Our Vision for Victoria
- THE RIGHT to a child care place; the right to a public hospital bed; the right to free public transport.
- PROTECTION from unchecked high rise development like Salta and Banco.
- SECURITY from Howard’s IR laws.
- JUSTICE for public housing tenants.
Vote 1 Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party Candidate for the Seat of Richmond

The current Labor State Government is in the pockets of developers and big business. They are addicted to spin instead of policies that improve the quality of life for ordinary Victorians. Every month the government spend $118,000 on consultants and even more on marketing. This neglect of ordinary people has led to:

• Students attending hundreds of schools that desperately need capital works.

• Massive queues at our hospitals run by understaffed and underpaid nurses.

• A government that is addicted to the taxes from the pokie industry and therefore refuses to act decisively to stop them. Pokies took $2.5 billion out of mainly poor families’ income last year.

• Systematic neglect of public housing tenants. We have less public housing now than when Bracks was first elected in 1999.

• A planning system that is biased towards developers and uses an undemocratic VCAT process to override the views of residents and Councils.

Our State member in Richmond, Richard Wynne, is not taken seriously by his colleagues in government. They continue to allow high rise development, like Banco and Salta, and continue to cut services in our area. We need a strong MP who will be our representative in government, not a government apologist in our area.

The Liberal opposition are no better than Labor. In the 1990s, for example, they closed over 350 schools including many in our area. The Greens have a progressive image but in power they follow the same policies as the major parties.

For example, in Melbourne City Council, the Green Councillor has voted to hand over its child care from Council-run to the not-for-profit sector. This will potentially have negative implications in terms of cost and workers’ wages. In Moonee Valley Green Councillors have hidden behind an incorrect interpretation of the Local Government Act and refused to fight management’s attack on the wages and conditions of librarians.

In the lower house seat of Richmond, voters have a real choice in the form of Socialist Party Councillor Stephen Jolly. Stephen has the track record and policies that will earn much support.

A socialist in parliament would really shake up Victorian politics and ensure that the people of that area are loudly heard and better represented. The current ALP MP either ignores the views of his community or, when he does take up their concerns, is ignored by his government.

Stephen and the SP team have the only realistic policies to reverse the economic rationalist direction of the past years. Stephen has shown he can win victories and strongly advocate for working people in our community.

Socialist Party Policies and the Socialist Party Record

Child care

Childcare is in crisis. There is much the State government can do to ease the problem. A place in a child care centre costs up to $110 a day - if you can find one!
Federal government child care funding has not gone into the creation of new places, but rather into rebates which have encouraged private operators to hike up their fees, while reducing the quality of care. Eddie Groves the owner of the largest operator, ABC Learning, sits on wealth of $146 million.

What we say

• Support Councils in building new childcare centres to provide quality places.

• Free child care onsite for all State government employees. Change planning laws to ensure new large developments contribute to an increase of child care places in the area.

• Work with community child care groups to pressure the Federal government to create new not-for-profit childcare centres that are free and fully funded. This will ease the supply crisis.

•Implement an immediate health and safety audit of all child care centres in Victoria, especially those that exist to make money.

•We support decent pay and qualifications for childcare workers. For a minimum wage of $20 an hour plus penalty rates.

What we’ve done

Stephen Jolly is the voice of child care on Yarra Council. Stephen and SP have led the fight for more child care places in Yarra. We helped organise a noisy lobby of 150 kids and parents to a Council meeting last year that led to a significant increase in places at Council-run child care centres. We have been active in the fight to save St. Andrews Kindergarten in Clifton Hill.

We are currently campaigning to get the funding necessary to keep the North Fitzroy Holden St Neighbourhood House (and its child care places) alive. We have helped the fight for more funding for child care centres in Richmond in the past 12 months.

Health

Access to a hospital bed and decent health care should be a basic human right. The Federal government’s undermining of bulk billing and Medicare and the State government’s lack of support for the public health system is a significant threat to the well-being of Victorians.

Both governments have a love affair with economic rationalism, and cuts to public spending on health. If nothing is done to stop them, we will end up with a US-style health system, a system where the rich can afford decent services and the poor have to put up with a ‘3rd world’ system. Today some children are waiting over 2 years for an operation at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

What we say

• Increase the number of beds. For a hospital building programme to be launched.
The right to a hospital bed for all Victorians, whatever their economic status or age.

• Increase funding on dental health to eat into the long waiting lists.

• Provide extra resources for Community Health Centres in Yarra.

