Tax the rich, People before profit: 2027 NSW election campaign

2027 New South Wales state election

Socialist Alliance NSW election candidates.

Quicklinks
Our campaign
Our policy platform
Our candidates

Our campaign

1. First Nations justice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children account for about 43–45% of all children in out-of-home care in NSW, despite making up only around 6% of the child population. This injustice needs immediate action. We want to end child removals, as well as ensure land rights and First Nations control over land use. The full recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody must be implemented.

2. Cost of living

Skyrocketing rents and mortgages, rising food and energy prices, and stagnant wages have pushed thousands into housing stress and food insecurity—forcing too many working families, carers and young people to have to choose between paying the bills, keeping a roof over their heads, and putting food on the table.

We need automatic wage rises to meet rising prices and price caps on basic necessities. We need action to regulate the profit-hungry grocery duopoly and we need capped utilities costs for low-income households and free, frequent and accessible public transport.

3. Housing for all

Renters in NSW are spending more than 30% of their income on rent, a common threshold for being in “housing stress” and many median-income mortgage holders in Gadigal/Sydney face repayments equivalent to around 40% of an average household income for a median-priced home.

Meanwhile developers are making windfall profits. We need a massive expansion of public housing to ease the pressure on the growing social housing wait-list. We need rent controls, stronger tenant rights and mandated affordable housing.

4. Right to protest

We must protect and maintain our right to protest, because peaceful public action is essential to hold those in power accountable and ensuring everyday people — especially the most marginalised — are heard.

As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues, our protest rights are being severely curtailed. For real and lasting social cohesion and public safety, we need freedom of political assembly and the anti-protest laws repealed.

5. Climate action

The climate emergency affects us all, regardless of postcode or income. NSW’s climate targets of 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, 70% by 2035 and net zero by 205 are too little too late.

Real action to ensure a safe climate means not approving new coal or gas mines, redirecting fossil fuel subsidies to retrain affected workers and investing in publicly-owned renewables.

Socialists have solutions

The current profits-first system ignores social need. From the overloaded health system to deteriorating school infrastructure to antiquated public transport, the public sector is being run into the ground.

There is no reason why anyone should go hungry or not have shelter in this rich state. NSW could also lead in public renewable energy; public transport, public infrastructure and public education.

However, the profits-first approach creates problems that will never be solved. The solutions require a new and collective approach.

Socialist Alliance is committed to organising with others — in communities and workplaces — to challenge the power of the corporations and their loyal servants in parliament.

Electing socialists to parliament, who will live on an average worker’s wage, means that social and ecological priorities will get a hearing inside and outside parliament.

Our policy platform

First Nations

First Nations control of First Nations’ affairs
Negotiate treaties to respect First Nations sovereignty and land rights
End the disproportionate separation of First Nations children from their families
Close the gap in First Nations health, education, employment and housing
Implement all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Stop Santos’ coal seam gas project in the Pilliga Fund First Nations-controlled community organisations

Ease cost of living

Automatic wage rises to meet rising prices
Price caps on basic necessities
State-owned supermarkets
Cap electricity, gas and water prices for low-income households
Free, frequent and accessible public transport

Housing for all

An emergency plan to build 100,000 new public housing dwellings over five years
Freeze rents for two years
End forced evictions, sell-offs or demolition of public housing
End the privatisation of public housing to “social housing” run by charities
Combat homelessness by converting private dwellings left vacant for more than 12 months to public housing
Mandate developers to allocate 30% of all new units to affordable housing in perpetuity
Establish a state-owned body to provide low-interest home loans

Community planning

Give decision-making on planning and heritage back to local government and communities
Reverse forced council amalgamations subject to local communities’ wishes
Ban developers from holding unoccupied land for speculation
End construction on floodplains and flood-prone land

Better health

Boost funding for public health; expand community health centres, reproductive and sexual health clinics and make paediatric care free
Mandate and fund 1:4 nurse-to-patient ratios in all public hospitals, for all shifts
Boost funding for public mental health services, especially for children and young people
Boost funding for preventative care to reduce demand on hospital and acute health services
Make public dental care free
Reverse public health privatisations
Provide free long-term trauma therapy and support for victims/survivors of sexual or domestic abuse
Legalise cannabis, decriminalise drug use and treat addiction as a health issue
Provide safe injecting facilities and pill testing

Boost public education, safety

Reduce teacher-to-student ratios and teacher workloads by employing more counsellors, teachers and education support staff
Scrap NAPLAN and all standardised testing
Increase wages for public educators, including early childhood and pre-primary
Expand funding for more emergency services workers, firefighters

Public and active transport

Return transport to public ownership and expand regional networks
Implement free and accessible public transport
Extend, upgrade and electrify bus fleet Expand safe cycling infrastructure
Return private toll roads to public ownership

For a safe climate, affordable energy

End subsidies and tax breaks to fossil fuel corporations
Boost investment for 100% renewable energy by 2030
Phase out fossil fuels: halt coal mine expansions; end mining in Sydney-Illawarra water catchment area
Ban unconventional gas exploration and fracking
Free retraining for workers leaving the fossil fuel industries
Make Kurri Kurri and the Hunter Valley a manufacturing hub for renewable energy

Save native forests, green spaces

End logging in native forests and other forests of ecological importance
End land clearing and logging in important water catchments
Build the Great Koala National Park
Create more parks and green space in urban areas, including wildlife corridors
Create and fund alternative employment for logging communities
No toxic incinerators in Western suburbs and regional NSW
Boost sustainable recycling of waste

Women’s & LGBTIQ rights

Expand funding for women’s refuges and community anti-violence campaigns
Expand access and make abortion free, including in regional NSW
Oppose discrimination, including transphobia, Islamophobia
Reinstate safe schools, LGBTIQ spaces
Support the LGBTIQ community, including free gender-affirming healthcare
Fund programs targeting gendered poverty
Fully decriminalise sex work and the sex industry

Invest in jobs and skills

Fully fund TAFE students’ education
Increase incentives for health workers, disability support workers, teachers and education support staff
Legislate apprenticeship ratios
Provide services for those who miss out on NDIS funding

Stop militarism, weapons’ research

No East Coast base for AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines
Shut down weapons research base next to Newcastle airport

Justice

For rehabilitative, not retributive, justice
End the privatisation of prisons
End mandatory sentencing and, for non-violent offences, redirect people to community service
Raise age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 and end the detention of children under the age of 16
Support asylum seekers and refugees without access to Medicare, Centrelink payments or work rights
Stop police investigating police: Establish an independent misconduct investigation agency
End the militarisation of police
Repeal punitive bail laws
Guarantee funding for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Ombudsman
End over-policing and racial profiling of communities
Increase funding to NSW Legal Aid and Community Legal Centres

Democratic rights

Scrap anti-democratic anti-protest laws
Scrap anti-worker and anti-union laws that restrict unions’ ability to take industrial action and organise on the job
Stop police busting up union picket lines
Reverse restrictions to workers’ compensation laws for psychological injuries

Animal welfare

End live animal exports
Abolish the use of animals for sport, recreation or entertainment
Mandate alternatives to shark nets and culling
Ban trophy hunting of all animals
End inhumane intensive factory farming
Support comprehensive and enforceable standards for free-range farming practices

Gambling reform

Fund an education campaign on the gambling industry’s predatory practices
Ban all gambling company advertising
Phase out poker machines and electronic gaming machines from clubs and hotels; restrict them to casinos
Provide communities, especially where poker machine venues are relied on for employment, with alternative job creation schemes
Return NSW Lotteries to public ownership