Below is a mock up of a Traffic Light Voting Guide for Footscray. The actual Essendon guide for voters will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.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 The NORTHERN METROPOLITAN REGION guide for voters in Essendon will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.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 the Essendon District (How to turbo-charge your vote!)

Essendon is a Red Light electorate held by the Labor Party. We strongly advise to you preference the Labor candidate last. You have three other Green Light candidates to vote for. Fortunately for Box Hill residents, you have two Outstanding Green Light canidates to support. Both are very worthy community independents.

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

Oscar Yildiz Community Independent

Issues that matter to the District of Essendon

The Seat of Essendon is a strong, proud and connected community, but residents are rightly concerned about the pressure on Families, Roads, Schools, Health Services, Public Transport and Local Infrastructure.

My priorities are Practical, Local and focused on the issues people raise with me every day.

Government Accountability.

Cost of Living.

Community Safety.

Traffic and Roads.

Public Transport.

Schools and Young People.

Health and Community Services.

Local Business and Jobs.

Responsible Growth and Infrastructure.

Parks, Sporting Grounds and Open Space.

I also strongly support practical environmental initiatives that reduce waste, encourage recycling and reuse, protect our parks and green spaces, improve sustainability and produce measurable environmental outcomes.

One of the reasons I am standing as an Independent is that I don’t believe environmental responsibility should belong to any one political party. Good environmental policy and good economic policy can and should work together.

Vote Climate One Assessment

1. Yes. If elected to the next Victorian Parliament, I will support real and practical action on issues relating to the ecological and climate emergency. I believe we have a responsibility to protect our environment and leave a sustainable future for the generations that follow us.

2. Yes. I am prepared to consider and use the principles of the 3Rs, the Climate Rescue Accord and the Green Transition, where relevant, to help inform my consideration of legislation and policy. As an Independent, I will always assess legislation on its merits, consider the evidence and listen to the community before determining my final position.

Tania Piccolo Community Independent and an Outstanding Green Light candidate

My priorities for Victoria are centred on safer communities, stronger local businesses, cost-of-living relief and greater accountability in government.

Safer Communities

Community safety should remain a core responsibility of government. I support practical measures that strengthen community safety, address crime and ensure Victorians feel secure in their homes, neighbourhoods and local areas.

Supporting Small Business

Small businesses are an important part of Victoria’s local communities and economy. I support reducing unnecessary barriers, improving the operating environment for local businesses and ensuring small business owners have the opportunity to grow, employ and contribute to their communities.

Cost-of-Living Pressure

Many households are managing increasing everyday expenses. My focus is on practical measures that reduce unnecessary financial pressure and help Victorian families and individuals manage the cost of essential living expenses.

Government Accountability

Victorians should be able to expect transparency, responsibility and accountability from their government. I support stronger oversight, responsible decision-making and greater transparency around how public money is spent and how decisions affecting Victorian communities are made.

These four areas form the foundation of my policy priorities: community safety, small business, cost-of-living pressures and accountable government.

Vote Climate One Assessment

1. If I am elected to the next Victorian Parliament, I will support real action on issues relating to the ecological and climate emergency.
2. I support the application of the 3Rs and the Climate Rescue Accord to inform, when relevant, my position and advocacy on legislation and policy.

Ava Evans Community Independent and an Outstanding Green Light candidate

Thank you for sending this through. 

Please find following answers to your questions:

1. If I am elected to the next Victorian Parliament, I will support real action on issues relating to the ecological and climate emergency. This is something that is really important to me.

2. I support the application of the 3Rs and the Climate Rescue Accord to inform, when relevant, my position and advocacy on legislation and policy.

Green Light Candidates

Michal Kedem

Addressing climate change and protecting our environment

The climate emergency is a dire threat to our natural environment and the liveability of our cities. Victoria’s Climate Science Report 2024 projects hotter summers, more frequent and severe bushfire weather, reduced water availability, rising sea levels, and intensified short-duration flooding. Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions were 84.2 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2023 with around 90 percent of those emissions coming from burning fossil fuels, and electricity generation alone accounting for 46 percent. The Allan government’s targets fall well short of what climate science requires of wealthy developed states to limit warming to 1.5°C. In 2025, the Allan government opened up a new offshore gas exploration program, a pivotal policy shift after years of more restrictive measures, and locking in fossil fuel development that will generate emissions for decades and is incompatible with any credible path to net zero.

