Socialist Equality Party

The Socialist Equality Party candidate in Broadmeadows is Peter Byrne, 51, an architect and son of a car worker, who joined the SEP in 1983. For more than two decades, he has played a leading role in the work of the party’s Melbourne area, including in campaigns to defend the jobs and basic rights of car workers, building workers, pilots and teachers.

Byrne represented the SEP in Broadmeadows in the Victorian election and the August federal election for the seat of Calwell, which includes Broadmeadows. Due to antidemocratic state electoral laws designed to prop up the two-party system, he will appear on the state ballot without being identified as a candidate of the SEP.

The socialist alternative in the Broadmeadows by-election

Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 31 January 2011

The Socialist Equality Party calls on working people and youth to support our candidate Peter Byrne in the Victorian state by-election being held in Broadmeadows on February 19. The SEP provides the only genuine alternative for the working class—a socialist and internationalist program to defend its independent class interests, in opposition to the entire political establishment—Labor, Liberal, and Greens.

Support the socialist alternative in the Victorian state election

Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

The Socialist Equality Party calls on working people and youth to support our campaign for the Victorian state election on November 27 and our candidate Peter Byrne for the Melbourne electorate of Broadmeadows.

Labor government accelerates rundown and privatisation of public housing

By Will Marshall, 24 November 2010

Successive Labor and Liberal governments in Victoria have starved public housing of funds. The most disadvantaged people in the state currently languish on waiting lists for almost three times as long as they did when the Labor government was first elected in 1999.

Desalination workers challenge attempt to cover up spying affair

By Patrick O’Connor, 23 November 2010

The unions’ concern was not to uncover the truth about what happened, but to ensure the desalination project resumed as soon as possible, thus demonstrating to the company, and the state Labor government, their vital function as industrial police.

Labor’s “world class health system” leaves thousands of Victorians waiting for treatment

By Tania Baptist, 23 November 2010

Despite intensive cover-up efforts by the government and health department chiefs, it is now clear that last year hundreds of thousands of people across the state were unable to access essential medical treatment within clinically desirable timeframes.

Bipartisan support for repressive “law and order” measures in Victorian election

By Peter Byrne, SEP candidate for Broadmeadows,
20 November 2010

Almost every day of the campaign has seen one or other of the major parties announce new spending on police and public transport security as part of their so-called “crack down” on crime.

The Victorian Labor government’s “jobs pledge” and the unemployment crisis

By Margaret Rees, 18 November 2010

The “jobs pledge” is a cynical fraud aimed at covering over the real record of protracted corporate onslaught on workers’ jobs, wages and conditions in the manufacturing sector.

Victorian opposition directs preferences to government, almost ensuring a Labor victory

By Patrick O'Connor, 16 November 2010

The extraordinary decision ensures that as many as six inner Melbourne seats that Labor risked losing to the Greens will almost certainly be retained by the government, meaning it will likely win another term in office.

SEP (Australia) holds election meeting in Broadmeadows

15 November 2010

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) held a successful public meeting yesterday in the Broadmeadows electorate as part of its campaign for the November 27 state election in Victoria.

Video: SEP candidate speaks with residents in toxic dump area

12 November 2010

This video features Peter Byrne, Socialist Equality Party candidate for Broadmeadows, and interviews with local residents.

Victorian government tries to cover up ambulance crisis

By Margaret Rees,
9 November 2010

In the lead-up to the state election in Victoria on November 27, the Labor government has sought to smother the public outcry over the deaths and suffering of patients because of its chronic underfunding of the Ambulance Victoria (AV) service.

Business concerns over Greens and threat of hung parliament dominate Victorian election debate

By Peter Byrne, SEP candidate for Broadmeadows,
6 November 2010

Last night’s televised debate between Victorian Premier John Brumby and opposition Liberal leader Ted Baillieu was dominated by discussion on the implications of the rise of the Greens and the threat of a hung parliament after the November 27 vote.

Union rams through sellout deal for warehouse workers

By Patrick O’Connor,  November 5, 2010

As a result of the sellout deal, many of the casual workers will lose several hours of overtime payments and receive substantially lower wages.

Labor joins Murdoch media smear campaign in Victorian election

By Mike Head, November 5, 2010

Within days of the launch of the state election campaign by Labor Premier John Brumby, a Murdoch-owned News Limited newspaper initiated a smear operation against Greens candidate, Melbourne barrister Brian Walters.

Striking warehouse workers isolated as trade unions prepare sell out deal

By Patrick O'Connor, November 4, 2010

Workers at the Broadmeadows distribution centre must break with the NUW and organise a rank and file committee, with trusted workers elected as leading representatives.

Global financial crisis leaves two million Australians in poverty

By Mike Head, November 4, 2010

Two studies have provided a damning picture of the immense social distress being caused by the restructuring of working and living conditions in Australia following the financial crash of 2008.

Warehouse workers strike over wages and conditions

By Chris Sadlier, November 1, 2010

More than 500 workers have taken strike action at a major warehouse operated by supermarket giant Woolworths in the northern Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows.

Victorian government buries toxic dump as election issue

By Peter Byrne, SEP candidate for Broadmeadows
30 October 2010

W The Victorian state government is doing its utmost to head off anger among residents over an apparent cancer cluster in Melbourne’s northern suburbs around the Tullamarine Hazardous Waste Landfill.

Victorian government covers up desalination plant costs

By Margaret Rees
27 October 2010

With the Victorian state election looming on November 27, the Labor government of Premier John Brumby is deliberately hiding the huge costs and potential social impact of its private public partnership (PPP) deal with the AquaSure consortium for a water desalination plant now under construction near the town of Wonthaggi.

Austerity agenda hidden as Victorian state election campaign begins

By Susan Allan, October 15, 2010

While the Victorian election campaign has not yet officially commenced, it is already clear that there will be no mention of the worsening global economic breakdown, or the cutbacks to social spending being prepared behind closed doors.

SEP candidate demands immediate end to Tullamarine health hazard

By Peter Byrne
19 August 2010

Residents in the Melbourne suburbs of Gladstone Park and Westmeadows in the Calwell electorate are facing serious health risks as a result of chemical leakage and fumes from the nearby Tullamarine Hazardous Waste Landfill. The dump was closed in 2008, but the dangers have persisted due to totally inadequate remediation and capping works that have still not been completed.

Responsibility for the ongoing health hazard rests with the landfill operators, who cut corners to maximise profits, and successive Labor and Liberal state governments that stonewalled over demands for the dump’s closure and systematically played down its dangers. From the outset, the overriding imperative has been to provide cheap toxic waste disposal for industry at the expense of workers and local residents.

SEP candidate for Calwell addresses the social crisis facing workers and youth

The following is the text of the speech delivered by Socialist Equality Party candidate Peter Byrne to a public meeting held on 8 August in his electorate of Calwell in Melbourne’s working class northern suburbs. Byrne focussed his remarks on the social crisis confronting working people after decades of de-industrialisation and economic restructuring.