At every election since its founding in 2001, the Socialist Alliance has decided preferences on a principled basis, by giving preferences to other parties based on how closely their policies and actions align with its own.
2013 Australian federal election
Our wages, living conditions and democratic rights have been fought for and won over two centuries by working people, and their basic defence organisations, the trade unions.
Australia is a wealthy nation built on stolen Aboriginal land and resources. But Aboriginal people score lowest in health, education, employment and housing.
The 2012 Poverty In Australia report by the Australian Council of Social Service revealed that 2,265,000 people, including 575,000 children, are still living below the poverty line in Australia.
The Australian Climate Commission says this is the “critical decade” to cut emissions. The Socialist Alliance says Australia’s climate response must be based on the climate science, which says we cannot delay action.
The Socialist Alliance says: Bring the mining industry, the big banks and the energy companies under public/community ownership and control, so that they can be run in a way that respects Aboriginal rights, the environment and social justice.
A Third World country suffering rising violence, rapes, political corruption and plagued by endemic diseases such as cholera and malaria will be the new dumping ground for Australia's refugee arrivals.
Corporate power runs Australia right now. Parliaments are subject to the real power of the business class in the final instance. We urgently need real democracy, based on people power.
Around the world, over the past 30 years or more, the ruling classes have launched an offensive against working people and the “welfare state,” under the theme of “Neoliberalism.”
The Big Four banks — the Commonwealth Bank, NAB, ANZ and Westpac — are together the most concentrated and profitable set of banks in the world. The Australian Big Four represent half of the eight most profitable banks on the entire globe.
We could redesign our economy to make it climate-friendly very quickly — if there was the political will to put the welfare of people and planet before short-term profit.
The giant mining corporations make the biggest profits of all industries in Australia. BHP Billiton posted a profit of $14.7 billion last year, while Rio Tinto made a half-year profit of almost $5 billion.