Solidarity spoke to activists who have been organising around housing, Aboriginal rights, Palestine, and in defence of the CFMEU about the election campaign
Sheikh Wesam Charkawi is the convenor of the Muslim Vote, which is promoting a vote for candidates who support Palestine
Why did you decide to help form the Muslim Vote campaign?
I think it was important because Palestine is a point of no return and a line in the sand. It’s essential that we stand for justice and we can’t stand idly by and do nothing. Australia can affect policies, both foreign policies and local. And I think it’s about time that the community realised that it has the capacity and power to mobilise to get the leverage to make a difference.
The Muslim community is outraged, and they’re outraged because they did expect more from the government. All we’ve seen so far is weak lip service. But we haven’t seen any meaningful action, such as expelling the Israeli ambassador or calling for sanctions against Israel. And this is despite having a blueprint in what Australia did to Russia when it invaded Ukraine.
What is the Muslim Vote doing during the election campaign?
The Muslim vote is raising awareness, educating the community, showing that this model going forward of mobilising the Muslim community is actually one that may gain the leverage that it needs to make a difference for our own future.
So whether that’s talking to people on the street, talking to people in mosques and community centres, holding conversations and running active social media campaigns online, all of this is essential to the educational campaign and to the mobilisation of the community. Grassroots organising, which is you talk to everyday people, wherever they may be, train stations, homes, and you raise awareness in that space.
A lot of people are worried about Dutton winning the election and his hard right-wing, Trumpist agenda. Do you think people should preference Labor before Liberal to avoid that?
I think there’s a lot of fear about Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party. There is an encouragement from us to preference Liberal last and put Labor just above them. So what that does is that holds Labor to account, but it also ensures that there’s no assistance to Dutton and the Liberal Party, who’s been who’s been very clear in its policies on Palestine and Gaza.
There are some in the community who may choose to put Labor last, and there are some people in the community who may choose to put Liberal last. There is encouragement from us, though, to preference Liberal last and Labour just above them. And so that effectively holds Labour to account, but also ensures that no assistance is rendered to the Liberal Party.
What message do you think it will send to Labor if pro-Palestine independents are elected or gain strong votes?
Taking away a margin of 15 per cent from Tony Burke [Labor MP for Watson in Western Sydney] and reducing that to 1 per cent, or potentially lower than that is a win, because that will mean that he will struggle to win the seat the next time around. And we think that there’s data to suggest that quite clearly.
But if there is an outright win where Tony Burke is unseated, then this is a win for the entire community, because it will mean that the community selected and chose their own trajectory and decided that enough is enough, and now is the time for a new way forward.
Kris W is a CFMEU member in Melbourne involved in campaigning against the government’s forced administration of the union
CFMEU members are feeling left down and betrayed by Anthony Albanese.
They have drafted draconian legislation that takes away [sacked CFMEU officials’] right to any fair trial. It takes away our right to politically organise. This administration has got the right to sell our assets. It’s trial by media. No one’s been charged. No one probably will be charged.
There’s the cliche that the Liberal and the Labor Party are two sides of the same coin, but the harsh reality is only one of them is committed to deregistering us. If the Labor Party don’t win back government we lose our coverage in the Fair Work Commission for any industrial disputes. We’re trying to educate members around the threats and how bad it’s going to be if we end up under a Coalition government.
We’re trying to come up with a strategy to vote for CFMEU friendly candidates, vote for CFMEU friendly independents if they exist, and vote for the Greens and vote for the ALP.
I think telling people put the Liberals last doesn’t quite go far enough. I’m not a huge fan of the Labor Party at the moment. We need to, in my personal opinion, return the Labor Party to its working class roots.
Many workers don’t understand that the Labor Party is a capitalist party. They don’t understand that there are avenues through having active members within the ALP branches to go and make change. It’s a long winded, drawn out process to make these changes. Workers get very impatient.
I still strongly believe in strike action and in rallies and raising our collective voice on the streets. But it has to be in lockstep with returning the Labor Party to its working class roots.
People know that in order to make any real change, there’s a strong possibility that we’re going to have to hit the grass, not just the streets.
You’ve got 30,000 CFMEU members in Victoria, 120,000 members countrywide that are going to have a very hard time voting Labor. There’s an attitude within the Labor Party that they don’t want us. That also is contributing to people’s anger and not wanting to vote Labor this time around. We understand people’s frustration. But the harsh reality is we need to put the Liberals last, put working class candidates along with the Greens and Labor, at the top [of the ballot paper].
