To keep you informed ahead of this Victorian election, SAARI is introducing the various South Asian candidates running across major parties and analysing their stance on key issues.
One of the major parties, Victorian Greens, notably has a South Asian leader, Samantha Ratnam. She is the first South Asian person in the role and the second person altogether. Samantha is also the only South Asian leader of a major party in Victoria ever.
She first entered the Parliament in 2017 representing the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council and was re-elected in 2018 after the state election. This election, she is re-running for Northern Metropolitan Region candidacy.
Born in England and raised in Sri Lanka, Samantha's family left Sri Lanka after the 1983 Colombo riots and eventually settled in Australia. She then went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Social Work with Honours and a PhD in Youth Sociology and worked as a social worker for 15 years before entering the Victorian Parliament. While in the role, she worked in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, international development, family services, and settlement services for newly arrived migrants from refugee backgrounds. Alongside her social work career, she also spent five years as a Councillor in the City of Moreland and was elected the first Greens Mayor of Moreland in 2015.
SAARI asked Samantha where she stood on some key issues and this is what she had to say:
How do you hope to keep the cost of living affordable for Victorians in your electorate?
Cost of living pressures are hurting Victorians. Big banks, coal and gas corporations, and property developers are making billions while many of us struggle to get by. Rents are at record highs, energy bills are skyrocketing and wages have stagnated. Our plan to keep living costs affordable includes cheaper energy bills for households through a publicly-owned energy retailer, more affordable housing and capping rent increases, genuinely free public schools with no out-of-pocket expenses for families, and cheaper public transport. You can read more about our plan to reduce the cost of living here.
Rent prices in Victoria have skyrocketed in the past six months. What is your plan to help renters stay afloat?
Almost one in three Victorians are renters. But rents are going up three to four times faster than wages, and too many renters are paying more than 30% of their paycheck in rent and living in unaffordable housing. There are still too many substandard properties on the rental market, and renters are struggling to keep their homes warm and cool without racking up huge power bills. And when the rental market is as tight as it is now, with vacancy rates at record lows, renters find themselves at a disadvantage compared to estate agents and property managers.
The power imbalance means the system is weighted against renters. The Greens want to keep rents affordable by introducing rent caps in line with wage growth. Our plan for renters also includes strengthening minimum standards for rental properties and improving the security of tenure for renters. You can read more about our plan for renters here.
Source: Julian Meehan Photography
The pandemic has brought to attention the importance of good health and emergency infrastructure and access. How do you plan to improve these in your electorate?
Victorians need to know that if they have to see a doctor, call an ambulance or go to a hospital, they will get the care they need when they need it. But to ensure people receive the care they need, we must relieve the burden on hospitals and on our overworked nurses, doctors, paramedics, midwives, and allied health workers, who are burning out and leaving our public health system.
The Greens will increase health funding by an extra $5 billion, and focus on the forgotten areas of disease prevention, dental and mental health care, as well as boosting funding for primary care and prevention.
What is your stand on supporting schools and education out of the pandemic?
Every family should have access to a high-quality, genuinely free, local public school. But the Labor Government is underfunding our public schools, and Victoria has the lowest-funded public schools in Australia. This means our public schools don’t get the funding they need to meet everyone’s needs and the cost of what should be a free education is rising. The Greens will invest $1.46 billion over the next five years into Victoria’s public schools and will push the Federal Government to increase funding so Victorian public schools are funded to 100 per cent of the Gonski school resource standard by the start of the 2023 school year. We will also fund 500 more psychologists and psychiatrists for schools and public clinics to help young people access the mental health support they need. Read our full plan for education on our website here.
Twitter @SamanthaRatnam
What is your stand on climate change and managing natural disasters?
The Greens know that coal and gas are the leading causes of the climate crisis. Yet the Labor Government in Victoria has used public money to keep coal stations running for longer and is opening up new gas drilling, including near the 12 Apostles. We also know that fires and floods are becoming more frequent as the climate crisis worsens, and communities are being left behind. We need to build critical infrastructure to keep people safe as we face the impacts of successive governments not taking action on climate. The Greens' plan includes an immediate ban on any new coal, oil, and gas projects, including gas drilling in Victoria’s oceans, phasing out coal plants by 2030, investing $10 billion to build new renewable energy, including publicly owned renewable energy for the benefit of all Victorians, and expanding funding for Victoria’s SES to respond to increasing climate disasters, via a comprehensive investigation of funding and capability. You can read our full plan for tackling climate change here.
For more information on Samantha Ratnam, click here.
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