We need more public services and public housing, not increased spending on police, prisons, defence or deportations.
Hi, I'm Michal. I live locally with my child. I'm a community lawyer and every day I help people stand up to police and other government authorities when they've been unfairly treated because they were homeless, racialised, unwell, young, experiencing family violence, or protesting.
Our government criminalises poverty, race, youth, health issues and protest and recently made it much easier to search and lock young people up. In a cost of living and housing crisis this means more people are penalised for the government’s failure to meet their basic needs or for being oppressed already.
We should expect better than this. We need more public services and public housing, not increased spending on police, prisons, defence or deportations.
I am a supporter of Palestine and a trade unionist. I helped organise two workplace strikes for Gaza in the last 2 years, the only strikes for Gaza in Australia. We need to use our power as workers here like the millions of people in Italy who struck against the genocide in Gaza last year.
I helped fight for better pay and conditions for the community sector over the last few years and win a new leading multi-enterprise agreement this year that other workplaces can sign onto with a majority vote.
I think it is workers who can change things, not big business or government. We need more of us to fight public funding cuts, racism, and police brutality with Victorian Socialists, the left alternative to the other political parties so we can build a world for everyone, not just the rich.