Legislative Assembly · District of Niddrie
Brendan Laws
Last verified 22 Aug 2026
Seat context — Niddrie›
Niddrie is a safe Labor seat in Melbourne's north-west, represented by Ben Carroll since a 2012 by-election. Carroll became Victoria's 50th Premier on 28 July 2026, succeeding Jacinta Allan, and is recontesting Niddrie. The Liberal candidate is Samantha Byrne, a Moonee Valley City councillor and current mayor; the Victorian Socialists' candidate is Brendan Laws, a teacher and Australian Education Union rank-and-file organiser. The Greens' candidate is Lana Nguyen, a community-events coordinator.
Background
Describes himself as "a public high school teacher" and the Victorian Socialists candidate for Niddrie. SSelf-stated — VS-BIO-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View source
Red Flag's reporting on the AEU rebellion identifies him as a high school teacher and a leading figure among the teacher-unionist candidates running in the 2026 election. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Quoted directly: "The school I'm working at right now is relatively well resourced, but the sheer amount of work and stress is overwhelming." SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Red Flag's reporting states he previously taught at a low-income school in Werribee before his current, better-resourced school; neither school is named in the sourcing found. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
A specific school name ("Footscray High School") surfaced from a LinkedIn profile that plausibly but not certainly matches him — there are several other people sharing his name, and a search-engine summary attributed to that profile an unrelated detail that reads like cross-contamination from a different person's profile — so it is deliberately excluded here rather than reported as confirmed. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Co-founded the "Socialists in Schools" rank-and-file campaign group within the AEU Victorian Branch, which launched in mid-2025. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
In his own words, on the group's founding purpose: "We organised Socialists in Schools to be the dogged fighters, to raise expectations, to assuage the fears about striking, [and] to let people know what power we have." SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAUNCHRed Flag, "'Ready to fight for a socialist future': eight hundred attend Victorian Socialists' campaign launch"View source
Red Flag's reporting describes him as a leading figure in the rank-and-file rebellion against the AEU Victorian Branch leadership during the 2026 pay dispute, involved in organising two strike days; no independent (non-partisan) source confirming a formal, dated AEU office or title was found. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
The Victorian Socialists' own branch contact page lists him as the party's "St Albans Coordinator" — a party administrative role based in St Albans, a separate suburb and Legislative Assembly district from Niddrie. SSelf-stated — VS-STALBANSVictorian Socialists, "Victorian Socialists Footscray, Williamstown & St Albans: Meet the Candidates"View source
No evidence of prior local council membership, other elected or appointed public office, or board/committee appointment before this candidacy was found: neither his own Victorian Socialists biography nor Red Flag's reporting on his union and campaign activity mentions any such role. VVerified — VS-BIO-LAWS, REDFLAG-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View sourceRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Listed as the Victorian Socialists' "St Albans Coordinator," a party organising role based roughly 10km from Niddrie in a different electorate, rather than a role tied to the Niddrie area itself. SSelf-stated — VS-STALBANSVictorian Socialists, "Victorian Socialists Footscray, Williamstown & St Albans: Meet the Candidates"View source
In his own campaign bio, says he has "been a fighter for education, public services, immigrant and workers' rights both here and in the United States," indicating time spent living or working in the US rather than describing long-standing local roots in the Niddrie area. SSelf-stated — VS-BIO-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View source
An independent political newsletter covering the Victorian Socialists' 2026 campaign noted that he "has an American accent." RReported — DEEPCUT-LAWSDeep Cut News, "Will America's socialist wave sweep into Australia?"View source
No source reviewed — his own campaign bio, Red Flag's coverage, or a general local-Essendon-area news search — states how long he has lived in the Niddrie electorate, which local schools he attended, or any family history in the Essendon/Airport West/Keilor East/Niddrie area. VVerified — VS-BIO-LAWS, REDFLAG-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View sourceRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Platform
Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.
I'm a rebel teacher running against Ben Carroll in Niddrie because I think workers should run the world.
On the issue of education, the ALP is not just out of touch: they're on the other side of the picket line.
