As a socialist, I believe we should put people before profit, and I’m committed to fighting for that.
I’m proud to be running as a Victorian Socialists’ candidate for the Northern Metropolitan region. I’m a Coburg local, an education support worker in a public school and a member of the Australian Education Union.
I have been a strident opponent of the right-wing, pro-business status quo of Australian politics from an early age. I was raised by a single mum working for below minimum wage. We lived paycheck to paycheck, and were hit hard by the cost of living increases that came with Jeff Kennett’s wave of privatisations in the early 1990s.
My first political memory is of a mass organising meeting for refugee rights in the wake of the Tampa incident, which signalled the start of Australia’s cruel offshore detention regime. I would have been around seven or eight at the time, but it left an impression that shaped my life and my activism ever since.
Growing up under the racist, anti-worker Howard government, I learnt very quickly about the priorities of politicians – to serve the rich and powerful while vilifying refugees, Indigenous people and unionists. As a result I’ve become a passionate fighter against every injustice perpetrated by the Australian government, whether it’s the Liberals or Labor in power.
Today we are experiencing stagnant wages, surging living costs, rental stress and crushing mortgage repayments while politicians push tax cuts for the rich, spend millions on expanding the police force, and cry poor when it comes to funding health, education, welfare and other essential services. Victorian workers deserve so much more.
My experience as a long-term activist in Australia’s marriage equality campaign taught me that progress is only made by working-class people taking a stand. It showed me that we don’t win equality by asking nicely. We win by mobilising unionists, students and ordinary people in their thousands and fighting for it.
I joined Victorian Socialists to organise a fightback against the rotten status quo of mainstream politics. The billionaires, banks and big corporations have had it too good for too long in this country. The priorities of this system are wrong. As a socialist, I believe we should put people before profit, and I’m committed to fighting for that.