Facebook Note: 2010-08-21T08:31:57

Text of Senator Brown’s speech. Check against delivery. A complete transcript will be available shortly. You can also watch the speech on iView Ladies and gentlemen, Saturday is crunch time for Australia. In the Senate it will either be a vote for the Greens in bigger numbers, providing accountability, or a return to Coalition domination. I will come back to these options, but first I want to talk about the campaign. Three messages have been repeated to me from people in the streets of Australian cities and towns these last weeks as I travelled from Darwin to Melbourne, from Mackay to Cygnet, from Orange to Gunghalin, from Adelaide to Perth. First, elections are bad for business. People stop spending. Whether it’s at the newsagent or the petrol pump, receipts are down. Sunday can’t come too soon for small businesses across Australia. Second, a pox on both their houses. There is enormous disappointment and frustration with both the bigger parties; at their in-fighting and failure to lay out a vision for Australia. Third, there has been a very warm-hearted response I’ve had from people in the streets – ‘I’m voting for the Greens this time’, ‘Good on you Bob’, ‘I hope the Greens go well’, ‘at least you stand for something!’ This country wants leadership and it is the Greens who are delivering leadership.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/10158651176435928/