One of the Socialist Equality Party’s Victorian candidates for the Senate at the Federal Election, Peter Byrne, visited Shepparton on Saturday, May 7.
Mr Byrne is based in Melbourne and said Shepparton was a “very important regional sector”, and he wanted to explain the party’s policies to workers and students, as well as understand the issues of the town.
“Some of the conditions here, it’s got higher than average levels of mental health issues, it's got a very high youth unemployment rate,” he said.
“There's many social problems neither the Labor or Liberal coalition have any policies to address.”
Mr Byrne, who was set up on Vaughan St, also said it was important to visit Shepparton due to its high migrant population.
“We're an international party, we fight for the unity of the working class internationally, so the experiences of people here are bound up with war — often many people have moved here to escape war-torn countries,” he said.
“We're currently campaigning against the war in Ukraine.”
The Socialist Equality Party currently does not have direct vote preferences for the Federal Election.
Mr Byrne said “we are irreconcilably opposed to every other party” and each party “defends the status quo to a greater or lesser extent”.
He said even if you voted for his party, “very little would change; as a very small party, we probably won't get elected”.
“Our perspective is for the working class to develop socialist consciousness, we think the only way that there will be fundamental change is through a socialist revolution,” he said.
Volunteer Keo Vongvixay said the problems of the world “are not confined to your electorate”.