• Maintain and extend the Maternal and Child Health and early childhood services

• Expansion in quality provision of refuges and social housing. Secure increased funding for women’s health centres and counselling services for rape victims and for women and children in refuges, including long term housing. For preventative education in schools about domestic violence.

• Support progressive programs to target depression and causes of substance abuse

• Implement a harm minimisation strategy for both legal and illegal drug use. This would be aligned to a massive education campaign. Increase funding for counselling and comprehensive support services for families/partners with a family member who has addiction issues.

• Immediately increase the number of mental health places and services. Stop prisons becoming the new institutions for people with mental health issues.

What we’ve done

The Socialist Party has worked actively on campaigns for an equitable, free and accessible health care system. We were at the forefront of the Defend & Extend Medicare Campaign to put free, accessible health care on the agenda.

The Socialist Party is the only political party to tackle the issues of safe drug use in the community. During the 1990’s when many young people lost the lives to heroin, the Socialist Party initiated the building of the Community Campaign for Heroin Reform. This was a campaign to force the Government to acknowledge the current drug crisis as a health & social issue rather than an issue of crime.

We have campaigned for the opening of safe injecting rooms to reduce the number of overdoses as well as the creation of jobs and other rehabilitation programmes. We fought for funding for progressive programmes, a commitment that far outreaches the Green Party. State Labor has continued to reduce funding for these programmes, with outreach services chronically stretched.

Aged care and carers

All aged Victorians deserve the right to respect. This means quick access to a hospital bed when required and access to quality aged care facilities. Carers of aged, disabled and young people - should be accorded similar respect as well as decent pay and conditions.

There are too many cases of inadequate care of the elderly, including cases of neglect and abuse. We need to take responsibility at every level of government. The current crisis in care is another example of neo-liberal governments subsidising private operators, while care is severely compromised. Profits are incompatible with quality care.

What we say

• Ensure a minimum wage for carers of no less than $20 an hour plus penalty rates.

• Introduce a respite entitlement for carers for a minimum of six weeks per year.

• Substantially increase the number of places for crisis and emergency supported accommodation.

• Immediately repeal new Victorian government regulations that free hostels from requirement to ensure that dangerous medications are only administered by a qualified nurse. We need further safeguards to ensure care standards are met.

What we’ve done

SP has campaigned hard for both workers rights and against cuts to the health and welfare system. We support a living pension for elderly people with increases linked to inflation.

Public Transport

In the past, public transport (PT) made Melbourne ‘the liveable city’. The Bracks government has made it a second priority to cars. The State government is planning to put a tunnel at Clifton Hill linking the Eastern Freeway to the West. This will suck in more cars, lead to greater air pollution and cause more accidents. No city in the world has solved its congestion problems by building more roads. Yet the Government is planning to pour over $1 billion into increasing capacity on the Monash and Westgate Freeways. We need more public transport not freeways.

Unlike some other countries in the world where you can catch a train every 10 minutes from early morning till late at night, the waiting times for PT in Melbourne are terribly long and inconsistent. Private operators have taken out stops to meet their time targets, which is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

There are also fewer stops and services and not enough integration between services. For example, there is tram access to Victoria Gardens shopping centre from east/west, but nothing from the north or south as the bus service along Burnley St was shut down 15 years ago.

Due to staff cuts at stations, removal of conductors on trams, and long waits between trains, people feel unsafe using public transport. Private sector ownership of public transport has not worked. The cost of privately-run PT in Melbourne is too high, both for users and taxpayers. In the last six years the Government has handed over $3 billion of Victorian’s money in subsidies to the private operators while the service has gone backwards - this is inefficient corporate welfare.

What we say

• An immediate moratorium on freeways.

• Refuse to renew franchises for Connex and Yarra Trams when they run out in 2008.

• Prepare a new accountable and responsive public transport agency to take control of the trains and trams in 2008.

• Redirect the money currently pumped into the bank accounts of Connex and Yarra Trams to improve safety, create extra services and lines to outer metropolitan and regional Victoria, bring back conductors on trams, and restaff all train stations.

• We call for fully integrated and funded public transport, under the democratic planning and control of elected bodies such as trade unions and community groups.

• Make public transport free to encourage greater use of the service with all the resulting benefits for the environment.

