General News
7 August, 2026
Ripon candidate comes forward
The Victorian Socialists have unveiled their candidate for Ripon, with Taylah Brennan-Jones revealed as the party’s second ever contender for the electorate.
In a statement released by the party earlier this week, Ms Brennan-Jones said she was “proud” to be running in this year’s state election.
“I believe working-class people in Ripon keep our community running and collectively we hold the key to building a better and fairer society where everyone has the opportunities to live a decent life,” she said.
In the statement, Ms Brennan-Jones discussed her experience with lack of housing, homeless support, education, and transport as her drivers of “taking real action” on these issues.
“I’m currently involved in an Ararat community initiative targeted at creating more youth-focused events and opportunities across the region. I also work as a swim teacher and full-time as a job coach trying my best to support people with disabilities in addressing systemic barriers to gaining employment,” she said in the statement.
“I’m often frustrated, in this work, at the reality that there’s only so much I can do to help people within the confines of a profit-driven capitalist system. We need real investment into local public services to ensure our rural and regional communities are vibrant, sustainable and thriving for generations to come.”
Ms Brennan-Jones said regional areas are in “urgent” need of fully funded and accessible healthcare, more public and affordable housing and increased public transport routes. She also believes higher expenses and fewer opportunities that come with living in rural areas need to be addressed.
“Politicians at all levels of government benefit from allowing the wealthiest few to stay rich, and they’ve grown increasingly out of touch with the people they’re supposed to represent. In a wealthy society like Australia, there is no reason, other than corporate greed, for the economic disparity that we are facing. Today, the people at the top are seeing their wealth grow rapidly, while the rest of us are just barely scraping by,” Ms Brennan-Jones said.
“We are told that our voices matter. We are told that young people are the future. Yet, our politicians are making decisions that will make our futures worse.
“If elected in November, I’ll show you that together we have power to win the change we need — if we just stand up and fight back against the elite interests that dominate politics today.”
The Victorian Socialist’s most recent Ripon candidate ran in 2018, obtaining 219 first preference votes, amounting to 0.55 percent of all counted. They were the only other Victorian Socialists candidate for the seat of Ripon since the party’s inception earlier that year.