The statement below was released by the Socialist Alliance on June 5.
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Liah Lazarou has been pre-selected by the Socialist Alliance to run for the seat of Adelaide in the federal election in September.
Lazarou is a communications student and a committed grassroots activist. She has been involved in organising workers, students and young people as a member of the Socialist Alliance since 2006.
“People are becoming more disengaged from the two major parties that represent the interests of the 1% corporate elite,” Lazarou said. “We are running to show there is a real alternative that is based in grassroots activism and social justice. The Socialist Alliance is for the millions, not the millionaires.”
Lazarou has played an active role in the feminist movement in Adelaide as well as being involved in anti-war and international solidarity campaigns.
As a single mother, she will support the local campaign to reverse welfare payment cuts to sole parents.
“The recent cuts by the Gillard government further entrench poverty and disproportionately affect women. This policy is steeped in misogyny and must be reversed.”
The Socialist Alliance opposes all attacks on welfare, including the recent introduction of compulsory income management in prescribed areas, and calls for Newstart payments to be raised to a liveable level.
“It is appalling that while the government is cutting welfare payments for the most vulnerable in our society, they continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industry to the tune of billions of dollars per year.”
The Socialist Alliance election campaign will focus on a call to nationalise the mining, energy and banking sectors. “Community ownership and control is needed in these areas to defend the environment and social justice, and to ensure respect for indigenous rights,” Lazarou said.
“Nationalising these key industries, taxing the rich and cutting subsidies to fossil fuel industries would allow us to make large-scale investments in renewable energy infrastructure, such as building a concentrating solar thermal power station in Port Augusta. This would create more than 1800 local jobs and begin to address the climate change crisis.”