What we’ve done

Stephen and SP have fought on Yarra Council for a new approach to public transport and opposition to freeways. Early last year we narrowly lost a vote to establish a serious campaign to fight the freeway extensions in Melbourne that effect Yarra and to boost public transport. We have opposed Yarra Trams in their attempts to rip out two tram stops on Victoria Parade. In the 1990s we actively opposed the widening and extension of Alexandra Parade.

Planning

The State government is undermining our quality of life. Time and time again their part-time Planning Minister has approved unchecked and unpopular developments in our area. The State member Richard Wynne has, at best, been ignored by his colleagues.

Residents living around developments such as Banco and Salta will suffer because of the policies of the government, VCAT and ministerial rulings. These rulings override local planning laws in the name of 2030. This ‘plan’ squeezes more people into the inner city with no extra resources for social services and instead of more public transport in the outer suburbs. Local Councils are stopped from effectively protecting residents from dodgy development such as the Cheese Grater in North Fitzroy (even if Yarra’s ALP Councillors and its Planning Department wanted to!).

The Melbourne 2030 initiative of the Bracks Government shows contempt for the quality of life experienced by northern suburbs residents. Developed to prevent urban sprawl, 2030 is unclear in its objectives, failing to meet the needs of both inner-city and outer suburban residents. It has been a Manifesto for dodgy development.

What we say

• Call a summit that includes representation from planning groups, local Councils, building unions and government bodies to develop a new plan for Melbourne to replace ‘Melbourne 2030’. We need public transport and social services in the outer suburbs and clear and strict guidelines on development in the inner city.

• Give local Councils, under the guidance of the community, the right to decide on mandatory building heights for new developments. Scrap the unelected, undemocratic and expensive VCAT.

• Tie development rights with ecological restoration. Revoke the current planning system that allows the minister to override important conservation considerations

• Prevent current urban sprawl planning approvals; Initiate a state planning policy that integrates the expansion of public transport and schools/hospitals with all new development projects. Instead of unchecked inner city high rise development and instead of new suburbs in the outer metropolitan areas devoid of all services, we need planned development. Such a plan would ensure all new suburbs and all new city developments would have inbuilt social services, heritage protection, height limits and other protection for residents.

What we’ve done

No other party in this area has been as strong in their active support for the Collingwood residents in their fight against the Banco development. Today we actively support Richmond residents against the Salta development. We have locked horns on Council with the planning department and conservative Councillors who support 2030 and VCAT. We need an MP who is our representative with the State government on planning issues - not the State government’s representative in our area!

Industrial Relations

The State government can do a lot more to protect working people from the IR policies of John Howard. Because of the Work Choices legislation, workers now face greater job insecurity, lower pay, and a reduction in health and safety.

Instead of acting to protect Victorian workers, the Bracks government has come into conflict with its own employees such as teachers, nurses and fire fighters who have been seeking decent pay rises and better working conditions. The State government’s opposition to Howard is in words only and a half-hearted High Court challenge. They have refused to restore State awards because of a fear of scaring their friends in big business.

The ALP has proven time and time again that they put the interests of corporate Australia before those of working people. It’s no wonder, as companies like Tattersalls who control half the State’s pokie machines now pay tens of thousands of dollars every year to the ALP, much more than they donate to the Liberals.

What we need is to unite progressive unions and community groups as well as parties like SP to form a new workers’ party. SP is working towards making this happen.

What we say

• We need State government action to protect government employees and contractors from Howard’s IR laws.

• The State government should introduce industrial manslaughter charges for negligent employers.

• A boost in jobs through more investment in public infrastructure. Our policies of boosting public transport, health and education will support this.

• A 35 hour week without loss of pay to share out available work - this will also create jobs.

What we’ve done

The Socialist Party has spearheaded initiatives on Yarra Council to not only protect workers directly employed by the Council but also to ensure that all contractors are covered by union agreements. This has given the Council the most pro-worker industrial relations policy in Australia, setting a new benchmark for others to follow.

The Socialist Party has also campaigned hard against John Howard’s IR laws. Stephen Jolly is an active union delegate in the CFMEU (Construction union). At the moment he is organising mostly casual building workers and has a long history in the trade union and workers movement.

Public Housing

The Government and Richard Wynne distort what they’re doing for Public Housing. They claim to have spent millions on upgrading public housing. The truth is they have to maintain their properties, by law - they’re the landlord. It’s costing millions because of more than 30 years of neglect by both Liberal and Labor governments.

Now they are handing over parts of our public housing to private developers. In Carlton up to 140 public housing places will be lost when that estate is redeveloped. Today there are 510 people living there, after development there will only be 371 public housing tenants. The Age (5th June) reports that the Richmond estate is next.

