Australia is an extremely wealthy country, we have enough to go around and to ensure nobody is living in poverty.
Hi I’m Chris. I’m a Ballarat local, a unionist, a proud socialist and a long-term emergency services volunteer. I’m running as the Victorian Socialists candidate for Wendouree in this year's state election because I believe that a better, fairer world is possible and that governments should put people before private profits.
I believe that Ballarat needs a strong representative with a focus on the urgent needs of working-class people today and a clear vision for how our city can grow to an estimated 155,000 people by 2040 without becoming one big ugly sprawling traffic jam.
With careful leadership we can grow into a modern and diverse city with high liveability and easy access to amenities for all. I have a strong interest in urbanism, city design, public and active transport, and I will use this knowledge to press the state government and local council to deliver happier, healthier, more connected lives to everyone in the Ballarat community.
Ballarat was ranked as the happiest city in Australia in the 2026 Happy City Index, but travelling around town you can see the clear divide between people who are struggling and those who live well. It is clear that social services for people doing it tough are overwhelmed and the state government continues to offload responsibility onto charities and volunteers instead of fixing these issues.
There are more than 100 people sleeping on the streets of Ballarat on any given night and around 5,000 people in our region have no permanent home, while hundreds of houses sit empty.
This is unacceptable to me. I believe that houses are for living in, not for making profits.
If elected I will doggedly pursue the Victorian Socialists’ policies to:
- Force investors with empty properties to either house people or sell.
- Urgently cut and freeze rents.
- Apply and strictly enforce minimum quality standards on all rentals.
- Pressure the state government to step up and build masses of public housing, available to everyone, urgently.
I believe that collectivism and volunteerism are the essential building blocks of a healthy and successful society. When everyone's basic needs are met they are more able and more likely to give back to their community.
I give back by volunteering with the emergency services. I contributed 11 years service with the NSW SES, 9 years with the Rural Fire Service and I have been active for the last 2 years in my local CFA brigade.
I became a socialist because of my experiences in the SES and RFS; seeing how state governments in Australia abandon people as soon as the fire is out or the storm has passed, and seeing the terrible state of our crumbling public housing radicalised me to demand more.
Australia is an extremely wealthy country, we have enough to go around and to ensure nobody is living in poverty. Capitalism is not designed to provide a good life for everyone, it will always result in the same outcomes where the cruelest and greediest people end up on top of the pile and the majority of workers are forced to struggle.
We need to choose a better way forward and we must put socialists in parliament to agitate for this change, to spread socialist politics to a wide audience and to hold the major parties accountable.
If elected in November, I will fight back against the dominant interests of the rich and fight for a better, fairer, socialist Victoria.