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Victorian Socialists are running candidates across every Legislative Council region in Victoria and in more than a dozen Legislative Assembly seats. Below are the lead Victorian Socialists candidates for the upper house regions. To see the full list of candidates visit victoriansocialists.org.au

Northern Metropolitan Region

Stephen Jolly

Stephen led the fight against the Jeff Kennett government in 1992, with the defence and occupation of Richmond Secondary School, rallying community resistance against the attacks. He also led an equal pay campaign, compelling inner-city cafes and restaurants to commit to paying award rates to all staff.

He was elected to Yarra City Council in 2004, where he has fought for residents’ and council workers’ rights, resisted austerity cuts, opposed bad planning and the destruction of public housing, defended heritage and community control, and tackled racism and discrimination.

In 2014 he was a leader of the blockade campaign that defeated the East West Link.

Western Victoria Region

Tim Gooden

Tim is a former Geelong Trades Hall Council secretary and a lifelong trade unionist who has consistently fought for the rights of working class people.

Gooden has also been involved in many local social and environment campaigns. For the past five years, he has been a co-convener of the Combined Refugee Action Group in Geelong.

Eastern Victoria

Alisha Cruse

Alisha has lived in the Dandenong Ranges for 30 years. Before retiring last year she worked in the community sector, most recently with women exiting prison who were homeless.

Alisha is passionate about social justice issues, in particular refugee rights, our First Nations people and homelessness. She has been involved in many campaigns including No McDonalds in the Dandenong Ranges, the occupation of public housing and many picket lines. 

Western Metropolitan

Jorge Jorquera

Jorge arrived in Australia as a child after fleeing the military dictatorship in Chile with his family. At the University of Queensland he was elected secretary of the student union and became a national leader of the campaign to defend free education.

He has been a socialist organiser, trade unionist and community activist for more than 30 years. In recent years, as a university educator, parent, school council president and teacher, Jorge has been especially active campaigning against neoliberal education reforms.

Eastern Metropolitan

Norrian Rundle

Norrian taught in State Secondary School for 35 years. She was a union representative at her school and was elected to the Australian Education Union (AEU) Council from 1988 till 2012.

Norrian was an active member of Teachers Alliance, a progressive rank and file members group within the AEU. She was involved in the campaign to keep Richmond Secondary College open, which resulted in the establishment of Melbourne Girls College.

Southern Metropolitan

Catheryn Lewis

Catheryn is a hard working mother, a trade union activist in the public sector, and a fighter for equality, justice and socialism.

South Eastern Metropolitan

Aran Mylvaganam

Aran was born in Nagar Kovil in the north east of Sri Lanka. Between 1995 and 1997 he lived in a refugee camp in Udayarkaddu, before coming to Australia as a 13-year-old unaccompanied refugee in 1997, where he was detained in Villawood detention centre for three months.

Aran founded the Tamil Refugee Council in 2011. He currently works as a union organiser with the Finance Sector Union and is a spokesperson for the Tamil Refugee Council.

Northern Victoria

Moira Macdonald

Moira has worked on the front line of the youth homelessness sector, as well as the disability sector in New Zealand, for almost two decades.  A lifelong trade unionist, Moira was a delegate for the Australian Services Union and fought tirelessly over many years to have an unpaid overtime case settled to the benefit of fellow staff.