes and rent controls are the longer argument underneath.
Looking at what this means for the campaign ahead, the test is not the room in Fitzroy North. Sold-out launches are the easy part. The test is whether those extra members turn into shifts in seats the party does not already hold, and whether Shoebridge keeps showing up after launch week when he has his own Senate numbers to manage.
