Hope and compassion are needed in politics now more than ever, and I’m running with the Greens in Murray Plains for politics that puts people over profit and protects our rights, public services and planet.

We have a plan to make life affordable and look after our environment, funded by making big corporations pay their fair share.

Over the last two years, I have proudly advocated as your councillor for investment in public housing in regional communities, and the Greens are committing $4 billion to building, maintaining and upgrading public housing across Victoria, with more investment over time.

We’ll also freeze and cap rent increases so they never rise faster than wages, ensuring renters aren’t priced out of their communities.

I was renting in Rochester when the floods hit four years ago and I had to evacuate before the flood waters hit my home.

Climate change doesn’t just exacerbate floods, fires and storms, it increases energy and insurance costs and damages our public assets.

The Greens will ban oil and gas drilling in our oceans, establish a $1 billion climate adaptation fund for communities impacted by disasters, and invest $200 million in replacing ageing fire trucks.

We’ll invest an extra $2 billion in the State Electricity Commission (SEC) for clean public renewable energy and establish a publicly owned energy retailer, cutting out corporate profits to deliver cheaper energy.

Because AI data centres threaten our energy supply and affordability, I’m also calling for a moratorium on new developments.

Looking after our environment doesn’t just mean fighting AI data centres that threaten our water and energy, it means caring for country and protecting our rivers and wetlands.

The Greens will establish a $2 billion seed fund to reverse Labor’s cuts to nature protection and support First Nations-led work restoring country.

This will create secure, long-term jobs in environmental restoration, with funding that survives budget cycles.

Traversing Murray Plains are train lines to both Echuca and Swan Hill, but public transport in rural towns shouldn’t mean only a few services a day to Melbourne and back.

We deserve frequent, free, reliable and really useful trains and buses.

The Greens will invest $245 million to run regional trains and coaches more often, and $270 million to improve bus services so people can travel affordably between our towns.

Travelling on our roads should not only be affordable, it should be safe.

I believe we can ensure well-maintained roads by bringing VicRoads back into public hands.

We’ll establish an urgent inquiry to return Vicroads and road maintenance to public ownership, while reinvesting savings into fixing potholes on country roads.

This may be ambitious politics - but it’s what Murray Plains deserves, and we can afford it if we make those at the top pay up.

We’ll put a quarterly levy of 0.1% on Victoria’s share of bank liabilities, raising an extra $3 billion each year targeting ANZ, CommBank, Westpac, NAB and Macquarie.

We’ll also apply an ultra-wealth tax on property investors who own property investment portfolios worth over $5 million, raising $500 million a year; as well as a tax on the windfall profits of property developers when land is rezoned.

We’ll double the royalties on coal and gas, raising $80 million extra a year, and we’ll generate more than $2 billion a year by increasing taxes on online gambling to 25% and pokies to 75%, doubling the tax on table games at casinos, and stopping our revenue from going to racing.

We can afford to have compassion and hope for a better future.

If we appropriately tax the corporations who make the biggest profits, we can bring down prices and make life more affordable for everyone.

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Monday, 1st March 2027

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