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The Socialist Equality Party candidates
The SEP is standing candidates for the Senate in New South Wales and Victoria, and contesting nine House of Representatives seats in Sydney, the Hunter Valley, Melbourne and Perth. This page contains a profile of each candidate. Clicking on any candidate will take you to their electorate page.
Senate candidates in NSW
Nick Beams, 59, is the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). He was a founding member of its predecessor, the Socialist Labour League (SLL), in 1972. Widely known as a leading authority on Marxist political economy, Nick has written extensively on the significance of globalised production for the international working class and has lectured in the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and throughout Australia. Born in Britain and raised in Tasmania, he lives in Sydney and is the father of two adult children. He is a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and his articles on economics, politics and history are read by a broad international audience.
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Carol Divjak, 63, was raised in the Hunter Valley and moved to Sydney in 1964. She began work as a laboratory assistant at Courtaulds in Tomago in 1961 and then at Masterfoods in Sydney. In 1976 Carol completed a Trade Certificate in Commercial Cookery and has since notched-up an extensive work history in the food industry, serving as Tasting Room chef for Len Evans’ Food and Wine Club from 1980 until 1989. Between 1999 and 2004 Carol was owner-operator of Bella Ciao in Haymarket. Carol joined the Socialist Labour League in 1984 after publicly resigning from the Labor Party and has since played a leading role in the work of the party’s Sydney Area. Over the past decade she has twice contested elections as an SEP candidate – during the 1998 federal election and the NSW state election in March 2007. She has been married for forty years and has two adult daughters. She is now semi-retired.
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Grayndler
Patrick O’Connor, 27, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and emigrated to Australia with his family in 1989. He attended school in Perth and graduated from University of Western Australia in 2002 with a BA (hons) degree in history. Patrick began reading the World Socialist Web Site in 2000 and joined the Socialist Equality Party in 2003. In 2004 he authored a series of major articles on the WSWS exposing the official lies and cover-up surrounding the death of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey, killed in a police chase in Redfern-Waterloo. A staff writer for the World Socialist Web Site since 2006, Patrick has worked as a WSWS correspondent in the UK, the United States and Paris, where he filed reports on the struggle of student youth against the Chirac government’s First Job Contract legislation. Over the past year Patrick has written extensively on the role of Australian imperialism in the South Pacific, opposing the neo-colonial and militarist agenda of the Howard government.
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Kingsford Smith
Parramatta
| Chris Gordon, 40, has been a supporter of the Socialist Equality Party since 1996 and joined the party in 2005. Born in Inverell, in country New South Wales, he was raised in Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Chris studied at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (honours) degree in Physics. He returned to Australia in 1992 and for the past seven years has taught university-level mathematics at the Sydney Institute of Business and Technology based at Macquarie University. Chris is married with five stepchildren.
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Chifley
James Cogan, 37, has been a staff writer for the World Socialist Web Site since 1998. Raised in the Victorian town of Bendigo, James enlisted in the Australian Army at the age of 17, serving with the infantry until 1990. Opposed to the Hawke-Keating Labor government and the first US-led war against Iraq, James joined the SLL in 1991. He moved to Sydney in 1994 and was elected branch and then Sydney Area Secretary. Over the past four years James has written extensively on the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. His regular articles documenting the ongoing atrocities of US imperialism and its allies in the Middle East are followed by a growing international audience. In 2004 he represented the SEP in the federal seat of Kingsford-Smith, opposing Labor’s Peter Garrett.
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Charlton
Terry Cook, 65, was born in Birmingham, England and emigrated to Australia in the 1960s. He was a founding member of the SLL in 1972 and has been a life-long fighter for the rights of working people, leading numerous struggles in defence of jobs and conditions. A fitter and turner by trade, Terry worked at the Cockatoo Island shipyards and then on the NSW railways. As secretary of the Elcar shop committee in NSW Rail during the 1980s he fought to mobilise workers against the Hawke-Keating Labor government’s Prices and Incomes Accord, enterprise bargaining and other job-cutting programs. In 1992, he became industrial editor of the SLL’s newspaper, Workers News. Since 1998 Terry has written extensively for the World Socialist Web Site on a range of social and political issues facing working people in Australia. Terry has led the party’s work amongst coal miners in NSW and Queensland, as well as public transport workers in NSW and Victoria. He is married with four adult sons.
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Newcastle
Noel Holt, 59, is married with four adult children and 10 grandchildren. He was born and raised on the central coast. A Telstra worker for 41 years, Noel was active in opposing the various Accords signed by the Hawke and Keating Labor governments with the ACTU and employer groups. Elected sub-branch president of the CEPU in the 1970s and NSW branch councillor in the 1980s, Noel joined the SEP in 1996 after many bitter experiences with the role of the trade unions. As an SEP member Noel fought among Telstra workers against the policies of downsizing and privatisation presided over by the trade unions. Over the past decade Noel has campaigned widely in the Newcastle area among workers and young people, raising the necessity for a political break from the nationalist program of Labor and the unions and the adoption of a socialist and internationalist perspective.
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Swan
Joe Lopez, 42, was born in Perth and raised in the working class suburb of Balga/Westminster. In 1984 he joined the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League, opposing from a young age the far-reaching attack on workers’ living standards carried out by the incoming Hawke Labor government. Between 1982 and 1989 Joe worked for the ANZ Bank in metropolitan and regional branches, experiencing first-hand the program of branch closures and “restructuring” enforced by Labor and the unions. Since 1990 Joe has worked as a nursing assistant at hospitals in both Sydney and Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital in Shenton Park.
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Senate candidates in Victoria
Peter Byrne, 48, joined the Socialist Equality Party in 1983. He was born and raised in Melbourne and is married with two adult daughters. He studied architecture at the University of Melbourne from 1977 to I982 and currently works as an architect. Peter became politically active following the election of the Hawke Keating Labor government in 1983. The son and brother of ex-car workers, he witnessed first-hand the sacking of thousands of workers in the early 1980’s as plants closed under the Labor government with the full collaboration of the unions. As a member of the SLL/SEP for more than two decades, Peter has fought to defend the jobs and basic rights of car workers, building workers, pilots, teachers and other sections of the working class. He is a regular contributor to the World Socialist Web Site.
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Tania Baptist, 36, was born and raised in Melbourne and works as a law clerk for a small suburban firm. Tania began reading the World Socialist Web Site after the 2004 federal election and applied to join the Socialist Equality Party in 2006. Politicised by the Iraq war, Tania initially supported the Greens, but soon became disenchanted with their program. In November 2006 during the Victorian state election she campaigned for the party’s candidate in Broadmeadows. She is currently studying part-time for a Bachelor of Arts degree through Open University.
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Melbourne
Will Marshall, 44, has been a member of the Socialist Equality Party (and its predecessor the Socialist Labour League) since 1987. He currently teaches at Footscray City Secondary College. Marshall is a regular contributor for the World Socialist Web Site, specialising in education and the political and social crisis in the South Pacific. He was an SEP senate candidate during the 1998 federal elections and the party’s candidate for the seat of Broadmeadows during the November 2006 Victorian elections.
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Calwell
Frank Gaglioti, 50, has been a member of the Socialist Equality Party (and its predecessor the Socialist Labour League) since 1991. He has worked as a high school science teacher in the public school system for 25 years. Frank has played a leading role in the party’s defence of victimised teachers including Geraldine Rawson, and in opposition to the program of school closures and amalgamations carried out by the Kirner, Kennett and Bracks governments. He is a regular contributor to the World Socialist Web Site, writing on questions of science, including the water crisis, and the role of Australian imperialism in the South Pacific.
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