Our lives are worth more than their profits: 2019 federal election campaign

Australia is a wealthy country. We have the resources to guarantee everybody a decent life and to take genuine climate action.

But inequality in this country is extreme and getting worse and climate action is desperately needed but not on offer from the “parties of government”. It is time for a change.

The Morrison government stands discredited before the Australian people but the Labor “opposition” is offering at best only token change.

Labor is not promising to stop the Adani mine. They are not promising to end boat turnbacks or free the refugees on Manus or Nauru. They are not promising to raise the pitifully low Newstart allowance. They are not promising to create public sector jobs or to abolish anti-worker laws (such as restrictions on the right to strike). They are not promising to tackle the scourge of intimate partner violence and harassment of and assault against women in workplaces, families and communities around the country.

Liberal and Labor governments have been serving corporate interests and not that of the ordinary people. We deserve better than what is on offer from either of the establishment parties

It is time for big corporations to pay their tax. It is time to ensure justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It is time for a democratic transformation so that ordinary people can take charge of our own lives. We need to effectively challenge the corporations that are out of control.

The Socialist Alliance is running in this election to help build a movement for people power not corporate power. We seek your support as a step towards achieving the profound change that is not only needed. It is possible.

Note: In Victoria, the Socialist Alliance is participating in this election as part of the Victorian Socialists electoral alliance.

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Policy platform

Tax the corporations and the rich — no GST

• Scrap the GST
• For a progressive tax system where the wealthy pay their share
• Introduce a wealth tax for the super rich
• An immediate rise in company tax to 49%
• Tax the big polluters
• End the billions in public subsidies to mining corporations banks and energy companies
• End rampant tax evasion by multinationals

Public ownership

• Nationalise the mines, banks and energy companies, under community and workers’ control
• Take back the wealth so that it can be used for social and environmental purposes
• Oppose and reverse the privatisation of public assets and services
• Provide government assistance to communities for the formation and maintenance of co-operative banks, at low interest rates

Real climate action

• A planned shift to 100% renewable energy within 10 years via public investment and emission reduction targets;
• Bring the power industries under public ownership and democratic contro
• Stop Adani and all new coal mines
• Stop fracking and all unconventional gas mining
• Tax the corporate polluters and billionaires
• Make the shift from coal and gas to renewables with a just transition for workers
• Justice for climate refugees and those displaced by climate change
• Ban the logging of old-growth forests
• Begin an urgent program of reforestation, sustainable farming and biodiversity protection
• Enforce the rehabilitation of mine sites by companies
• Institute a national heat health strategy

Democracy, not corporate dictatorship

• Participatory democracy which empowers people and communities
• Proportional representation at all government levels
• Election campaigns for all candidates publicly funded to a fixed amount
• End careerism and rorting — put politicians on an average worker’s wage
• All government positions subject to recall
• Scrap the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights

• Negotiate treaties to respect sovereignty and land rights
• Repeal the Stronger Futures/NT Intervention laws
• Abolish racist welfare quarantining and compulsory income management
• No uranium waste dumps
• Close the gap in Aboriginal health, education, employment and housing
• Implement all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
• Fund language and culture programs and bilingual education in schools
• Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs — not tokenistic Constitutional recognition
• No closure of Aboriginal communities

No crime to seek asylum

• End boat turn-backs
• Abolish Border Force
• Offer asylum to all refugees and asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru
• Protect the rights of medical, teaching and security staff to speak out about abuse in detention
• Reaffirm Australia's commitment to the Refugee Convention and and honour Australia's UNHCR obligations
• Close offshore and onshore detention centres and end mandatory detention
• Restore all Australian territories to the migration zone
• End deportations and end ASIO security veto of refugees

Against racism, defend our civil rights

• End the racist targeting of Muslims
• Defend anti-discrimination laws
• Scrap ‘anti-terror’ laws
• Abolish ASIO and all spy agencies
• Repeal data retention laws
• Put the police under community control
• Adopt a Bill of Rights

Workers’ rights

• Scrap all anti-union laws
• Recognise workers’ right to strike and organise in law, including solidarity actions
• Increase the minimum wage
• Restore penalty rates
• Recognise the right to secure work for all — reverse casualisation
• Full industrial, residency and citizenship rights for all migrant workers
• Expand apprenticeship programs
• Guarantee retirement and access to the pension for all at age 60

