Socialist Equality Party

Chris Gordon, 42, a university mathematics teacher and an SEP member for five years, will stand in Parramatta, the seat he also contested in 2007. The city of Parramatta is the commercial hub of the western suburbs and home to major factories and worksites, including public sector offices, the large Westmead Hospital-Children’s Hospital complex and a University of Western Sydney campus. The seat is currently held by Labor backbencher Julie Owens.

SEP campaigns in Parramatta

Over the past week, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) has campaigned throughout the Parramatta electorate, letterboxing thousands of homes with the party’s election statement and speaking to workers and young people at local railway stations, shopping centres, universities and TAFE colleges.

Once regarded as an electoral stronghold for Labor, the working class suburbs that stretch from Parramatta westward to Penrith at the foot of the Blue Mountains, have become a by-word for political volatility and widespread disgust toward Labor.

SEP candidate for Parramatta discusses urban infrastructure crisis

The following is the edited text of a speech delivered by Chris Gordon at a public meeting last Sunday in his electorate of Parramatta in western Sydney. Gordon concentrated on the crisis of public housing, transport and other infrastructure in the working class suburbs of Sydney’s west.

SEP’s Chris Gordon addresses Your Rights at Work candidate forum

Socialist Alliance & Greens candidates call for Labor vote

On 7 August, Chris Gordon spoke at a candidates’ forum convened by the Parramatta branch of Your Rights at Work (YRAW). The national YRAW organisation was formed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in the run-up to the 2007 federal elections to campaign for a Labor election victory.