As a co-founder of the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file group, has campaigned for the AEU's 2026 log of claims to be fully funded, for public education funding cuts to be reversed, and for public funding of high-fee private schools to end.
This year we've had this huge segment of workers get a bit more confidence, and it is now the most urgent task to translate that into the fight for the whole new society that we deserve.
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
No cost-of-living commentary specific to Laws was found; the position below reflects the statewide Victorian Socialists platform only.
Victorian Socialists support a short-term state energy bill rebate, alongside a longer-term push to nationalise the energy industry to end private-sector profiteering and fund cheaper household power.
Crime and community safety
No crime-safety commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party's platform calls for reversing the past decade's police funding increases, removing military-style weapons and capsicum spray from officers, and establishing an independent, properly funded police ombudsman alongside a Royal Commission into policing and corruption.
On bail and sentencing, the platform proposes a legal presumption in favour of bail for all offences (denied only for immediate safety, witness-interference or flight risk), raising the age of criminal responsibility to 16, and ending mandatory sentencing.
Housing affordability and supply
No housing commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party's housing plan calls for a publicly-built program of new public housing (framed as roughly 150,000 units over ten years), a five-year freeze on rent increases followed by caps at the lower of CPI or the Wage Price Index, ending negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount on investment properties, and mandating that new major developments include at least 30 percent public housing.
State government debt and fiscal management
No debt/fiscal commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party proposes funding its program through taxes on wealth and business rather than debt or cuts, including a 10 percent wealth tax on billionaires, raising company tax to 50 percent, a luxury property tax on the most valuable residences, and increased royalties on coal, gas, oil and mining.
Infrastructure and public transport delivery
No infrastructure commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party advocates making public transport free and publicly owned, reversing privatisation of trains, buses and toll roads, and investing in cycling infrastructure.
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
A public high school teacher, a rank-and-file organiser in the AEU Victorian Branch, and co-founder (mid-2025) of Socialists in Schools, the group that led the campaign for teachers and education staff to vote no on the government's 2026 enterprise agreement offer.
The sheer amount of work and stress is overwhelming. You're writing and rewriting assessments, marking, giving feedback.
A big part of how we won the vote was by being in a fighting position, poking fun at lies and official low expectations.
We put the word 'socialist' on everything. It's very clearly on the tin. But people listen because we make sense.
His campaign, as part of the Socialists in Schools rebellion, has pushed for restoring cut public education funding, ending public funding for high-fee private schools, abolishing NAPLAN, and having the AEU's full 2026 log of claims funded and implemented.
The party's own education platform (which this campaign sits within) calls for a Gonski-plus minimum public school funding model, ending state funding to high-fee private schools, covering full costs of excursions/uniforms/maintenance, free lunches for primary students, abolishing VCE for a holistic curriculum set by teachers/students/communities, and fully funding the AEU's log of claims in the 2026 Victorian Government Schools Agreement.
Health and healthcare access
No health commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party's platform calls for bringing dental and mental health care into Medicare, mandated nurse and aged-care staffing ratios, expanding the PBS to make medicines cheaper, and ending public subsidies to private health insurers.
Urban planning and housing density
No urban-planning commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party's platform calls for mandatory 30 percent public/low-cost housing in new developments, permanent protection and extension of Melbourne's Green Wedges against sprawl, mandatory 30 percent tree canopy in all suburbs, heritage-building protection, and a developer-funded social infrastructure levy for transport, schools, hospitals and parks.
Climate and energy transition
No climate/energy commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party supports public ownership and democratic control of the energy industry and a shift to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030, via a new publicly-controlled renewable energy operator.
Treaty and First Nations affairs
No treaty/First Nations commentary specific to Laws was found; this reflects statewide Victorian Socialists policy only.
The party's platform calls for extending the powers of statewide and local Treaties, increased First Nations control over First Nations affairs, a reparations tax on commercial and investment properties to fund land-theft reparations, and a scheme addressing historical stolen wages.
