Greens policy record

If you rent, the Greens are offering to hold your rent down, and the case rests on a budget office number: $15,590 saved by 2030. The rest of the platform is larger and less checked — one levy published at two different rates, and an “$18 billion” plan that no longer carries a total.

Ellen Sandell has led the Victorian Greens since April 2024, with Sarah Mansfield as deputy. The party holds Melbourne, Richmond and Brunswick, and its platform runs from rent caps and free fares to ten publicly owned supermarkets¹supermarkets² .

The launch was at a Fitzroy North church on 8 October, with the newly elected federal leader, David Shoebridge, as the draw³ . Sandell told The Age the platform was “taking a leaf out of the Mamdani playbook”⁴ .

How many seats the party can win is unsettled. The Guardian names six Labor-held seats and The Age eight, and the two counts don’t reconcile³reconcile⁴ .

Renting: a freeze, then a cap tied to wages

Rents would be frozen for two years, and increases banned in the first two years of every new tenancy⁵ . After that the cap would be wage growth, or inflation where that is lower.

Increases would attach to the property. A landlord couldn’t end a tenancy to reset the rent at a higher level⁵ .

This is the commitment with a budget office number behind it. Modelling the party commissioned puts the saving at $15,590 for the average renter by 2030, $53,517 by 2035 and $120,406 by 2040⁶ . An April 2026 costing found Melbourne renters would have saved $19,000 over five years under controls, and $39,000 in the City of Melbourne⁷ .

The platform headline does not match that number. It claims $30,000 over five years, against the $15,590 by 2030 in the release and the modelling⁵modelling⁶ . Both figures are still published.

Around the freeze sit measures with no price on them. There would be an independent landlord licensing regulator able to revoke licences, at $50m to establish⁵ . Rent-worthiness and energy-efficiency certificates, a right of return after renovations and a three-year ban on re-leasing after an owner-move-in notice come with it.

Transport: free, permanently

Fares would go to zero for good, with trams and trains at least every 10 minutes from 7am to 10pm¹ . The Parliamentary Budget Office costed the fares at $940m in 2026–27, $1bn in 2027–28 and $12.5bn over a decade⁸ .

Katherine Copsey, the transport spokesperson, frames the trade-off in toll roads. “We could fund 25 years of free public transport for the cost of a single private toll road project like the North East Link”⁸ .

Sandell’s version came after Labor’s $30-a-week fare cap: “Why stop at $30 when we could make it free for everyone?”⁹ .

The service side is where costings stop. A frequent bus grid gets $270m, regional train and coach frequency $245m, accessible tram stops $225m, and a Local Transport and Initiative Fund $3bn¹ . A bike network would take 5% of the transport budget, paid for by scaling back road upgrades. Registration would double for vehicles with bonnets over 120cm, and none of it has a published costing.

The taxes that would pay for it

Five revenue measures sit on the party’s pay-for page, and the page publishes no total¹⁰ . The “$18 billion Fair Share Plan” belongs to a release from 31 May 2026¹¹ .

No document adds the five yields up to $18bn. The pay-for page says only that the plan is fully costed¹⁰ . We found no budget office paper that totals the platform.

What the five revenue measures would bring in
Measure | Rate | Yield | Costed
Bank levy | 0.1% quarterly | $3bn+ a year | PBO
Ultra-wealth tax | 5.3% above $5m | $6.4bn a decade | PBO
Gambling | 25% online, 75% pokies | $2bn+ a year | party
Royalties | doubled | $80m a year | party
Vacancy tax | 2%, 4%, 6% | none published | party¹⁰

The bank levy is published at two rates. The platform says 0.1% a quarter, for “$3+ billion a year”¹⁰ . A campaign page last modified in February 2025 says 0.05%, for over $1bn a year and $16.5bn across the decade¹² .

Only 0.1% fits the budget office total the party cites. That costing puts the levy at $11.5bn across its first four financial years, growing past $4.4bn a year by 2036–37¹³ . The older page is still live and has not been withdrawn.

The ultra-wealth tax applies land tax at 5.3% to residential investment holdings above $5m, with a $100,000 base for portfolios at that size¹⁰ . The party puts it at about half a billion a year, or $6.4bn over the decade, on a PBO figure¹⁴ .

Gambling taxes would go to 25% online, double on casino table games and 75% on pokies, which the party puts above $2bn a year¹⁰ . Free dental is funded from that money¹⁵ .

Two measures have no yield published. One is a 75% tax on rezoning windfalls for developers¹⁰ . The other is a doubled vacancy tax, extended to commercial property at 3% of site value.

