News / Council Elections
Socialists target renters’ votes
Candidate says party offers alternative to Labor and Greens
Mark Phillips
HELPING renters and providing more social and affordable housing in Brunswick will be key priorities for the Victorian Socialists if any of their candidates are elected to Merri-bek Council next month.
After going close to securing a council seat in 2020, the party has nominated candidates for each of the four Brunswick wards this year, and has been doorknocking in the area for the past two months.
Its lead candidate is Louisa Bassini, a community lawyer working in the area of renters’ rights, who lives in Brunswick West and is running for the Bulleke-bek ward.
Also running in the Brunswick area for Victorian Socialists are supermarket worker Kosta Rologas in Randazzo ward; Anneke Demanuele in Brunswick West; and health care worker Jo-Ann Hope in Warrk-Warrk. The party has candidates in five of the seven wards in the northern part of Merri-bek.
Bassini, aged 41 and the mother of two primary school aged children, said tenants needed to have a voice on the council, especially in the midst of a severe housing crisis.
“I think that renters are often overlooked in terms of representation at the local council level, because they’re not ratepayers or whatever,” she said.
“But the reality is that there’s a whole chunk of the population — probably 30% of adults going forward — who will remain renters for the entirety of their lives.
“And they’re the people who make Brunswick what it is, and they’re the reason why it’s this wonderful, vibrant place — so they should be represented.”
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She said Victorian Socialists did not support “unbridled development” as a solution to the lack of affordable housing, but saw merit in a differential rates system, where landlords were charged higher rates than owner-occupiers.
The system, which is currently being investigated by the council at the instigation of former independent councillor James Conlan, would act as a disincentive to property investors, but is unlikely to be lawful under current Victorian legislation.
Bassini said the owners of any residential properties which are unoccupied for more than a year should be charged a higher rate to encourage them to either rent it out or redevelop it for housing.
She said the council should also employer a renters’ advocate or inspector to force landlords to make their rental properties habitable, and a higher amount of new developments should be made available for social housing, which is owned by a registered housing provider and rented at below market rates. She also wants to see the council use its position to lobby the state government for more public housing.
“I think that mandatory inclusion zoning should absolutely apply,” she said.
“It should be at least 30%. That’s the model that’s used in places like Denmark — and it should be social housing, not affordable housing.
“The concept of affordable housing is just used to obfuscate the reality of the government refusing to invest in social housing. Social housing ordinarily requires payment of no more than 30% of a person’s income, whereas affordable housing can be essentially unaffordable for people, even on a wage.
“Public housing is the best model but if they’re going to at least mandate a certain portion be affordable, then it needs to be social housing, not this silly term of affordable housing, that’s 80% of market rent.”
But Bassini said despite the need for more housing in Brunswick, height limits should be respected and heritage must be protected.
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In an already crowded progressive field, Victorian Socialists sought to offer an alternative to Labor and the Greens, she said.
“I think that people are proud of this local council being one of the most progressive in the country, and I think they recognise that Socialists have a role to play in even holding the Greens to account and ensuring that the council is the most principled and left wing that it can be.
“We would agree with a lot of their [the Greens] policies, but I think we are much more oriented towards community activism and bringing voice to community campaigns.
“We’re not career politicians, that’s a big difference between us and the Greens. We’re not expecting to be able to rise up in politics. What we want to do is actually promote local activism so that people can actually have some control over their local communities themselves.”
Bassini said that if she was elected, she would seek to continue the council’s advocacy for Gaza and to introduce a boycott, divestment and sanctions policy towards Israel.
Despite the war in Gaza being a global issue, she said councils still had a role to play by giving voice to the views of residents.
In 2020, the Victorian Socialists’ candidate, Nahui Jimenez achieved the third highest primary vote in the South Ward with 10% of all votes cast, but was denied a council place by preferences.
But the party did succeed in having Jorge Jorquera elected in the City of Maribyrnong in 2020.
The party has more than 80 candidates across Victoria.
Also nominating for the council elections is a new political party, Fusion, whose founder Owen Miller, is running in Bulleke-bek ward.
The party says its mission is to “collaborate widely throughout society, to deeply explore underlying issues, and to build consensus for long-term solutions”.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Bassani was a renter herself.
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