In the course of our work the Socialist Party has identified several other issues that are important to public housing tenants. For example under this government the Office of Housing has developed a questionable relationship with IT provider Infoxchange. It guarantees near monopoly conditions for this nominally not-for-profit company which is accountable to no one. Infoxchange provides appalling service and gouges outrageous prices out of a captive market.

The State government has also stopped funding and threatened the future of the Collingwood Community Information Centre. They only changed their minds after an angry community backlash.

It is also clear that resident associations are under threat. Instead of undermining them, the Office of Housing must demonstrate real support for the residents associations. The Residents Associations need fulltime staff to do their job properly. Everyone else who works on the estates gets paid, but our elected resident representatives who work full time, get nothing and are ignored by the Office of Housing.

The government has boasted of giving money to the North Richmond Community Health Centre for re-development. The truth is they want to move the Health Centre to a worse site.

What we say

• Stephen Jolly and SP will strive to have community-run IT services on our public housing estates - this will provide jobs for residents and will put money back into our community.

• We support ongoing and guaranteed core funding for services on the estates. It is wrong that important services such as the Collingwood Community Information Centre have to beg for money every year.

• For the refurbishment of all units to be fast-tracked. Stop the private take-over of estates.

What we’ve done

Stephen Jolly’s work for public housing residents speaks for itself. SP and the community were instrumental in saving The Cottage child care centre in Fitzroy. SP is currently battling hard to keep the North Richmond Community Health Centre where it is.

Stephen and SP also helped save the Collingwood Community Information Centre. Numerous resident groups have received assistance from Stephen to gain funding and support.

Pokies

The State government is in bed with the pokie industry. We want to change the fact that 700,000 Victorians are negatively affected by pokies and 2.3% of adults are problem gamblers. Pokies have sucked $31 million out of the people of Yarra in the last year and it’s even worse in other areas. For every $1 million spent on pokies, 2.3 jobs are created, compared to 20.3 jobs created for every $1 million spent on other areas of the hospitality industry.

The winners are the two operators, Tattersall and Tabcorp. 43% of pokies revenue comes from people with problem gambling. These two companies want to maintain the problem, not fix it.

Up until now, pokies were treated like alcohol: some get ‘addicted’ to the product, but most can and do drink responsibly. Now we have evidence to show that pokies are more like heroin or tobacco in that the product itself is the problem.

The Council of Gambler’s Services in Victoria explain: “Internationally respected gambling expert, Prof Mark Dickerson, has recently shown that during pokie play up to 90% of users experience loss of control over the amount of time and money they spend. This is due to the rapid and continuous nature of pokie machines that interferes with normal decision making.”

The only argument left by the State governments in defence of pokies is that they themselves are addicted to the billions of dollars in tax revenue it generates.

What we say

• Refuse Tattersall and Tabcorp an extension on their contract to run the pokies in Victoria.

• Remove Tattersall and Tabcorp and bring the pokies into public ownership. This will have only the government and venues making profits from pokies. If this were done, the government would get 100% of the profits not 24.4% as they do now. This would also force the government to implement serious measures to deal with the crisis.

• Put universal limits on the amount a user can gamble, set before entering a venue. Ban ATMs in venues.

What we’ve done

SP has participated in the creation of Pokies Action, the new organisation campaigning against the State government blindly extending the licenses for Tattersall and Tabcorp. Stephen has helped ensure Yarra Council has a strong stance on pokies.

Environment

The need to reduce the massive impact big business is having on our environment is one of the most urgent issues for today. For government, this means environmental interests must be put before the interests of profit. The Bracks’ government claims it wants to “balance” economic and environmental concerns. In practice this has meant that the interests of business come first.

For example the government supports the dredging of Port Phillip Bay, they have failed to protect old growth forests from logging and they have supported the extension of the highly polluting Hazelwood power station. Bracks’ support for freeways instead of public transport has had a big impact on the quality of the air we breathe.

What we say

• Rather than putting business interests first, the Victorian government should be setting the highest possible environmental standards.

• Rule out new coal or nuclear power for Victoria. Stop the handouts to oil, gas and mining companies. Support a big increase for alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.

• Implement and legislate for energy efficiency measures such as mandatory solar energy efficient house design, enforced recycling and a state renewable energy target of 25 per cent by 2020.

