Below is a mock up of a Traffic Light Voting Guide for Footscray. The Ashwood guide for voters will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.

Below is a mock up of a Traffic Light Voting Guide for the Victorian Upper House in the WESTERN METROPOLITAN REGION. The SOUTHERN METROPOLITAN REGION guide for voters in Ashwood will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.

Voting Traffic Light in the 2026 Victorian State Election

You will receive two ballot papers to vote for your preferred candidates in the Victorian House of Assembly and the Victorian Legislative Council .

To vote Traffic Light, vote for all the Green Light candidates or parties first, then the Orange Light ones. Number the red light candidates last.

Red light candidates are threat to achieving a fair future for us all not just in relation to Climate Rescue, but also a range of social issues most of us are concerned about. The order you number the Red Light candidates will have a significant effect on creating a good outcome at this election. We describe this advice as Strategic Preferencing. Strategic Preferencing combined with your Traffic Light Voting Guide will turbo charge the effectiveness of your vote in Red Light electorates.

Strategic Preferencing in Ashwood District (How to turbo-charge your vote!)

Ashwood is a Red Light electorate held by Labor. We strongly advise to you preference the Labor candidate last. You have three other Green Light candidates to vote for. Fortunately one those three is an Outstanding Green Light candidate and a very worthy independent.

Strategic Preferencing in the Southern Metropolitan Region

Whether you vote below, or above the line, number One Nation or their candidates stone motherless last. The divisiveness promoted by this party will tear us apart. Your vote can help to exclude them from minority government and preserve our capacity to restore social cohesion. They have the unhinged capacity to take a wrecking ball to the good influence of the Legislative Council.

To do this effectively you will need to fill in all the boxes either above the line or below the line.

Outstanding Green Light Candidates

Hitendra Joshi Community Independent

Ashwood is where Hitendra Joshi’s family put down roots, where his children went to school, and where he’s spent nearly a decade building a life. Now he’s standing as a genuine community independent — accountable to Ashwood, not to a party head office.

A Mount Waverley resident with more than 27 years’ experience leading major infrastructure projects across Victoria, the Middle East and South Asia, Hitendra is running on cost of living relief, housing and infrastructure that works for local families, and real political accountability.

Priorities

My approach to policy-making is:

• Grounded in the best available facts and expert advice, making sense of the context at the time
• Informed by community voices and ongoing listening
• Free from party politics, vested interests, lobbyists, or backroom deals
• Guided by the values of inclusivity, integrity, accountability, and transparency

In the next parliament, a small group of MPs may hold the balance of power. If I am elected, as an independent, I have far more leverage to deliver local funding and systemic change compared to a backbench party MP bound by party discipline. This means that voting for me will have real impact. Your individual vote, regardless of who forms government, will mean Ashwood has a strong voice in parliament.

Just like the real world, the challenges we face evolve. As context changes, our responses may need to change. I understand and embrace change, and will make sure my policy priorities remain relevant to the Ashwood community, and I want you to be part of that process.

Join our community conversation and have your say here.

My Priorities

Promote smarter affordable housing solutions

Demand greater government accountability to the people

Addressing the risks of climate change

Realistic and sustainable cost of living relief

Foster a safer community environment for all

Support and defend Victorian Treaty, within our inclusive and diverse community

Better use our transport system to meet local needs

Protect our local green spaces and enhance biodiversity

Support education pathways to secure future capability and prosperity

Deliver and support greater preventative health solutions

Traffic Light Voting Assessment

I am happy to pledge that, if elected to the next Victorian Parliament, I will support real action on the ecological and climate emergency. As an electrical engineer with a background in energy infrastructure, I have a strong grasp of the issues, and supports the 3R framework under the Climate Rescue Accord: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, removing and drawing down what’s already been released, and reflecting and cooling where possible.

Green Light Candidates

Tim Randall Greens Candidate

I’m an architect who has lived in Melbourne’s east for over fifteen years. I grew up in Hobart beneath kunanyi, and that lifelong connection to nature continues to shape my commitment to protecting the environment and strengthening our communities.

