Victorian Socialists


The Victorian Socialists are a political party in the Australian state of Victoria.
The party promotes a democratic socialist platform focused on expanding public ownership, increasing investment in public services and strengthening workplace rights, and organising around issues including housing, healthcare, education and economic inequality.

History

The formation of the Victorian Socialists was announced publicly on 5 February 2018. It was officially registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission on 6 June 2018. The party began as a collaboration between Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Alliance. However, Socialist Alliance withdrew from the grouping in May 2020, citing disagreements with Socialist Alternative.
In August 2018, the party announced that it would field candidates for the 2018 Victorian state election in every Legislative Council seat and several Legislative Assembly electorates. Candidates included the former Geelong Trades Hall Secretary Tim Gooden for the Victoria Region">Victoria (state)">Victoria Region and local councillors Stephen Jolly and Sue Bolton for the Northern Metropolitan Region.
The 2018 election campaign gained support from several trade unions including the ETU, Victorian [Allied Health Professionals Association|VAHPA], UFU, CFMMEU, AMIEU and NUW. It also won the support of several local immigrant diasporas and community organisations. Endorsements were received from several prominent left-wing personalities, such as Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Gary Foley, Tom Ballard, Corinne Grant, and Helen Razer. The party achieved a vote of 4.2% in the Northern Metropolitan Region while achieving 7.2% of the vote for the lower house seat of Broadmeadows, in a field of four candidates.
In the 2019 federal election, VS ran candidates for the electorates of Calwell, Wills, and Cooper. The party was registered at a federal level with the Australian Electoral Commission on 7 April 2019. The party won votes of 4.6% in Calwell, 4.5% in Wills, and 4.2% in Cooper.
In September 2019, Jolly was suspended from VS pending an investigation following what The Age described as "serious allegations", leading him to resign from the party.
In the 2020 Victorian local government elections, the party fielded candidates for Darebin, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melbourne and Moreland, and a ticket for the Lord and Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne. Socialist Alternative member Jorge Jorquera became the first Victorian Socialists candidate to be elected to office, winning a seat on the Maribyrnong City Council.
VS ran candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2022 federal election, and subsequently launched a campaign to win a seat in the 2022 Victorian state election. The party achieved a vote of 4.7% in the Northern Metropolitan Region.
Members of the party are involved in activist campaigns for a range of progressive causes. In July 2022, VS Assistant Secretary and 2022 state election candidate Liz Walsh was the organiser of large demonstrations in Melbourne, protesting the overturning of abortion rights by the United States Supreme Court, as well as calling for expanded access to abortion and increased healthcare funding in Australia.
VS ran candidates in the west and north of Melbourne for the 2022 Victorian state election, reportedly mobilising over 1000 volunteers for its campaign and knocking on over 180,000 doors. The party increased its vote from 2018, with its best result being a score of 9.3% in the seat of Footscray.
In the 2024 Victorian local elections, Victorian Socialists' Owen Cosgriff won the City of Greater Bendigo's Whipstick Ward, however the Party lost its seat on the City of Maribyrnong council.
VS ran candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2025 federal election.

Nationwide expansion

On 13 May 2025, VS announced it intended to establish branches in all states and territories. At a conference of party members on 16 June 2025, VS confirmed its intention to change its AEC-registered name to the "Socialist Party".
Throughout mid-to-late-2025, branches were launched in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The SA Socialists became the first non-Victorian branch registered on 23 October 2025.
VS announced in November 2025 that its attempts to be renamed with the AEC and registered with the New South Wales Electoral Commission were both refused on the basis of similarity with Socialist Alliance's name, with the party instead seeking registration as the "Australian Socialist Party".

Structure

The executive council is made up of four party officers and nine elected ordinary members. A party conference is held at least every two years, where the officers and executive members are elected and a political platform may be determined. According to the constitution, the preferred method of preselection of candidates is by a meeting of members of the party who live or work in that electorate.

Policies

Climate and environment

Cost of living and inequality

Housing

  • Establish a public builder to construct one million new public homes
  • Implement mandatory rentworthy checks for all rental properties

Public ownership

  • Reverse privatisation of essential services, energy networks and major infrastructure
  • Rebuild public institutions to deliver services at cost rather than for profit
  • Renationalise Telstra
  • Abolish private prisons

Tax

  • Impose a 10% wealth tax on billionaires and a 10% tax on foreign-owned billionaire assets in Australia
  • Increase taxes on the gambling industry
  • End public subsidies to mining corporations, banks and energy companies
  • Abolish the Goods and [services tax (Australia)|GST]
  • Impose jail time for attempts to hide wealth offshore
  • Impose a climate tax on major polluters

Workers and unions

  • Restore full rights to organise, strike and bargain across industries
  • Raise the minimum wage to a liveable level
  • Replace insecure work with stable permanent employment where possible
  • Restore industry-wide bargaining
  • Guarantee the right to retirement and access to the pension at age 60

Health

Democracy and civil rights

  • Protect the right to protest and repeal restrictive policing laws
  • Shift resources from policing and detention to housing, healthcare and social services
  • Introduce a national bill of rights

Anti-racism

  • End mandatory detention and restore permanent residency pathways for refugees
  • Strengthen workplace and union rights for migrant workers
  • Expand settlement and multilingual community-based services
  • Ensure free and accessible English-language programs

Politicians' pay and conduct

  • Cap MP salaries to typical worker levels
  • Ban MPs from holding certain investments and property portfolios
  • Require full disclosure of financial interests
  • Ban MPs from corporate board positions for ten years after leaving office

Banking

  • Renationalise the Commonwealth Bank
  • Use public banking to fund affordable housing loans and public investment

Universities

  • Make universities and TAFE free and publicly funded
  • Cancel student debt and abolish tuition fees

Elderly people

  • Make the Age Pension universal, adequate and indexed
  • Convert aged care into a fully public, non profit system with regulated staffing levels
  • Guarantee free healthcare, dental care, housing and transport for older people
  • Expand home care and community support to maintain independent living
  • Increase the pensioner electricity discount to 50 percent

Food and nutrition

  • Establish a publicly directed national food system
  • Create an Essential Food Benefits Scheme to subsidise staple groceries
  • Develop publicly owned farms and food production
  • Transition agriculture to regenerative and First Nations–informed practices

Notable members