Hi, I’m Emma. I’m running in the 2027 state election as the NSW Socialists candidate for Summer Hill. I’m a train driver, a trade unionist and a renter raising a young family in the Inner West.

Working class and young people in Summer Hill face an acute housing crisis. Rents and house prices are ludicrously high and only growing, pricing out the workers who staff our hospitals, teach our kids and drive our buses.

I have been fighting against the Labor-dominated council’s plan to further gentrify the Inner West, demolish low-cost rentals and replace them with overpriced luxury apartments. Labor’s development proposals boost the profits of developers, banks and investors while only worsening the housing crisis for ordinary people.

We need real solutions to the housing crisis: caps on rents, hefty penalties for keeping homes empty and government construction of public and affordable housing. Our suburbs should be democratically planned by the community, for people not profit.

I have been part of Rail, Tram and Bus Union campaigns for the past six years, demanding fair pay and conditions for rail workers in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. In the most recent bargaining period we took a stand against the anti-union Minns government and then transport minister Jo Haylen, the member for Summer Hill. We demanded a decent pay rise after years of decreasing real wages. The Minns Labor government has continued the Liberal’s war on all public sector workers - suppressing wage growth and refusing to properly fund our schools, hospitals and public transport.

We are facing a cost of living crisis: basic goods and services are too expensive, bulk-billed healthcare has virtually disappeared, our hospitals and schools are badly understaffed and we pay some of the highest road tolls in the world.

There are socialist solutions to this crisis. Services like public transport, childcare, energy, and health should be in public hands and run for human need. Workers need pay rises that compensate for years of inflation, and we need price caps on essential goods to prevent supermarkets from price-gouging.

I’ve spent 15 years campaigning for social justice. For equal marriage, climate action, Indigenous rights, and for peace and justice for the people of Palestine. I believe that by collectively taking a stand, we can make a real difference, and I will continue to support campaigns for justice in our community.

In this election I want to bring a socialist vision to Summer Hill, one that brings working class people together to stand against the rich and the politicians who serve them.