David Eric Risstrom (born 1962 or 1963) is an Australian barrister and former politician. He was the first elected representative for the

Victorian Greens The Victorian Greens, officially known as the Australian Greens Victoria, is the Victoria (state), Victorian state member party of the Australian Greens, a Green politics, green political party in Australia. History Early years The Australian ...

Early life

Risstrom is the son of Eric Risstrom (1930−2012), who served as a councillor on the

City of Camberwell The City of Camberwell was a Local government in Australia, local government area about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1914 until 1994. Histo ...

from 1961 to 1974 and from 1996 to 2003 on its successor, the

City of Boroondara The City of Boroondara () is a local government area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was formed in June 1994 from the amalgamation of the Cities of Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn. It has an area of ...

. He educated at Wesley College Melbourne, the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

) and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

(

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

) before beginning his practice as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

Political career

Risstrom was elected as a councillor on the

City of Melbourne The City of Melbourne is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the Melbourne central business district, central city area of Melbourne. In 2021, the city has an area of and had a populati ...

at the 1999 Victorian local elections having won 9% of the primary vote in a

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system, becoming the first member of the

elected to public office. He was re-elected in 2001. In 2004, Risstrom resigned as a councillor to contest the 2004 federal election in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. He had won preselection as the lead Victorian Greens candidate, defeating future federal party leader

Richard Di Natale Richard Luigi Di Natale (; born 6 June 1970) is an Australian former politician who was a Senator for Victoria. He was also the leader of the Australian Greens from 2015 to 2020. Di Natale was elected to the Senate in the 2010 federal electio ...

. His candidacy was ultimately unsuccessful in controversial circumstances, after the Labor Party's

group voting ticket A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a Ranked voting systems, preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member ele ...

preferences favoured the socially conservative

Family First Party The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into w ...

. Risstrom nominated for preselection to contest the 2007 federal election as the Victorian Greens' candidate for the Senate, but was unsuccessful. In February 2019, Risstrom was selected as the Greens candidate for the federal seat of Cooper, which replaced

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

, in the federal election later that year. He was subjected to internal scrutiny on eligibility resulting from the dual citizenship crisis in the

Australian parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...

. At the election, the Greens suffered a swing against them of more than 15% on first preferences and more than 13% on a

two-candidate-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Nati ...

basis. In November 2023, he again nominated for Victorian Greens Senate preselection following the retirement of Janet Rice, although was unsuccessful.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Risstrom, David Living people Lawyers from Melbourne Victoria (state) local councillors Year of birth missing (living people) Australian Greens candidates Australian people of Swedish descent Australian National University alumni University of Melbourne alumni People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)