Lachie McGennisken

Hi, I'm Lachie. I'm a support worker and a uni student, and I grew up in the Latrobe Valley and the Bass Coast.

The capitalist system in this country has never been kind to working-class people, and things are only getting worse. The cost of living is rising, and our essential services are underfunded. We need real investment in things our communities depend on to live a decent life - like better schools, more beds and healthcare workers in hospitals, and quality, publicly-run childcare and aged care facilities.

The coal industry in our own backyard is fuelling the climate crisis, with bushfires and storms increasingly wreaking havoc on the environment, and no genuine pathway to a sustainable future is being put forward by the major parties

Today, the stolen Aboriginal land that we call home has become a sanctuary for big business. Yet the far right vilifies migrants and workers while the billionaires and big corporations that exploit us get off scot-free. This needs to change.

We need a left-wing, socialist alternative to the mainstream parties and the racist, divide-and-rule politics of One Nation; one that will always fight on the side of workers and the oppressed, no matter where they are.

In parliament, that’s what I’d do.