Victorian Socialists

Victorian Socialists
Leader	Collective leadership
President	Andrew Charles
Secretary	Corey Oakley
Founded	5 February 2018; 3 years ago (2018-02-05)
Registered	6 June 2018; 3 years ago (2018-06-06)
Headquarters	Victorian Trades Hall, Carlton, Melbourne
Ideology	Democratic socialism[1] Anti-capitalism[2]
Political position	Left-wing[3][4][5]
Colours	Black and white
Slogan	"People before profit"
Local government	1 / 635
Website
www.victoriansocialists.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

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The Victorian Socialists (VS) are a democratic socialist political party based in the Australian state of Victoria. It was founded in February 2018 as an electoral alliance of various socialist organisations and individuals from trade unions, community groups, and progressive movements, aiming to elect socialists at the federal, state, and local council level.

The party contested the 2018 state election and the 2019 federal election but did not secure a seat in either parliament. As of November 2020, the party is represented in local government on the Maribyrnong City Council by Socialist Alternative member Jorge Jorquera.

History[]

The Victorian Socialists began as a collaboration between Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Alliance, and individuals not aligned with either group.^[6] Socialist Alliance withdrew from the grouping in May 2020.^[7]

The party's formation was announced publicly on 5 February 2018.^[8] It was officially registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission on 6 June 2018.^[9]

In August 2018, the party announced that it would field candidates for the 2018 Victorian state election in every Legislative Council seat and several Legislative Assembly electorates. Candidates included the former Geelong Trades Hall Secretary Tim Gooden for the Western Victoria Region and local councillors Stephen Jolly and Sue Bolton for the Northern Metropolitan Region.^[10][11]

The 2018 election campaign gained support from several trade unions including the ETU, VAHPA, UFU, CFMMEU (MUA division), AMIEU and NUW.^[12][13][14] It also won the support of several local immigrant diasporas and community organisations.^[15][16] Endorsements were received from several prominent left-wing personalities, such as Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Gary Foley, Tom Ballard, Corrine Grant, and Helen Razer. The party achieved a vote of 4.2% in the Northern Metropolitan Region while achieving 7.2% of the vote for the lower house seat of Broadmeadows, in a field of four candidates.^[17][18]

In the 2019 federal election, VS ran candidates for the electorates of Calwell, Wills, and Cooper.^[19] The party was registered at a federal level with the Australian Electoral Commission on 7 April 2019.^[20] The party won votes of 4.6% in Calwell, 4.5% in Wills, and 4.2% in Cooper.

In September 2019, following allegations of family violence, Jolly was suspended from VS pending an investigation, leading him to resign from the party.^[21][22]

In the 2020 Victorian local government elections, the party fielded candidates for Darebin, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melbourne and Moreland, and a ticket for the Lord and Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne.^[23][24] Socialist Alternative member Jorge Jorquera became the first Victorian Socialists candidate to be elected to office, winning a seat on the Maribyrnong City Council.^[25][26]

Policies[]

Federal[]

The party's policies include:^[27]

• A more progressive tax system and a wealth tax on "the super rich".
• Abolishing the GST.
• Ending subsidies for the mining, banking, and energy private sector.
• Public ownership of energy, public transport, aged care, childcare, hospitals, vocational training and disability services
• Reversing historical government privatisation.
• Removing anti-union laws, reversing casual employment trends, and implementing a right to strike.
• Implementing a guaranteed retirement age of 60 with universal access to an aged pension.
• Creating a bill of rights.
• Negotiating a treaty "to respect Aboriginal sovereignty and land rights".
• Abolishing the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
• Repealing data retention laws.
• Implementing a voting age of 16 years old.
• Abolishing co-payments to "restore free, universal health care" and implementing free dental care.
• Implementing a National Broadband Network with fibre-to-the-premises.
• Re-instating the Commonwealth Employment Service to assist with finding employment, and abolishing Job Network.
• Removing Work for the Dole and "other forms of welfare quarantining".

State[]

Victorian Socialists launched its 2018 election manifesto on 24 August at the Brunswick Town Hall, outlining a broadly left-wing and socialist vision. It is based on broad principles of public ownership, workers' rights and equality.^[28][29] The party's policies include:

• Support for ongoing Victorian Government reforms, including limiting rent rises per year, limiting bond to 4 weeks' rent and the abolition of no reason vacancy notices
• Five-year freeze on rent increases and subsequent rent increases to be indexed to the Consumer Price Index
• 50,000 new public housing units over the next five years
• Public ownership of energy, public transport, aged care, childcare, hospitals, vocational training and disability services
• Large-scale public investment and cessation of subsidies to private companies
• Stopping public funding of private schools and greater funding of public schools
• Restore full funding for free and public TAFE
• Increase in sector-wide bargaining powers of trade unions and protection of the right to strike
• Addressing crime through addressing root causes such as housing, education and employment
• Large-scale public investment in renewable energy

COVID-19[]

In 2020, the party announced its positions responding to key COVID-19 challenges faced by society.^[30][31]

• Access to high-quality healthcare, education (schools and higher education), childcare, utilities (energy, water, NBN, gas), roads, public transport, are all basic human rights and should be free
• Nationalise all essential industries
• Government takeovers not corporate bailouts for all big companies that require government money to survive
• Jobs in the significantly expanded public sector must be secure, permanent, well-paid jobs, with conditions protected by fighting unions
• Tax the rich. Massively increase corporate taxes and income tax on the very high-income earners. 50 per cent wealth tax on anyone with assets over $10 million
• The travel ban has led to a massive crisis in the higher education sector. The Federal government must step in to fully fund higher education
• Ban evictions & suspend rent payments for all those without a steady income
• Free childcare should be maintained after the pandemic and the childcare system overhauled by ending privatisation and providing 24-hour childcare to meet the needs of shift workers
• Oppose all industrial relations reforms that reduce workers’ rights. Restore and expand workers rights to collective bargaining and to strike
• Defend the right to protest safely and take industrial action
• Take over private hospitals and integrate them into the public health system

Electoral results[]

Federal[]

Election	Votes	Victoria		Australia		+/–
		%	Seats	%	Seats
2019	12,454	0.34	0 / 38	0.09	0 / 150	0

Victoria[]

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of seats won	+/–
2018	15,442	0.44 (#9)	0 / 88	0
Victorian Legislative Council
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of seats won	+/–
2018	32,603	0.91 (#12)	0 / 40	0

Notable members[]

See also[]

• Socialism in Australia

References[]

Further reading[]