Legislative Council · North-Eastern Metropolitan Region
Heather Maltby
Last verified 30 Sept 2026
Seat context — North-Eastern Metropolitan Region›
North-Eastern Metropolitan elects 5 MLCs and comprises 11 Legislative Assembly districts spanning Melbourne's inner-eastern suburbs (Bulleen, Doncaster) north across the Yarra to Lower Plenty and Eltham, and across to Bayswater, Croydon and the Dandenong Ranges — Bayswater, Box Hill, Bulleen, Bundoora, Croydon, Eltham, Glen Waverley, Ivanhoe, Mill Park, Ringwood and Warrandyte. Renamed from Eastern Metropolitan Region at the 2022 election. A bill abolishing group voting tickets for the Council has passed the Assembly and is before the Legislative Council's 11–13 August sitting.
Background
Platform
Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.
Doubling pension payments, free childcare, ending Australian complicity in what they call the Gaza genocide, rent freezes and landlord accountability, and replacing business-aligned politicians with working-class representatives.
"We need to give the boot to the rich, landlord politicians that run things in the interests of big business, with no regard for the needs of the majority of working-class people."
What Victorians say matters most
5 poll-led issuesCost 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
Wants pension payments doubled and free childcare.
The party's fiscal policy would fund services with a 10% annual wealth tax on billionaires and a 20% bank profits tax.
Crime and community safety
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Housing affordability and supply
Wants the housing crisis addressed through rent freezes and landlord accountability.
The party's housing policy would cut all residential rents 25% then freeze them for five years, and build at least 15,000 public housing units a year for ten years.
State government debt and fiscal management
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Infrastructure and public transport delivery
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Also on the record
6 substance issuesThese don't top “biggest issue” polling, but carry real 2026 policy weight and genuine differences between parties.
Education and training
Works as a high school mathematics tutor.
Health and healthcare access
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Urban planning and housing density
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Climate and energy transition
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Treaty and First Nations affairs
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Regional and rural Victoria
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Local & party context
2 fieldsNot 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.
Their priorities match the Victorian Socialists' statewide platform. SSelf-stated — VS-HM, VS-POLICIESVictorian Socialists, "Heather Maltby"View sourceVictorian Socialists, "Policies"View source
Wikipedia's 2026 candidates table lists them under the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region. RReported — WIKI-2026CANDSWikipedia, "Candidates of the 2026 Victorian state election"View source
Track record & prior candidacies
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
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.
Heather Maltby has not previously contested a state election on the sources retrieved, and the Victorian Socialists's earlier results in this region were not retrieved.