Hi, my name is Jasmine Al-Rawi, and I’m running as the NSW Socialists candidate for Auburn because our community deserves better than out-of-touch politicians who put big business before ordinary people.

I’m a Western Sydney local and I have seen firsthand how Labor has failed working-class communities while the wealthy continue to profit. Like many people in Auburn, my parents migrated to Australia for a better life. As the daughter of Muslim immigrants, I’ve seen both the human cost of war and imperialism overseas, and the racism and scapegoating migrants face here at home.

Politicians like Pauline Hanson try to blame migrants and minorities for the housing crisis, low wages and overstretched services. But it’s not migrants driving up rents or making life harder, it’s governments that prioritise developers, corporations and the rich over the rest of us. Labor increasingly echoes this anti-migrant rhetoric instead of standing up for the people they claim to represent.

People in Auburn are struggling to afford rent, groceries and bills while public services continue to decline. Our hospitals and schools are overcrowded and underfunded, and our houses now cost more than $1.5 million. This isn’t what the world should look like. We have enough resources to provide everyone with a high quality of life. The problem is how they are distributed.

Like many in my generation and my neighbourhood, I’ve watched with horror as the genocide in Gaza has unfolded with the support of our government here in Australia. For the past several years, I’ve been an organiser in Sydney’s Palestine solidarity movement, helping organise rallies with Palestine Action Group and Students for Palestine. I’m proud to have stood alongside thousands demanding justice and resisting attempts to silence the movement.

If elected, I’ll fight for a politics that puts people over profit, that opposes imperialist wars and that stands with the oppressed.