Victorian Socialists candidate for Gippsland East, Amy Espeseth, has launched her campaign with a platform built on what she describes as “rural common sense” – affordable housing, free childcare, a zero-carbon future and public ownership of essential services.
Raised working-class in a rural small town, Ms Espeseth said her beliefs come from the quiet dignity of working-class people she grew up among.
“Poverty isn’t abstract to me. It’s the neighbour who slips you groceries, the logger who keeps cutting even when his back is gone, the parent who goes without so their kids don’t,” she said.
Her platform includes capping rents and building public housing where people live and work, so no-one is pushed out of their community because staying has become impossible.
Ms Espeseth also backs free, public childcare available five days a week, higher wages and a tax system that makes billionaires and big corporations “pay their share.”
On the environment, she is calling for a zero-carbon future by 2035, with no new fossil fuel projects, and protection of forests, waterways and wildlife – alongside support for workers through transition to new jobs “with dignity, not abandonment.”
“A future worth living in must include the people who built the past,” she said.
Ms Espeseth argues essential services including energy, transport, health care and education should be public rather than sold off for profit, and wants more teachers, smaller class sizes, and more hospital beds and health staff.
“Rural communities deserve the same access as cities, not the leftovers,” she said.
She is also campaigning for free and reliable public transport, describing it as a matter of connection in places like Gippsland East.
“In places like Gippsland East, transport is connection – to work, to care, to community. No-one should be stranded because they can’t afford a fare or because the service never comes.”
Ms Espeseth’s platform also covers welcoming migrants and opposing racism, disability access, neurodiversity inclusion and LGBTQIA+ safety, and care for land, water and wildlife as caretakers of Country.
“Living on Gunaikurnai Country has taught me that connection is not symbolic; it is daily, practical and reciprocal,” she said.
“My ideas aren’t radical. They’re rural common sense. Care for land. Care for people. Build a future where everyone can live with dignity.”
