Belle Gibson said her first exposure to politics was being taken to protests by her mum for issues like treatment of refugees and the Iraq war, but it was being raised in Melbourne by a single mum working below minimum wage that also informed her political view.
This year, Ms Gibson is running in the state election as the Victorian Socialists candidate for Kororoit.
The party, of which Ms Gibson is a founding member, has ramped up its campaign this year, and almost doubled its door-knocking effort to almost 160,000 houses in Melbourne’s west and north.
Ms Gibson said the main theme that ties together Victorian Socialist’s policies is giving more power, more wealth and more say to ordinary working class people through policies like expanding the public sector to include more services, addressing housing stress, and action on climate change, which Ms Gibson said is already affecting people in the west.
“Look at the floods that just swept through the western suburbs recently or the fact that our suburbs are on average hotter than those in the east, serious action on climate change is a working class issue and we’re really proud to be fighting for that,” she said.
“We want to get into parliament to shake things up, to show what a farce it all is, and to be a megaphone to struggles from below that can fight for all of these things.”
Ms Gibson said she believes all of these things can be paid for through taxing the rich, which on a state level may look like a “mansion tax” on large properties.
Victorian Socialists also believe politicians should accept less money, Ms Gibson said the party have pledged that elected members will donate a majority of the almost $200,000 basic salary of a state MP to things like community campaigns, strike funds, and social movements and only taking home $87,000 a year, about the salary of an experienced nurse.
“We’re putting our money where our mouth is, and we represent ordinary people. We should live like ordinary people,” she said.