My decision to become a candidate for Ashwood comes from a deep sense of social justice. As an architect specialising in accessible housing, I see firsthand how housing sits at the intersection of climate, cost of living and equity. Secure, affordable homes are essential for a fair and resilient society.

Ashwood is diverse, with young professionals, retirees, migrant families and people doing it tough. I want to represent all of them with practical, responsible solutions that tackle housing, cost of living, community safety and climate change while restoring trust, integrity and long-term thinking to politics.

Climate Change Policy

All of our state policy principles and aims should be read alongside our relevant federal policy principles and aims, as well as our state campaigns and federal campaigns.

Principles

1. Human-induced climate change poses one of the greatest threats to our world in human history and requires urgent local, national and global action.
2. We are already experiencing dangerous impacts of climate change; urgent, deep, and broad action is required to avoid catastrophic impacts.
3. The amount of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere necessitates urgent emission reduction and drawdown of greenhouse gases as well as prompt adaptation to climate change.
4. Early action to reduce greenhouse emissions is cheaper and fairer than delayed action.
5. Governments must ensure that organisations responsible for pollution pay for the costs of mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts.
6. Climate change policy should be based on the best available science.
7. Climate change policy should inform and frame all other policies.
8. Victoria must take responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the goods and resources it consumes and exports.
9. Victoria is one of the world’s largest per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases with a large percentage due to the burning of brown coal.
10. The lack of effective global (or Australian) climate action must not prevent Victoria from taking immediate and comprehensive measures.
11. Offset schemes must be carefully controlled to avoid them undermining emissions reduction efforts or being used for greenwashing or fraud.
12. Climate action should prioritise proven solutions such as large-scale reforestation over unproven or harmful technologies that prolong fossil fuel use.
13. Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures should not discriminate or treat anyone unfairly on any basis including gender, age, race, ethnicity, vulnerability, religion, disability, sexual orientation or membership of a minority group.

Aims

Mitigation

1. To achieve net zero or negative total greenhouse gas emissions across all areas of human activity – including via the removal of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, in a way that is environmentally responsible and socially fair.
2. Development and implementation of a detailed plan to end Victoria’s reliance on fossil fuels by shifting to, and beyond, a zero greenhouse gas emission economy.
3. Position Victoria – through appropriate investment in technological innovation – to benefit from the new jobs, skills, technologies and markets available in a zero greenhouse gas emission economy.
4. Provide transitional support for all regions, businesses and communities adversely affected by measures that reduce climate change.
5. Support place-based adaptation and mitigation initiatives which engage the community in identifying local challenges and co-designing solutions.
6. Regulation of the phasing out of existing coal-fired power stations and the banning of new fossil-fuel based power stations.
7. A ban on the exploration and development of new fossil fuel resources including but not limited to coal seam gas and other forms of unconventional gas.
8. Develop complementary mitigation measures in collaboration with other governments where possible.
9. Support for elevating sustainability requirements for buildings and construction.
10. Where practical, support nature-based responses to climate change, such as increasing canopy cover, and planting mangroves to reduce storm damage to coastal areas.
11. Assistance to the agriculture and forestry sectors to reduce emissions from ruminant livestock production and land clearing and other sources.
12. Maximise effective and sustainable carbon farming, bio-sequestration and other drawdown methods.
13. Implement low-cost, high-impact emissions reductions in Victoria’s stationary energy sector, and reduce emissions across other sectors including transport, industrial processes, agriculture and forestry.

Adaptation

14. Government support for adaptive actions to protect the environment and key public assets, and to manage major public risks.
15. The implementation, through public and private action, of Victoria’s climate change adaptation action plan, and ongoing review with community and expert involvement.
16. Assisting the agriculture sector to adjust to reduced water availability and to make itself more energy self-sufficient.
17. Ensuring that planning regulations allow for expected impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels, storm surges and other extreme weather events.
18. Implement adaptation measures that take account of those groups disproportionately impacted by climate change and resulting disasters and emergencies.

Further reading 

• Climate change and energy (federal Greens policy)
• No more coal and gas (state campaign)

Greens State policies