Industry and jobs

• Retool Australia’s manufacturing sector for the production of renewable technologies, public transport and other socially useful projects
• Immediate public investment to create jobs in providing better public housing, schools, hospitals and health facilities
• Create jobs by introducing a 30 hour week, with no loss of wages

Social rights

• Reverse the attacks on sole parent pensions
• Scrap "Work for the Dole" schemes
• No compulsory income management and other forms of welfare quarantining
• A guaranteed, basic income for all
• Lift all welfare payments above the poverty line and index them to maintain real value
• Boost funding to community-based aged and childcare services
• Expand disability services and access
• Restore the universal right to the aged pension
• Abolish the Job Network and reestablish a Commonwealth Employment Service with a service provision (instead of punitive) focus

Women’s rights

• Reverse the gender pay gap — for equal pay
• Enshrine the right to publicly-funded abortion and contraception and ensure safe access zones across the country
• Restore and expand funding to women's refuges and community anti-violence programs
• Employer-funded, paid parental leave
• Funding to First Nations and feminist advocacy services

LGBTI rights

• Make all discrimination against LGBTI people illegal – no support for religious exemptions
• Full rights for trans and intersex people, including easy change of identity documents
• Full, publicly-funded medical services for gender transition
• Fully-funded school programs for non judgemental sex education and anti violence campaigns
• Full adoption rights

Youth rights

• Right to vote at 16
• Boost funding to youth services
• Full pay for young people — no youth wage!
• Expand youth housing programs
• Expand apprenticeship programs
• No fees for TAFE and University
• Restore Austudy and Youth Allowance to a living wage
• Provide safe injecting facilities and pill testing

Justice

• Abolish imprisonment for non violent offences of poverty and non payment of fines
• Decriminalise drugs and address domestic violence, corporate tax evasion, and other corporate crimes including environmental vandalism
• End mandatory detention
• For prevention programs, community-oriented rehabilitation schemes and alternatives to imprisonment
• Fully fund legal aid
• Make police accountable to local communities
• Put all corrective services in public hands — reverse the privatisation of prisons
• No police involvement in industrial disputes

Education for all

• Reverse the funding cuts to public education
• Make public education free at all levels
• Expand the public education sector and massively increase funding to vocational education and TAFE
• End public funding to private schools, tertiary institutions and training colleges

Housing for all

• Tackle homelessness and the housing shortfall with a large-scale expansion in quality public housing
• Cap rents and mortgage repayments at 20% of income
• Expand emergency accommodation services
• Target housing provision for at-risk youth

Free healthcare for all

• Restore free, universal health care – end the back door co-payments
• Boost funding for preventative care and chronic disease management
• Free dental care
• End subsidies to private health insurers
• Expand community-based health care networks, reproductive and sexual health clinics
• Boost funding to public mental health services
• Legislate for aged-care staffing ratios
• Legislate to support people’s choice to die with dignity

Public transport in public hands

• Make public transport frequent and free
• Boost investment in suburban and high-speed intercity rail
• Reverse the privatisation of public transport services

Rural and regional

• Emergency assistance to struggling farmers, including for sustainable farming and farming cooperatives
• Restoration and rebuilding of transport links
• Housing, education and employment assistance in regional areas
• Just transition from fossil fuels to sustainable jobs
• Remove water subsidies to industries and mining companies that are contaminating water resources and clearing forests

Media and communications

• Massive increase in funding for ABC and SBS – democratise their boards
• Reject privatisation of public broadcasters – no corporate advertising on SBS
• Increase funding and licences for community media
• Support a publicly owned NBN with fibre-to-the-premises
• Bring telecommunication companies back into public ownership
• Reject privatisation of Australia Post
• Support net neutrality, online privacy and a bill of digital rights
• Shift to open source software use by government bodies

International aid, not war and occupation

• Bring back all military forces from Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East
• No participation or support for imperialist interventions
• Isolate apartheid Israel
• End ANZUS and US military bases in Australia
• Cut military spending and boost development and climate change aid to poor countries
• Reverse the cuts to Australia's overseas aid programs — for a massive increase in Australia's aid budget
• End Australia’s interference in the affairs of countries in the Asia Pacific
• Independence for West Papua