Some of Western Australia’s most prominent social justice advocates have banded together to announce they will be running for the Federal Senate under a joint ticket at the upcoming election.
The group of six will be campaigning to bring to light inequalities facing marginalised people in Western Australia.
Candidate Megan Krakouer from the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery project said the changes they want to make in the state stem from acute issues.
“We've had 10,000 suicides, black, white, and brown in a three year period, with a lot of injustices in relation to homelessness, where we had 57 people die on the streets last year in Western Australia, due to homeless, we see a lot of our families who aren't getting that support," she said.
Ms Krakouer also said lives were being lost as a result of some of the inadequate services.
“There is a gap, in terms of the haves and the have nots," she said.
"We're there to represent the most vulnerable and marginalized cohort in Western Australia and indeed, right across the nation."
The members of the group will be running as independents, and include the directors for the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, Dianne Logan, Riyadh Hakimi, Gerry Georgatos and Jennifer Kaeshagen.
Megan Krakouer said one of their key aims will be to introduce a human rights Act to Australia.
“One of the things that we will be pushing for is a Human Rights Act, it’ll be federal, we know that a lot of people are being deported and we know that there's a lot of issues surrounding that and the severity in terms of the distress levels that brings the families is one harrowing,” she said.
“We also know that a lot of brothers and sisters are being denied rights. We know that in terms of incarceration, there are those that are being left behind”.
The group will not follow any party lines and the six candidates would all have a choice to speak and vote on certain issues.
