I want to see change that puts human need above business as usual.
Hi, I’m Lauren (she/ they), and I’m running as the Victorian Socialists candidate for Sandringham in the state election because I want to see change that puts human need above business as usual.
I have grown up in the local area, living here for over 20 years. I will push for the removal of the dangerous level crossing at Highett Station. We need to protect our green spaces, and parklands.
I have been a public servant for the last four years, and am active in my trade union, the Community Public Sector Union (CPSU) and am a delegate in my workplace. I support union principles of solidarity, and collective action to improve worker’s pay and conditions, and will fight for social justice.
Working people are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis that has seen rent become unaffordable, food, bills and transport prices explode and just day-to-day living becoming more of a grind, more stressful without money left over for the things that make life enjoyable.
The thing is, we aren’t all doing it tough. In 2025 the wealth of the richest 500 people in the world increased by 3.3 trillion Australian dollars. The divide between the haves and the have nots grows every year.
I think this frustration, and feelings of powerlessness are driving the community to want a change from Liberal and Labor whom have drifted so far to the right they are out of touch with regular people.
With the rise of the far right internationally and closer to home, the rise of One Nation concerns me - Hanson is using racism and bigotry to scapegoat refugees, Muslims, and migrants for social problems, like housing affordability and secure employment that are firmly the fault of the billionaire class and their bi-partisan politician lackeys.
Pauline Hanson wants to attack welfare in ways that will disproportionately attack working and poor women. Hanson has a track record of voting against worker’s rights, eroding unfair dismissal laws, going after penalty rates, and generally pushing a pro-boss agenda, which is unsurprising since she answers to Gina Rinehart.
Victorian Socialists offer an alternative. We will fight for more public housing, oppose privatisation, and enhance public services while taxing the billionaire class. We will fight for more funding for public health care and education, as these issues are our priorities.
Victorian teachers and education support staff need better pay, smaller class sizes and maintaining caps on face-to-face teaching hours, and improving public school facilities. It’s a disgrace that private schools get more government funding than public schools.
More funding for health care to eliminate out- of-pocket expenses. Scrap NDIS and bring disability services back under an expanded universal health care system that nationalises GP services. Free child care 5 days a week, and fully government funded aged care services.
Rather than building prisons and spending on endless war, and bringing in Trump-style politics that strips rights from minorities and divides and rules us, Victorian Socialists see our diversity as our strength. We want participation and engagement of ordinary people in how they want their society to be.
We are an organisation of volunteers, unionists, and workers, who can’t rely on billionaires to fund us, or favourable Murdoch press coverage. We are the teachers, nurses and public servants, and progressive community-minded people, who like you are baring the brunt of Australia’s role funding and supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the US-Israel war of aggression in Iran. We are the volunteers who are knocking or your doors and wanting to engage with you and amplify your concerns.
Welfare payments were below the poverty line before the cost-of-living crisis and now they are woefully inadequate. The 2025 Anglicare Housing Affordability snapshot found that less than 0.1 percent of private rentals are affordable to people on government payments.
In 2025 a quarter of renters spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent alone. Rent assistance hasn’t increased proportionally with spiralling rental costs. Centrelink payments should be increased above the poverty line. For housing affordability, Victorian Socialists propose rent freezes, and to build a lot more public housing, and legislative changes to prevent developers from hoarding empty homes. We shouldn’t have to be choosing between food or bills. Housing is a basic right and should be affordable for everyone.
Supermarket giants have been getting away with price gouging. We are for providing food staples at cost prices so ordinary people won’t have to fret where their next meal is coming from.
I’ve been involved in my union, and a workplace delegate numerous times. I have organised a campaign against the privatisation of a former workplace, and more recently been on strike as a public servant. I have been an activist for 15 years which has helped inform my way of leadership. I’ve been involved in student politics against education cuts, action on climate change, and anti-war demonstrations. I stand for social justice; refugee, LGBTI rights, and Palestine. I look to the collective power of working people to transform society.
I’m running because I want to be part of an organisation that doesn’t just talk the talk but walks the walk. Victorian Socialists will speak truth to power and build a movement that can take on big business, so we can all have a decent life.