Housing: 88,000 public homes

The promise is 88,000 new public homes, more than doubling the stock, with $4bn as an “initial commitment” and more to follow¹⁶ . That is a party allocation for a program whose final cost is unknown, and the Australian Election Tracker records it as an uncosted pledge¹⁷ .

Stamp duty would go for owner-occupiers buying below $1.1m. It would be discounted between $1.1m and $1.6m, and investors would keep paying it¹⁶ . The party has published no costing of the revenue the cut gives up, and it treats the ultra-wealth tax as the offset.

The rest is regulation with no price attached. New private developments of 15 units or more would have to include 30% genuinely affordable housing, on a legislated definition tied to 30% of tenant income¹⁶ . The party also wants a right to housing in the Charter and a legislated goal to end homelessness by 2036.

Groceries: ten public supermarkets

The launch policy was ten publicly owned supermarkets, five in Melbourne and five in the regions, selling essentials 30% cheaper²cheaper¹⁸ . The platform puts $350m over four years on the trial¹⁹ .

The Essential Services Commission would gain power to set maximum prices on key items, reviewed monthly, and minimum farm-gate prices¹⁹ . The claimed saving for an average household is $82.20 a week, or $4,274.40 a year, on essentials.

The launch figure was $300m and covered the ten stores, as the ABC reported it¹⁸ . The platform describes its $350m as covering the trial and the farm-gate and price-cap work, and the party has published no split. The Age has also corrected an earlier “$1 billion over four years” to $350 million⁴ .

Allan Fels, the former competition watchdog chair, told The Age the Greens had been good at publicising the problem but their solution “does not look very practical”⁴ .

Health and dental

Dental care would be free for everyone through 20 new clinics, at $3bn over ten years, paid for out of the gambling taxes²⁰taxes¹⁵ . The $3bn is a party figure with no budget office costing behind it.

The rest is money moved inside existing budgets. Prevention would take 5% of the health budget and community health 3% of health and infrastructure spending, and VicHealth would be saved from being axed²¹ .

The party also promises more staffed hospital, rehab and aged care beds and a parliamentary inquiry into rural health²¹ . Junk food, alcohol and gambling advertising would be banned on state billboards, buses and trams.

Mental health gets the continued roll-out of free care and crisis response led by health workers rather than police²² . The party would also deliver the $40m in housing support it says Labor promised and didn’t.

Energy, climate and data centres

The State Electricity Commission would get $2bn more, plus a public energy retailer inside it to sell power without a corporate margin²³ . Yallourn’s four units would close in 2028 as planned, and units at Loy Yang A would come off earlier than 2035.

The party would ban offshore oil and gas drilling, including Labor’s program near the 12 Apostles, and stop Viva’s gas import terminal²³ . It would also make fossil fuel companies liable for climate damage through a state bill.

For households there is $500m of power vouchers, at $1,500 for owner-occupiers and $3,000 for renters, with free energy assessments²⁴ . Up to $3,000 would come off electric cars, e-bikes and two-way chargers²⁵ . None of it has a PBO costing.

The 100% renewable target by 2030 sits in the party’s standing energy policy, adopted 4 October 2025, and not in the election platform²⁶ . A $1bn climate adaptation fund and $200m for fire trucks are party allocations.

On data centres the demand is a moratorium on all new AI facilities until laws exist, and 100% newly built renewable energy for any that proceed²⁷ . Gas turbines and diesel backup would be banned, and operators would compensate residents already living with the damage.

Mansfield’s line is that Labor announced new rules and a $6bn data centre entered its fast-track system the same day²⁸ . The party says it moved a moratorium bill and every Labor MP voted against it.

Community safety, drugs and Treaty

Community safety gets $1bn over four years and a new Office of Community Safety and Crime Prevention²⁹ . The party’s argument is that 167 separate prevention programs sit across 10 government departments³⁰ .

A statewide mental health outreach and crisis response, staffed by health and social workers, is the centrepiece of that $1bn. No breakdown of the fund by program has been published.

The drug platform proposes a legal market. Cannabis would be sold through licensed dispensaries and cafés, or grown at home up to six plants³¹ . Personal possession would be decriminalised, with more pill testing, supervised injecting services and naloxone vending machines.

No revenue estimate for cannabis taxation has been published, and no cost for the rehabilitation beds the party wants scaled up over five years³¹ .

On Treaty the promise is to vote against any attempt to wind it up, and to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14³² . The party would repeal the 2025 bail changes and life sentences for children, and put $50m into a first instalment on the Yoorrook recommendations.

Mansfield criticised the police response at the Djab Wurrung camp near Ararat, where more than 100 officers were sent against people protecting trees³³ .

