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Belle is a student and retail worker. “I’ve worked in hospitality and retail for many years now”, she says, “always joining the relevant union and organising for better conditions among some of the most precarious sections of the workforce. Too many workers are faced with uncertain work and unsafe conditions while those at the top of society are making record profits.”
Belle has been a strident opponent of the right-wing, pro-business status-quo of Australian politics from an early age. “I was raised by a single Mum working for below minimum wage”, she says. “We lived paycheck to paycheck and were hit hard by the cost of living increases that came with Jeff Kennett’s wave of privatisations in the early 1990s.”
“My first political memory is of a mass organising meeting for refugee rights in the wake of the Tampa incident and the beginning of Australia’s cruel offshore detention regime. I would have been around 7 or 8 at the time, but it left an impression that shaped my life and my activism ever since.”
“Growing up under the racist, anti-worker Howard government, I learnt very quickly about the priorities of politicians – to serve the rich and powerful while vilifying refugees, Indigenous people and unionists. As a result I’ve become a passionate fighter against every injustice and crime of the Australian government – whether it’s Liberal or Labor in power.”
As a casual worker, Belle understands how difficult the pandemic has been for working class people. “Workers have borne the brunt of the health crisis”, she says. “Whether it’s being exposed to a deadly virus as front-line workers or having to live on measly and uncertain welfare payments.”
Since the beginning of 2020, wage growth has sunk to its slowest rate in 20 years. Meanwhile, the richest Australians have both been relatively safe from the virus, and have massively increased their wealth. “Gina Rinehart doubled her fortune in the last year”, Belle says, “while the rest of us struggled to make ends meet.”
“We are experiencing rising living costs, rental stress, and crushing mortgage repayments while politicians push tax cuts for the rich, spend billions on nuclear-powered submarines and cry poor when it comes to funding health, education, welfare and other essential services.”
Belle’s experience as a long-term activist in the marriage equality campaign before its victory in 2017 taught her that progress is only made by ordinary people taking a stand. “It showed me that we don’t win equality by asking nicely. We win by mobilising unionists, students and ordinary people in our thousands and fighting for it.”
Belle joined Victorian Socialists to help begin to organise a political force that could push for real change. “The rich have had it too good for too long in this country”, she says. “The priorities of this system are wrong. As a socialist, I believe we should put people before profit and I’m committed to fighting for that.”