I’ll be handing out how to votes for my local Labor branch because I know they’re all ex-union officials and organisers. They understand the trade union movement and the CFMEU. We’ve passed some great motions to condemn and try and shut down the administration. And I know that’s what a lot of members will be doing.
Valerie Napaljarri Martin is a Walpiri woman and community spokesperson from Yuendumu, currently living in Alice Springs
Aboriginal communities in the NT are really suffering. We face so much racism.
Since the NT Intervention [in 2007] everything has been taken away from us and the government has so much control over our lives.
This Labor government with Anthony Albanese has done nothing to help. There are still no jobs for the young people. What future will they have? We are still on the BasicsCard that started with the Intervention.
But we don’t want the Liberal-National Party (LNP) in power. Jacinta Price would be the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and this is frightening, she has all the racists behind her.
Jacinta’s mother was from Yuendumu, a Warlpiri woman, but she doesn’t speak for us. We get very angry and sad the way she talks against our culture.
The LNP government in Darwin is putting ten year olds in prison! So many of our people are all jammed up in prison.
The LNP also changed the laws that protect our sacred sites. Mining companies, pastoral companies, they will be able to do any damage that they want.
I am on the sacred sites authority and the Minister, Joshua Burgoyne, when he first visited us, he told us he was happy with the laws as they were. But then, without any consultation at all, they just changed the laws.
We feel like we are on the edge, scared about the future.
Our communities used to be behind Labor but look what they have done to us—who are we supposed to vote for?
We don’t trust any government anymore. How in the world can we survive, us First Nations of Australia?
We need to get together, each one of us, throughout the NT and across Australia and make some noise. Stand and fight, rally together, this is not fair how we are being treated.
Alistair Sisson is a research fellow at Macquarie University and has been involved in Action for Public Housing since 2021
Why is housing such a big issue in the election?
From every poll I’ve seen in the last couple of years, housing has been the number two issue behind cost of living. And it’s obviously part of the cost of living problem as well. There’s a pretty simple explanation, which is that housing costs have been rising rapidly in the last three years after the lockdowns ended—rents going up around 20 per cent across the board and a lot more in some places. Interest rates rises have added to what was already a very unaffordable housing system.
How would you describe Albanese and Labor government’s response?
It has been very unambitious, generously. They have taken a market-led response, in that they say that the solution is more housing supply, through changing planning laws so it’s less restrictive for private developers. There’s been some small investments in social housing, and an increase to rent assistance. That’s not going to make a massive difference to people who receive it, and it’s not available to a lot of people.
They’ve been trying to show the public that they’ve been taking action, but in terms of material changes, I don’t think there’s been much at all.
What do you think of Labor’s reaction to the policies The Greens raised in parliament?
By and large, the federal government has been saying there is no alternative to a private housing system. They [have announced the] Housing Australia Future Fund and a couple of billion dollars of investment in social housing. But they won’t consider bigger investments in public housing, or anything that they say would discourage private investment in the housing system because they rely on property developers to build housing.
That includes [refusing to consider] rent control, but also reforms to negative gearing or capital gains tax.
What kind of measures would make a more substantial difference?
In the short term rent control would make a big difference. Even though we need more public housing, it takes a long time to build it.
There’s talk about a housing crisis as though it’s an urgent, pressing issue. But virtually all of the policy responses have been things that, at best, will improve housing conditions in five to ten years time.
There’s not much that’s dealing with the urgency of the problem, like protecting people from eviction and protecting them from rent increases. No grounds evictions are about to be outlawed in NSW but that has been a long time coming, and some states are still refusing to do it.
How difficult has it been to get action on public housing from Labor governments, state and federal, for campaigners?
Part of the problem is that a lot of the local fights that we have are state government policy decisions, like redeveloping public housing estates. But they take place in the context of the funding that’s coming from the federal government.
It’s been harder to say, don’t go ahead with demolishing public housing, build more of it, because the Commonwealth government’s really controlling the purse strings.
What do you hope will come out of the election?
If the Coalition win I think things will get worse. All they’re talking about is winding back some of the restrictions on bank lending so that it’s easier to borrow money, and letting first homebuyers access their superannuation, which is like adding fuel to the fire. And also toxic immigration policies, blaming migrants for the housing crisis and scapegoating international students.
If there’s a minority government, then maybe The Greens will be able to extract some better policies out of a Labor government. I’d expect them to push pretty hard on housing because that’s been one of their key issues. I think that in a minority government, the role of grassroots activism in pushing the Greens to push Labor hard in negotiations is really important.