• Investment in a publicly owned integrated public transport system to reduce vehicle use. This could make a substantial contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• Return essential public services (including transport, water and energy) to public hands. If energy utilities were taken back into public control, we could plan and ensure high standards of energy efficiency in the generation, transfer and usage of energy. We do not trust big business to put the environment before profits

What we have done

On Council, SP Councillor Stephen Jolly has waged a battle, often alone, on the need to introduce recycling for businesses in Yarra. SP has opposed Labor’s proposal to extend the Eastern Freeway via a tunnel at Clifton Hill. This will be lead to a massive increase in air pollution, extra cars into our area and more accidents.

The Socialist Party is fighting for an international socialist solution where planning could tackle the threat of global warming. Capitalism is a very wasteful system. On the basis of a different kind of society it would be possible to eliminate much of that waste.

A socialist society would put people’s needs and interests, immediate and long-term, before profit, for example through investment in renewable energy sources, such as wind, wave and solar power and new technologies.

Education

Well funded public education should be a basic right. Yet seven years after winning power, the State government has done little to fix the mess left by the Kennett years. Over 350 schools were closed in the 1990s but only a handful has been reopened by Bracks.

Victoria still remains the lowest spending state per student on education, spending some $650 less than the national average, despite the Bracks Government’s School Start Bonus. This ‘bonus’ is not only an inadequate approach to the crisis of funding in public education, but is also inequitable.

A recent survey of school principals revealed that 75% of public schools need a major upgrade in facilities, with basics such as classrooms and toilet blocks topping the list of priorities. Many schools are also increasingly relying on local fundraising to balance the books, not just to upkeep facilities but even to pay some teachers and staff.

The State government has also bitterly fought every attempt by teachers to attain pay to at least equal to their NSW colleagues, despite the growing teacher shortage.
Stop the sell off our schools. The Victorian State Labor government, are taking the same path as NSW and WA labour policies towards partial privatisation of public schools - including corporate sponsorship.

The current plan would see Victoria follow a design already used by the NSW Government, where schools are built and maintained by the private sector and leased back to the Government. Nine schools in NSW have already been built under the public-private model and another nine are planned, while Labor in WA have slashed resources for special needs education and teacher retention rates are at crisis point. Let’s not let the Victoria education system go the same way.

What we say

• Our children deserve equal access to quality schools, quality education for all not just the privileged few.

• Provide preschool education on a free and universal basis for all three and four year olds. Boost pay and recognition of professional status for preschool teachers.

• Provide real job security and professional support for teachers in order to address the chronic teacher shortage in Victoria. Currently 80% of new teachers are on contracts.

• Expand special setting education for students with learning and behaviour difficulties.

• Commit to reducing class sizes

• Initiate a massive school and TAFE college rebuilding programme to replace all run-down and temporary facilities.

• Immediately increase funding to TAFE colleges - We need to solve the skills shortage through training and better pay and conditions for apprentices and skilled workers. No more hand outs to employers use the money to fund the TAFE system.

What we’ve done

Stephen and the Socialist Party have been in the forefront of the education debate in this area. Right back in the early 1990s Stephen was the campaign co-ordinator of the heroic struggle to save Richmond Secondary College on the beautiful Yarra Boulevard site.

This successful 365 day occupation (actively supported by SP) led to the opening of Melbourne Girls College in 1994. What other political party in Richmond can claim such a record? Today Stephen has two children at a local state primary school and is actively involved in children’s sport programmes at local schools.

Our Candidate - Stephen Jolly

Stephen is a hard-working, effective and accessible local Councillor. He has put child care and public housing at the centre of the agenda. He was worked closely with residents to stop high rise developments like Banco and Salta. He will provide the leadership necessary to make the State government listen and act on local needs – something that Richard Wynne has failed to do.

SP - Accountable to working people

All Socialist Party members who are elected to public positions take only the average wage of a skilled worker. If elected Stephen will live on this wage plus bone fide expenses, audited independently and annually, with the excess being donated to the workers’ movement and community organisations.

Our party - The Socialist Party

The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth and has supporters in all states of Australia. SP is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 36 countries and works to unite the working class and oppressed peoples against global capitalism and to fight for a socialist world. The CWI currently has elected representatives in Australia, England & Wales, Germany, Pakistan, Southern Ireland, Sri Lanka and Sweden.

We are involved in trade union work and student work, we also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to overthrow the capitalist system. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction.

For more information about the Socialist Party or what we stand for contact the SP National Office.

Phone - 03 9639 9111

Web - www.socialistpartyaustralia.org

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