The Victorian state election will be held on Saturday, 28 November. To date, most of the coverage of the election has been focused on the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. If, as predicted, the party gains a breakthrough vote—perhaps even enough to strong-arm its way into a coalition government with the Liberals—it will be big news. One Nation would likely cement its spot as a genuine third force in mainstream politics and gain further momentum to take it through to the NSW state election in March 2027 and the next federal election, due by May 2028.
In the face of this, the increasingly unpopular Labor government is preparing to wage a classic, US Democrat-style “lesser evil” campaign—arguing that everyone who opposes One Nation must vote for Labor as the least-worst option among prospective parties of government.
We’ve seen in country after country, though, that attempts by traditionally dominant capitalist parties to head off the threat posed by the far right by doubling down on the neoliberal status quo have only added fuel to the fire. Parties like Labor are incapable of pushing back the far right for the simple reason that they don’t offer anything that will improve the lives of working-class people and address the anger many feel.
What’s needed isn’t more of the same from a now almost 12-year-old Labor government that has failed working-class people and the oppressed in so many ways. What’s needed is a political alternative that’s prepared forthrightly to call out the lies of the far right and point the finger at those who are actually responsible for things like the cost of living and housing crises: billionaires, big banks and property investors, the supermarket giants and other major corporations, and, of course, the major party politicians who have made it their life’s work to serve them.
That’s the alternative that Victorian Socialists will provide, and we’ll be doing it on a bigger scale than anything attempted by socialists in Australia for generations. We’re aiming to run candidates in all 88 of Victoria’s lower house seats, and a full suite of candidates in the upper house, ensuring that all Victorians have a chance to vote for a socialist alternative to the major parties and the far right. And between now and the election, we’ll be mobilising thousands of party activists across the state—talking to voters on their doorsteps, delivering letters, putting up yard signs and, come November, handing out how-to-vote cards at polling booths.
There are two sides to our campaign. One will focus on issues we know are driving the deep frustration many feel with today’s economic and political set-up. We’ll be talking about the obscene level of inequality in Victoria and Australia that has been growing year on year and decade on decade, no matter which of the major parties has been in power. We’ll be pointing out that while governments claim not to have enough money to spend on things like public housing, education and health care, the wealth of Australia’s billionaire class balloons to greater extremes every year.
We’ll be talking about the failures of neoliberal agenda of cuts and privatisation—subscribed to by Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation alike—that has laid waste to working-class communities across our state. We’ll point to the need for much greater investment in things like public transport, schools, hospitals and social services, and for measures—like bringing the energy system and other essential services back into public hands—that will rein in the relentless, out-of-control drive to private profit at the heart of capitalism and prioritise meeting human needs instead.
Our approach to the housing question is typical. As socialists, we don’t believe that meeting people’s need for shelter should be left to the whims of the capitalist market. Our goal is a society in which housing is no longer a commodity, but a universal right. As a step towards that, a centrepiece of our campaign will be the demand for the establishment of a public builder to construct 150,000 new, high-quality, sustainable public housing units over the next ten years. Not only will this ensure those currently experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity have a place to live, it will also put downward pressure on rents and home prices in the private market.
The other side of our campaign will be a vision of hope and solidarity—of a society run by and for the working class, one free from exploitation, oppression and the many other afflictions of capitalism today. We know many people feel disillusioned with politics and the prospect of winning anything like the change we need. We hope that our campaign can start to break down that sense of hopelessness, and make it clear that if we had people in parliament who would actually stand up to the billionaires and big corporate interests instead of pandering to their every need, things could be very different.
Beyond that, though, we also want to give working-class people a greater sense of their collective power—not only to resist this or that attack by the bosses or the government, but to topple their entire rotten system and build a better, fairer society in its place. We got a glimpse of that power on 23 July, when tens of thousands of Victorian public-school teachers and education support staff filled the streets in Melbourne’s CBD, striking for the second time this year. Our goal isn’t just to see socialists elected to parliament, but to spread the spirit of resistance we’ve seen from the teachers into every workplace, school, university and working-class community.
We’re confident our campaign will resonate with many people. Around the world, increasing numbers are realising that the multiplying and deepening crises we see around us—of inequality, the growth of the far right and outright fascist politics, genocide and the threat of global war, environmental destruction, or the epidemic of social dislocation, despair and mental ill health—aren’t unconnected, but are all the product of the destructive dynamics of capitalism. Increasing numbers are voting for and joining parties like Victorian Socialists that want to see a radical break with the rotten status quo.
No doubt One Nation’s performance will be a major story on election night. But if we can get the kind of result we think we’re capable of—one that’s impossible for election analysts and media commentators to ignore—it will give a major boost to our movement and our party not only in Victoria, but across Australia. And amid an otherwise bleak political landscape in which the far right is increasingly ascendant, this would be a small but significant win.
James Plested is the Victorian Socialists communications director. The party’s election campaign launch will take place on Saturday, 1 August, from 4pm at the Aboriginal Advancement League in Thornbury.
