My name is Julien and I'm the Victorian Socialists candidate for Williamstown.
Growing up in the Philippines, I was surrounded by poverty and environmental devastation. I was still in primary school when I decided I needed to do something to change things for the better, campaigning for authorities to address the toxic contamination of our local waterways.
My family came here on a 457 visa after my Dad, a linesman, was sponsored by one of the electricity companies. We’ve been luckier than others. When there were mass layoffs in the energy industry in 2015, our friends - who were under the same visa scheme and had spent all their life savings to migrate - were forced to leave Australia. They went from skilled migrants building a new life to being put on the scrapheap in the space of a year.
Melbourne isn’t the Philippines. But it was a reminder that working people are treated as dispensable everywhere. There are other similarities: people with lots of money live differently to those of us without much of it, the natural environment is sacrificed so that some company can make a quick buck, and the politicians pay themselves too much and always side with the powerful.
That’s why I’m running with Victorian Socialists. The capitalist society we live in is founded on the exploitation of both the environment and working people. But there are lots of things we could do right now to make our city better for everyone: a Melbourne with less wealth inequality, a cleaner environment and more public infrastructure.
I’m running with Victorian Socialists because socialists fight to put people before profits.