Below is a mock up of a Traffic Light Voting Guide for Footscray. The Hawthorn guide for voters will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.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 The SOUTHERN METROPOLITAN REGION guide for voters in Hawthorn will not be published until after the ballot draw on Tuesday November 10th.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 will turbo charge the effectiveness of your vote in Red Light electorates.

Strategic Preferencing in Hawthorn District

Hawthorn is a Red Light electorate .We strongly advise you to preference the Liberal candidate last. You have three 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 North Eastern Metropolitan Region

Whether you vote below, or above the line, number One Nation or their candidates 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.

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

Community independent Melissa Lowe has been assessed by the Traffic light Voting Team as an Outstanding Green Light Candidate. Melissa is standing in all eleven elctorates for the Southern Metropolitan Region for the Victorian Legislative Council

Why the upper house matters

It’s meant to double-check government’s laws before they pass, a safeguard against one party having free rein. Melissa Lowe our Community Independent is the watchdog it’s been missing.

Climate and clean energy

What this means for you: lower bills, reliable power and a safer climate for your kids.

I will use my vote and committee work to:

• Strengthen Victoria’s legislated targets, aiming to reach net zero well before 2045. I will push for yearly milestones, public reporting and independent advice so we can track progress and meet our targets.
• Speed up renewable energy generation, transmission and storage, with transparent planning, fair benefits for host communities and published reliability checks.
• Ensure no household is left paying more or going cold as we move away from gas. I will support funding for electrification and efficient appliances, prioritising low-income households, renters and apartment owners.
• Oppose new coal and gas extraction and end fossil fuel subsidies. Before approving a new gas pipeline or import terminal, require the government to show that reducing gas demand through efficiency, electrification and storage would not be cheaper.
• Make rooftop solar and batteries accessible to everyone, including renters, apartment residents and people in heritage homes, where red tape can be a greater barrier than cost.
• Defend the end of native forest logging, restore habitat and water catchments, and support workers and communities through a fair transition.
• Prepare for heat, floods and fires with more tree canopy, cooler and more resilient housing, and properly funded emergency services.

Traffic Light Voting Assessment

Melissa has signed up to the Climate Rescue Accord, the 3Rs and the Green Transition

Outstanding Green Light Candidates

Shima Ibuki Community Independent

Hawthorn deserves a representative who is focused on this community.

I’m Shima Ibuki, and I’m running as your independent candidate for Hawthorn in this year’s state election.

For the last 17 years, I’ve lived in Surrey Hills, raising my family and working closely with people across our community. As a councillor and now Deputy Mayor of Boroondara, I’ve been directly involved in making decisions, solving local issues, and delivering outcomes that matter.

That experience has reinforced something simple — people want practical results, not politics.

Right now, at the state level, Hawthorn isn’t getting that. The current government has struggled to deal with key challenges like housing, cost of living, and economic management, while trust in decision-making continues to decline.

Hawthorn needs a representative who is focused on our community, not bound by party lines, or beholden to a political faction, or vested interests.

That’s why I’m running.

As an Independent, I will be accountable to the people of Hawthorn. I will listen, engage, and push for decisions that reflect what this community actually needs.

Vote Climate One Assessment

1. If you are elected to the next Victorian House of Assembly will your policy focus support real action on issues relating to the ecological and climate emergency?

Yes, if I am elected to the next Victorian House of Assembly, my policies will focus on climate action related to the ecological and climate emergency that we are currently experiencing.

2. Are you prepared to use the application of the 3Rs, the Climate Rescue Accord and the Green Transition to inform, when relevant, your position and advocacy on legislation and policy?

Yes, I support the 3Rs, the Climate Rescue Accord and the Green Transition and will use them to inform my position and advocacy on legislation and policy relating to climate action if I am elected to the next Victorian House of Assembly

Green Light Candidates

Kylie Rocha Greens Candidate

Hi, I’m Kylie 👋

I get it. Politics sucks right now.

Lots of talking, not a lot of action. Never a straight answer. 

The day-to-day is getting harder. Our bills keep rising while billionaires and big corporations make record profits. Politicians would rather have us pointing the finger at each other than holding them to account for their inaction.

The system needs a shake-up

I’ve lived in the local area for 15 years and I know our community is vibrant, diverse and compassionate. We want action to protect our environment, real solutions to tackle affordability and housing stress, and investment in the public services that ensure everyone can live a dignified life. We believe in a community that uplifts and supports each other, and want justice for First Nations peoples and Treaty.

Our current representation isn’t meeting this moment. As your MP for Hawthorn, I’ll fight proudly for us and our values. Alongside my Greens colleagues, I’ll work hard to ensure life gets easier for the many, instead of for a wealthy few and ensure big corporations pay their fair share to properly fund the services we need and deserve. 

A new approach

I’m an engineer who has worked across energy and manufacturing. I love tackling complex problems head on, working together with people on the ground to find innovative and sustainable solutions. That’s what the Greens do best too, and that’s the approach I’ll bring as your Member of Parliament.

Money out of politics (like, yesterday)

The Greens take no corporate money. We rely on people like you to power our campaigns, whether through donations or joining us out on the campaign trail.

We’ve always fought to get big money out of politics and make sure politicians are accountable to the community, not their donor mates. 

Politics doesn’t have to suck. Better things ARE possible. We just need to vote for them. 

Vote 1 Kylie Rocha – Greens for Hawthorn

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

Tess McEnearney Victorian Socialists

Hi, I’m Tess and I am running as the Victorian Socialists candidate for Hawthorn in this November’s state election. I believe that working people in our community deserve more than capitalism offers us, and that together we can build a sustainable society that puts people before profit.

I’m a Hawthorn local working in medical research and currently completing a PhD in neurodegeneration. In my work I have seen first hand how the wealthy make decisions – like what research is prioritised and how much funding it gets – that feed unequal health outcomes.

And I see this repeated every day when I look at the way our society is run. Politicians tell us that the housing crisis, the destruction of our climate and environment, and the soaring cost of living are insurmountable challenges. But we all know they’re not: they are the direct result of economic decisions that focus primarily on the pursuit of private profit.

I believe that as working people we have the power to fight back, and organise in a way that demands more than the toothless reforms offered to us by the major parties. No matter who has been in power in recent decades, they’ve barely made a dent in the major problems we face, while producing continual failures in healthcare, education, and employment.

I am willing to challenge the capitalist powers within society that dominate politics and wreck our lives. As a socialist activist and organiser I’ve been part of movements for climate justice, against the genocide in Gaza, and against cuts to community healthcare within our city, alongside others.

That is the kind of grassroots resistance that needs to become common in the Australian political landscape. But it is only by organising together that we can make this kind of change, which is why you should join us in our fight for a better Victoria, and a better world.

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.