Defend democracy and the right to protest

Victoria’s democratic system is broken. Rules that govern voting, party registration, political donations and transparency are geared to ensure the domination of the two major parties. The Victorian Labor government has also cracked down on the right to protest by strengthening police powers and applying criminal penalties to protest action. Victorian Socialists want to defend civil liberties and political rights, and we want to empower people to democratically control every part of social life.

What we think

Socialists defend democracy and want to extend it to every part of social life.
Capitalism is incompatible with genuine democracy because it establishes private, dictatorial control over the economy. This also means that capitalism constantly threatens limited, parliamentary democracy.
Socialists defend political rights, including freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of organisation.
Social rights, including the rights to food, housing, healthcare, education, must be instituted to maximise democratic participation and to create a more just, free and equal society.
Australia’s constitution, government, legal system and state institutions originated in British settler-colonialism, were built on the dispossession and genocide of Aboriginal people and are geared to serve the interests of capitalism. Consequently, they must be replaced.

We’ll fight to

Remove all legal restrictions on the right to protest and introduce greater protections for the right to protest.
Introduce laws protecting whistle-blowers and prohibit contracts and laws that prevent the disclosure of criminal or corrupt behaviour.
Introduce laws to protect the free speech of all workers including amending the VPS code of conduct.
Initiate a review of Victorian democratic institutions, with a view to considering alternative modes of election (for example, Mixed Member Proportional) and other reforms to ensure that the government better represents the views of voters.
Amend the Electoral Act to give all permanent residents the right to vote in state elections.
Reinstate multi-member wards in local council elections that better represent their communities.