Victorian Socialists acknowledge that climate change is an existential risk with the potential to impact all other aspects of our policy platform and believe the climate emergency demands a response that matches the scale of the threat. The cost of the transition must fall on those who created the crisis and have profited from it.

What we think

1. Climate change is a direct product of the capitalist world economy, which turns everything in the natural environment into a resource exploitable for private profits.
2. Market mechanisms such as carbon trading, offsets, and voluntary targets have had decades to work and have failed. Climate change cannot be addressed without a comprehensive, planned restructuring of the economy away from fossil fuel dependence.
3. The concentration of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere means that net-zero emissions will not be sufficient to curtail dangerous warming. Net-negative emissions — actively drawing down atmospheric carbon — will be required.
4. Nuclear power is neither clean nor renewable.
5. The effects of climate change are disproportionately felt by people on low incomes; their lives and livelihoods need to be protected not only from changes to the climate, but during the transition to a new economy.
6. The economic burden of dealing with climate change must fall solely on those who have profited from destroying the environment: the ultra-rich and the big polluters.
7. The renewable transition, if publicly owned and democratically controlled, is an opportunity to rebuild Victoria’s manufacturing capacity, create skilled and secure employment, and revitalise regions that have borne the costs of the fossil fuel economy for generations.
8. Policy should be focused on mitigation of the crisis rather than adaptation.

We’ll fight to

Emissions targets

1. Reduce emissions by 75 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, achieve a zero-carbon economy by 2035 and a permanent net-negative emissions economy by 2040.

Fossil fuel phase-out

1. Accelerate the closure of all remaining coal-fired power generation, with Loy Yang A to close no later than 2030 rather than its current scheduled date of 2035, with guaranteed jobs, income support and community investment for all affected workers and regions.
2. Reverse the Allan government’s 2025 offshore gas exploration program, prohibit the development of all new fossil fuel projects — onshore and offshore.
3. Make environmental approval for any new resource development contingent on full greenhouse gas emission neutrality.
4. Stop the establishment of a nuclear power industry in the state.

Sustainability

1. No new data centres. Data centres have detrimental environmental footprints, disproportionately high water and electricity demands, and no community benefits to the areas they are placed.
2. Require existing data centres to meet mandatory standards on water consumption, energy use and renewable energy sourcing, with binding targets and enforceable penalties for non-compliance.
3. End all planned waste to energy schemes and ban the creation of future waste incinerators.

Renewable transition

1. Urgently construct solar and wind farms and upgrade the power grid with battery storage to enable the quick transition of Victorian homes and businesses to an all-electric, post-gas energy system.
2. Establish a renewables manufacturing industry (solar photovoltaic, lithium-ion battery and electric vehicles), with guaranteed secure jobs and retraining for workers from the fossil fuel industry.
3. Electrify Victoria’s transport system and commit to 100 percent electric new car sales by 2035, establish a comprehensive fast-charging network across the state including regional and rural areas, electrify the public bus fleet, and end all subsidies and concessions for fossil-fuel vehicles.

Nature and carbon stores

1. Protect, restore and expand Victoria’s natural carbon stores — defending and extending the end of native forest logging introduced in January 2024, establishing large-scale programs of reforestation, restoring native grasslands and wetlands, and protecting blue carbon ecosystems in coastal and estuarine areas.

Adaptation

1. Fund research into adaptation strategies to protect biodiversity, water resources and agricultural yields.
2. Develop a comprehensive urban heat adaptation strategy — including mandatory tree canopy targets, green roofs and walls, shading requirements in new developments, cool corridors in areas of high heat stress, and publicly funded cooling centres accessible to vulnerable communities.
3. Require all new public buildings and public housing to be built to standards that protect residents from extreme heat without reliance on air conditioning, and fund retrofitting of existing public housing stock to the same standard.
4. Develop a managed retreat framework for communities facing unacceptable risk from rising sea levels, flooding and fire, with full financial support for affected working-class residents, no forced relocations without genuine community consent, and particular attention to renters and low-income households with no capacity to relocate.

Democratic rights

1. Repeal the anti-protest laws introduced by Labor governments that have been used to criminalise environmental defenders and peaceful civil disobedience, and restore the right to protest without risk of criminal penalty.