Socialist Alliance (SA) launched its Victorian election campaign on June 13 for four lower house seats across the region.
SA’s campaign slogan is “Fighting for People, NOT the Billionaires”. The state election is on November 28.
The candidates addressed a packed room at Geelong Trades Hall, where Solidarity Slushies and homemade hors d’oeuvres were the order of the evening.
Sarah Hathway, standing for the seat of Lara, said the campaign is focused on solutions to state and federal governments attacks on healthcare. She said federal, state and local governments are wrongly focused on boosting weapons manufacturing to the detriment of people’s everyday needs.
“Many health unions, including nurses, allied health professionals, healthcare workers and support staff, admin and, now, medical scientists, have taken industrial action across Victoria,” said Hathway, a former councillor in the Geelong City Council. They are not just focused on pay, while that is important, they are worried about the poor state of our public healthcare system,
“Many in the room know that public healthcare is chronically underfunded. It relies on goodwill from a largely feminised workforce, who work unpaid overtime to hold a failing system together.” Hathway said this is one of the reasons driving her to run.
Dom Williams, running in Bellarine, Brenden Grull, running in Geelong and Freya Hedley, running in South Barwon, also spoke about the need for governments to fund housing, the need to address the rising cost of living and how the federal government’s cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme will impact Victoria’s health services and budget.
Sue Bolton, a long-term SA Merri-bek City Councillor and SA candidate for the seat of Broadmeadows, said the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in the polls is a reminder that the need to popularise socialist solutions is even more urgent.
Bolton said racism and right-wing populism underpin Hanson’s policies for the rich. She said that involving more people in campaigns for housing for all and refugee rights are how progressive movements can stem the rise of the extreme right in all its forms.
[Get in touch if you can help out the Socialist Alliance campaign in Djilang.]