Thursday: Green's Brown and Risstrom

Late on a Thursday, two days out from election day, and David Risstrom (lead Green Senator-wannabe in Victoria) and Saint Bob Brown put in a powerhouse performance at Melbourne Uni. To a packed auditoriam of 500 people, Risstrom acted as the warm up guy, telling some folksy stories about himself and about what the Greens stood for. Risstrom seems to be permanently stuck in the mould of a local councillor. He seems to have a cluttered, disordered mind and jumps erratically from topic to topic. There's no doubt that his heart is in the right place, it's coherence that is presently lacking. Take his utterly mixed messages on how the Greens would act in the Senate - whoever won office, they'd force them to keep their promises... but they'd also force them to take on board Greens policies. And if the government's promises happen to disagree with the Greens policies... well, um, we'll cross that eco-friendly bridge when we get to it.

Once Brown touched down from Wollongong, however, the meeting took on the vibe and tone of a revivalist church gathering (perhaps the Greens and Family First do have something in common after all). Brown worked the crowd into a frenzy, attacking Howard on refugees, Aboriginal affairs, education and the environment. There is no doubt that Brown has decided that he will push as hard as he can for a Labor government, and have abandoned the pretence of being honest brokers in the middle. Brown is remarkably persuasive and inspiring as a speaker, and the true believers in the audience would have left with the impression that government, rather than just the Senate, was the Greens for the taking.