A lot of people call me a radical lefty, so I thought I'd just put my cards on the table and call to see yours.
First off, I believe in fairness. That means looking after the most vulnerable—kids, the elderly, people with disabilities, and those doing it tough. A country that neglects its own people while corporations rake in record profits is not a country I want to live in.
In Australia, more than one in eight people (13.4%) lived below the poverty line in 2019-20, including one in six children (16.6%). That's over 3.3 million people, with 761,000 of them being children. (See Poverty and Inequality)
Public healthcare? Absolutely. No system is perfect, but I’d rather have Medicare than a setup where people die because they can’t afford treatment. If that means paying my fair share of tax, so be it. However, even with Medicare, access to healthcare is becoming a challenge. Data shows a 246% rise in people from New South Wales delaying GP visits due to cost over the past four years, affecting low-income individuals and those with middle and high incomes. (See The Guardian)
Same goes for education—why are we making it harder for young people to get qualifications? Uni debt shouldn’t take decades to pay off. The Albanese Labor Government has pledged to cut 20% off all student loan debts, wiping around $16 billion in student debt for around three million Australians. (See Department of Education Ministers) TAFE and apprenticeships should be just as valued as a degree. In August 2023, the Australian Government announced an additional $414.1 million for a further 300,000 TAFE and VET places to be made fee-free from January 2024. (See Employment and Workplace Relations)
I also believe in a Universal Basic Income (UBI)—not as a "handout," but as a way to give people real freedom. Imagine a world where people aren’t forced into soul-crushing jobs just to scrape by, where they can start businesses, study, care for family, or follow their dreams without the constant terror of financial ruin. That’s not laziness—that's unleashing human potential instead of locking people in a poverty jail cell.
What I don’t believe in? Some fantasy where people can just sit around doing nothing while everyone else foots the bill. I’ve never met anyone who actually thinks that. I believe that a fair day’s work should mean a fair day’s pay, that housing should be affordable, and that no one should be working multiple jobs just to keep their head above water.
Speaking of fairness—workers deserve respect. That means livable wages, strong unions, and ensuring big business isn’t exploiting people just to boost their bottom line. And before anyone starts yelling “socialism,” let’s be real—an economy where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few while millions struggle? That’s not free-market brilliance; that’s rigged.
I also believe in personal freedoms. You want to be religious? Go for it. You don’t? That’s fine too. But no one gets to impose their beliefs on everyone else. The same people who freak out about “Sharia law” seem perfectly happy pushing their own religious values into legislation. You can’t have it both ways.
And no, I don’t think LGBTQ+ people and first nations peoples should have extra rights. They should have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The fact that this is still even debated is ridiculous.
Now, about immigration—of course there should be laws and policies. But let’s stop pretending refugees are some kind of invading army. Asking for refuge or asylum is not illegal. Offshore detention is a moral disgrace, and we can have strong borders without treating people like criminals.
I also don’t believe the government should be micromanaging everything. I think the less government tries to control our personal lives, the better... But here’s the thing—without some regulation, greed takes over. That’s why we need rules to protect workers, consumers, and the environment. If you trust corporations to “self-regulate,” I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Authoritarianism worries me, no matter which party is in power. History has plenty of lessons about what happens when governments dodge accountability, silence critics, or start rewriting the rules to benefit themselves.
And voting for Labor or the Liberals? That’s like a chicken voting for Red Rooster to stop KFC making nuggets. Both sides of the same coin serve the same corporate-friendly, donor-approved policies while pretending to fight. Real change isn’t coming from the same two-party system that keeps screwing us over.
On a more local level, I believe in investing in the future. That means supporting renewable energy—not because I hate coal miners, but because the world is moving on, and we need to ensure workers aren’t left behind. We'll just get left behind if we don’t lead the transition.
And before you start: no, I’m not coming after your car. Drive a ute, a 4WD, whatever you like. But let’s not pretend fuel efficiency or public transport investment is some kind of attack on your freedom.
At the end of the day, my views aren’t radical. I just believe in basic fairness—people having enough to live on, corporations paying their share, and the idea that we should care about each other. If that makes me “too lefty” for some people, well, that says more about them than it does about me.
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