Richard Mann

My name is Richard Mann, Victorian Socialists candidate for Eastern Victoria.

While I am now retired nearly all my working life I have been involved in preserving hard won conditions and improving safety on our worksites.

My grandfather was declared socialist after witnessing war and the Great Depression. He said to me regarding job security and employment that "if we throw people on the scrap heap we still need to house them, provide transport, food, healthcare and educate their children. Then we give them meagre handouts without the dignity of work".

This notion has been with me all my life. It is why Victorian Socialists get my support. Labor and the Greens have looked on as the privatisation of national assets has occurred and working conditions and penalty rates have been eroded. Meanwhile corporations and wealthy individuals pay little or no tax.

For a number of years I worked for the largest environmental group in the world and remain convinced that global warming, soil degradation, factory farming and the subsequent species loss on land and sea are huge issues for our world. Money for environmental defence should come from reducing the world's military and taxing the rich. Meanwhile at home we need to support the notion of free education, healthcare, and more public housing.

Never has there been a more critical time to evaluate the failings of rampant capitalism.