This May, the federal election will take place and Victorian Socialists will be standing candidates in Cooper, Fraser, Scullin and Bendigo, as well as in the Senate.

Labor, like the Coalition before them, has governed in the interests of the big business and the super-rich. They’ve stood by while a cost of living crisis driven by corporate profiteering has trashed workers’ living standards. And they’ve done nothing to address the multiple, deepening crises of capitalist society that are putting our collective future at risk.

Things could, and should, be very different. Victorian Socialists stand for a society in which working-class people have a direct say in the big economic and political decisions that shape our lives—one where everyone, no matter what their circumstances, has a chance to live a decent life. The capitalists and their political servants say it’s not possible. We’re told society “can’t afford” things like secure housing for all, well funded public education and healthcare, or serious action on the climate and environmental crisis. It’s a lie.

Australia is among the wealthiest countries on Earth, and there’s more than enough money to build the kind of society we want to see. The problem is that under the current system an ever greater portion of our wealth and resources are being concentrated in the hands of the richest few. And instead of using it to the benefit of society, they’re focused on further enriching themselves at the cost of everyone else.

Victorian Socialist representatives in parliament will fight to change that, and to win the kind of society working-class people need and deserve.

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Housing for all

Victorian Socialists stand for renters, and for all those struggling just to keep a roof over their heads. Secure, quality housing should be a right, not a money-making opportunity for the rich.

Since coming to power in 2022 Labor has done nothing to address the inhuman irrationality of a housing system that funnels wealth from the least well off people in society to the wealthiest, and consigns increasing numbers to extreme housing insecurity or homelessness.

Even among those who can find a place to live, many are struggling. Rents are soaring and working-class home buyers are being crushed by high interest rates - while landlords and banks are enjoying a profit windfall.

Every year, the gap between the housing ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ widens. If left unaddressed this deepening inequality will have repercussions across all aspects of society for many years to come.

Reflecting our commitment to fighting for housing justice, we recently established a new party rule that no landlords will be eligible to run in elections as a Victorian Socialists candidate. Real change won’t come through the parliament of landlords that rules over us today.

Tax corporations and the super-rich

Australia is one of the richest places in the world, endowed with natural resources, farmlands and advanced technologies in every industry. There is more than enough for everyone to lead a comfortable life.

The problem is that our resources are unevenly distributed: all the things we need to provide for society are in the hands of private industry, whose main priority is to make profits for themselves.

The result is tremendous inequality. We need wealth redistribution to make sure everyone has a good life, not just the rich. To do that, we need to raise extra government revenues from big businesses and the ultra-wealthy to fund projects and services that meet the needs of everyone.

Public ownership of essential resources and services

To solve the key crises facing modern capitalism we need to take economic and political power out of the hands of private corporations and their political servants. We must reverse privatisation and bring the key sectors of the economy under social control to reorganise the economy in the interest of people and the planet rather than profits.

Opposing war

International tensions are rising. This is leading to more wars, tighter border controls, economic nationalism, and increased military spending.

Australia’s role in all this has thus far been shaped by our alliance with the United States, the most powerful and murderous nation the world has ever seen. This has led to Australia’s shameful involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our aggressive intervention in a range of Pacific Island nations, and our continued support for Israel.

Worst of all, the Liberal and Labor parties have signed on to the AUKUS agreement, which requires us to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in exchange for nuclear-powered attack submarines. These submarines, and the AUKUS policy more generally, have nothing to do with defence, and instead are about empowering the US to target China more aggressively. It places Australia in the middle of a great power rivalry that threatens a catastrophic world war.

Defending and extending workers’ and union rights

Workers are more productive than ever – so why are we often working harder, for longer, in less secure jobs? The retirement age keeps being pushed higher but hundreds of thousands of people in work can’t get enough hours.

We need to stop deregulation and casualisation, and instead use every means to improve wages and conditions for workers. Even more important, workers need to act collectively – to organise and strike against exploitation and injustice in the workplace.

Real action on climate and environmental crisis

Australia is among the world’s worst climate and environmental criminals. Neither the Coalition nor Labor will take the action required to change this. The major parties, in fact, are part of the problem.

Promises of “net zero emissions by 2050” are a recipe for disaster. They are designed to give the impression of action while allowing the environmentally destructive reliance on fossil fuels to continue indefinitely.

We need to take action based on what is necessary to avert climate catastrophe, not just what is palatable to the corporate lobbyists that have prevented real climate action for the last three decades.