Schools, TAFE and integrity

Public schools would be funded to the level the Gonski review recommended, and an independent school building authority would decide where buildings go³⁴ . Public schooling would be genuinely free, against the $620 a year parents now contribute per child.

The $2.4bn in the party’s releases is money it says Victorian schools lose while the Commonwealth deal climbs to the floor by 2031³⁵ . It is a shortfall the Greens describe, not a costing of their own policy.

TAFE gets guaranteed recurrent public funding, a benchmark of 80% permanent teaching positions and a phase-out of public money to private providers where a public option exists³⁶ . No dollar figure is attached to any of it³⁷ .

Integrity means a ban on corporate donations, South Australian-style truth in political advertising laws and a lobbyist register with sanctions³⁸ . There would be a cooling-off period before MPs can lobby, spending caps extended to local government, and arms-length funding for IBAC, the Ombudsman and the Auditor-General.

Sandell frames the donation ban against the other parties, which she says all take developer, gambling and fossil fuel money³⁹ . Regulatory promises of this kind carry little fiscal cost, and none is costed.

Gender and family violence commitments carry party figures and no costings. They come to $200m for a Rainbow State Fund, $25m for homebirth programs, abortion and trans care, and $60m for multicultural women’s refuges and community legal services⁴⁰ .

Five extra days of reproductive health leave for public servants, a four-day week in the public sector and a right to work from home are promised alongside them⁴⁰ .

On environment, the party would reverse Labor’s funding cuts and create national parks under Traditional Owner management²³ . Commercial native-forest logging on private land would be banned, and prescribed burning based on science instead of hectare targets. No figure is published for the funding restoration.

What is costed, and what isn’t

Four measures carry a Parliamentary Budget Office costing: rent caps, free public transport, the bank levy and the ultra-wealth tax¹⁷ . Two of the four are revenue, one is a cost, and the rent number is a saving to renters.

The four measures with an independent costing
Commitment | Figure | Source
Rent freeze, then cap | $15,590 saved by 2030 | PBO
Free public transport | $12.5bn a decade | PBO
Bank levy at 0.1% | $11.5bn/four years | PBO
Ultra-wealth tax | $6.4bn a decade | PBO

The Australian Election Tracker records at least 14 Greens pledges as uncosted, including the 500 mental health clinicians and the 200 rehab beds¹⁷ . The list below is drawn from the party’s own pages, where each figure is an allocation with no budget office work behind it.

• Public housing: $4bn initial, against a program with no final price.
• Public supermarkets: $350m over four years.
• Free dental: $3bn over ten years.
• Community safety: $1bn over four years.
• Local Transport and Initiative Fund: $3bn.
• State Electricity Commission: $2bn extra.
• Climate adaptation fund: $1bn.
• Bus grid, regional rail and tram stops: $270m, $245m and $225m.
• Greens Power Vouchers: $500m.
• Fire trucks: $200m.
• Rainbow State Fund: $200m.
• Yoorrook implementation: $50m initial.
• Landlord licensing regulator: $50m.
• Homebirth, abortion and trans care: $25m.

Those 14 allocations come to just over $16bn by our arithmetic, before anything for TAFE, hospital beds or the second metro tunnel. The $2.4bn for schools sits outside the sum, because it is a shortfall in Commonwealth money.

What the Greens have not published

These are silences in the record as it stands, checked against the platform pages and the releases. Each is a place where a reader who wants to check the arithmetic has nowhere to go.

• A yield for the 75% developer windfall tax, or a revenue estimate for cannabis taxation.
• A cost for expanding TAFE, the second metro tunnel, Melton electrification or the city loop reconfiguration.
• A split of the $350m supermarket figure between stores, farm-gate prices and price caps.
• A costing for the 88,000-home program beyond the $4bn down payment.
• A reconciled seat target, where the Guardian reports six and The Age eight.

How this compares

Against Labor the difference is structural. Labor’s three cost-of-living measures come to about $627m and expire between 2027 and 2028⁴¹2028⁴²2028⁴³ . The Greens offer a permanent rent cap, free fares and taxes aimed at banks, casinos and large property portfolios.

On housing the split is clean. Labor builds 25,600 homes for first home buyers, sold at market price, for $499m, and leaves renting alone⁴⁴ . The Greens build public housing, cut stamp duty for owner-occupiers and cap rents.

If the Greens hold the balance of power in the Council, the four costed measures are where a negotiation would start. Everything else is money the campaign asks you to take largely on trust.

The pages for the other parties set out their records in the same form, and the issue notes take the same evidence by topic.

Linked notes

https://terrain.pub/notes/housing

https://terrain.pub/notes/cost-of-living-and-energy-prices

https://terrain.pub/notes/transport-and-infrastructure