The Public Ledger

Legislative Assembly · District of Melton

Jasleen Kaur

Last verified 29 Sept 2026

New Democrats
Candidate photo — pending
Seat context — Melton›
Illustration pending

Melton is a Labor-held outer-western-suburbs seat that becomes an open contest in 2026: sitting MP Steve McGhie, a former paramedic and ambulance union official who has held the seat since 2018, announced in September 2025 that he will not recontest. Labor has preselected local teacher Broden Borg, who grew up in Melton and attended Melton Secondary College. The Liberal candidate is Jarrod Bingham; the Greens' candidate is Veronika Levchenkova, a local mother of four and community organiser. The 2026 field is seven candidates: Labor's Broden Borg, the Liberals' Jarrod Bingham, the Greens' Veronika Levchenkova, Family First's Marlene West, One Nation's Matthew Katselis, the Animal Justice Party's Fiona Adin-Jones and the New Democrats' Jasleen Kaur. At the 2022 election McGhie won 37.7% of first preferences and 54.6% two-party-preferred.

Identity & ballot position§ 01
House
Legislative Assembly
Seat
Melton
Incumbent
No
Party
New Democrats
Ballot position
Not yet assigned
§ 02

Background

Occupation / profession
No occupation was found; only a Facebook page and aggregator listings were located.
Prior public roles
Nothing found in searches.
Local ties
No residence or local ties were found in the sources reviewed.
Education
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
§ 03

Platform

Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.

Stated top campaign priorities

No policy statement was found in the sources reviewed.

What Victorians say matters most

5 poll-led issues

Cost of living and crime have ranked 1st or 2nd in every Victorian poll since mid‑2025, with debt and housing close behind — see schema §3 for the polling this grouping is based on (DemosAU, Ipsos Issues Monitor, Roy Morgan). The 0-10 'priorityScore' on each candidate's issue entries is NOT a measure of true importance or an independent ranking of what a candidate actually cares about. It reflects how much detail and specificity exists in what that candidate has actually said publicly on that issue -- a named policy mechanism and a verified voting record score higher than a one-line stated priority, regardless of the issue's real-world weight. Render this distinction in the UI wherever the score appears; do not label it just 'Priority' without the qualifier.

Cost of living

iWhat this coversPosition on everyday household costs — groceries, utilities, insurance, transport.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Crime and community safety

iWhat this coversPosition on crime rates, policing and community safety, including youth crime and bail law.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Housing affordability and supply

iWhat this coversPosition on home ownership costs, rental affordability, and housing supply/planning.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

State government debt and fiscal management

iWhat this coversPosition on debt levels and what they mean for future taxes and service funding.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Infrastructure and public transport delivery

iWhat this coversPosition on congestion, commute reliability, and cost/timeline overruns on major projects.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Also on the record

6 substance issues

These don't top “biggest issue” polling, but carry real 2026 policy weight and genuine differences between parties.

Education and training

iWhat this coversPosition on school funding and infrastructure, curriculum and teaching quality, university funding and research, and TAFE/VET.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Health and healthcare access

iWhat this coversPosition on hospital and clinic funding, GP/specialist access and wait times, and ambulance performance including ramping.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Urban planning and housing density

iWhat this coversPosition on zoning and density, heritage and consultation processes, urban sprawl versus infill, and access to parks and green space.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Climate and energy transition

iWhat this coversPosition on renewable energy targets, offshore wind delivery, transmission infrastructure, and the reinstated State Electricity Commission.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Treaty and First Nations affairs

iWhat this coversPosition on implementing the Statewide Treaty and the new Gellung Warl representative body, and on future local treaties.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Regional and rural Victoria

iWhat this coversPosition on water security, the native-forest-logging transition, road and service funding, and population decline in country towns.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Local & party context

2 fields

Not scored the way the eleven issues above are — these are fixed facts about the seat and the party, not positions with more or less emphasis behind them.

Seat-specific issues
No Melton-specific issue is attributed to her in any source found.
Party platform alignment
No New Democrats platform or personal policy statement was retrieved, so no comparison is possible and all issues are left empty.
V VerifiedS Self-statedR Reported— hover or tap any mark for what it means
§ 04

Track record & prior candidacies

Terms served
No elected office found.
Portfolios held
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Notable votes, bills, committee work
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Previous candidacies
She stood for the New Democrats in Melton in 2022, receiving 242 votes (0.6%). VVerified — WIKI-MELTON-RESWikipedia, "Electoral results for the district of Melton"View source
§ 05–08

Campaign, money & endorsements

Campaign logistics

Website
No campaign website was found; a Facebook page titled 'Jasleen Kaur - New Democrats Candidate For Melton' appears in search results.
Social
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Contact
Not yet published — no campaign contact found in sources reviewed.
How-to-vote card
Not yet published

Endorsements & Donations

Organisational
None reported in sources reviewed.
Individual
None reported in sources reviewed.
VEC disclosure
Not yet available.
Public funding

Per the Victorian Electoral Commission's funding guidance (vec.vic.gov.au, accessed 2026-09-29 via search snippets of its independent-candidate and registered-party funding pages), a candidate is eligible for public election funding if they receive at least 4% of first-preference votes in their contest, or are elected. Funding is reimbursed against an audited statement of campaign expenditure, and advance funding must be repaid in full if the threshold is missed.

Kaur polled 0.6% in Melton in 2022, below the 4% mark, so that campaign did not qualify for public funding.

Dataset housekeeping

Nomination status
Expected — Listed as the New Democrats' candidate for Melton by The Tally Room (per the 2026-09-24 gap audit); the audit's raw list omitted her from the roll. No VEC nomination lodged yet — nominations close 4 November 2026.
Last verified
29 Sept 2026
Sources
See the Source register below — every V/S/R mark on this page names its specific source on hover.

Source register

WIKI-MELTON-RES
Wikipedia, “Electoral results for the district of Melton” — Encyclopedia (crowdsourced) — View source · accessed 29 Sept 2026