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.
Frames his candidacy around directly opposing Niddrie's sitting MP, Ben Carroll — Victoria's Premier and the former Education Minister whose government negotiated the 2026 schools enterprise agreement his Socialists in Schools group campaigned against — rather than around local infrastructure or development issues in the Niddrie area. SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
No other genuinely local (Niddrie-specific) policy matters raised by him were found in available sources. SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
His platform is, with one partial exception, identical to the statewide Victorian Socialists platform rather than independently developed: on cost-of-living, housing, debt/fiscal, infrastructure, health, urban-planning, climate-energy, treaty/First Nations, crime-safety and regional-rural, no candidate-specific statements from him were found at all, so his position is inferred entirely from the party's official policy pages. VVerified — VS-EDUCATION, REDFLAG-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education"View sourceRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Education is the exception in degree rather than direction: his personal material (as a teacher, AEU rank-and-file organiser, and Socialists in Schools co-founder central to the 2026 pay dispute) tracks the party's official education policy point-for-point but adds first-person, campaign-level specificity and lived detail the generic platform page doesn't carry. VVerified — VS-EDUCATION, REDFLAG-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education"View sourceRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Overall: near-total alignment, consistent with what would be expected of a minor-party lower-house candidate running on the statewide ticket rather than a personal platform. VVerified — VS-EDUCATION, REDFLAG-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education"View sourceRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Track record & prior candidacies
Describes himself as a public high school teacher and a rank-and-file member/organiser within the Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian Branch, per his own Victorian Socialists candidate bio. SSelf-stated — VS-BIO-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View source
No formally dated union office (e.g. sub-branch president, council delegate) is stated in sources reviewed. SSelf-stated — VS-BIO-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View source
Founding member/leader of "Socialists in Schools," a rank-and-file union campaign group launched by around a dozen Victorian Socialists members in mid-2025 to organise socialist teachers within the AEU; no more precise founding date than "mid-2025" is given in sources reviewed. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Described in coverage as "a leader of the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file union group," but no formal, dated internal Victorian Socialists party position (e.g. branch officer, state committee) is reported in sources reviewed. RReported — REDFLAG-LAUNCHRed Flag, "'Ready to fight for a socialist future': eight hundred attend Victorian Socialists' campaign launch"View source
Co-founded and helped lead "Socialists in Schools," a rank-and-file campaign group inside the AEU Victorian Branch that organised against the union's conservative leadership. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Campaigned for a "no" vote on the Victorian government's 2026 teachers' pay agreement, including producing online educational content and speaking at public forums against the deal. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Played a role in organising the March 2026 Victorian teachers' strike — the first statewide teachers' strike in 13 years — which brought an estimated 35,000 teachers into Melbourne's CBD, described in coverage as "the biggest mobilisation in the union's history." RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Continued organising through the AEU's second major strike day in July 2026 amid the deadlocked teachers' pay dispute with the Allan/Carroll Labor government. RReported — REDFLAG-STRIKE-AGAINRed Flag, "Victorian teachers strike again"View source
At the Victorian Socialists' 2026 state campaign launch (attended by roughly 800 people), spoke publicly about Socialists in Schools' role in building rank-and-file confidence to strike: "We organised Socialists in Schools to be the dogged fighters, to raise expectations, to assuage the fears about striking, [and] to let people know what power we have ..." SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAUNCHRed Flag, "'Ready to fight for a socialist future': eight hundred attend Victorian Socialists' campaign launch"View source
"This year we've had this huge segment of workers get a bit more confidence, and it is now the most urgent task to translate that into the fight for the whole new society that we deserve." SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-LAUNCHRed Flag, "'Ready to fight for a socialist future': eight hundred attend Victorian Socialists' campaign launch"View source
Announced a "rebel educator" campaign — a group of teachers and education support staff explicitly targeting sitting Labor MPs, including Ben Carroll (his own opponent in Niddrie, and Victoria's Premier and former Education Minister) over the government's handling of the teachers' pay dispute. RReported — REDFLAG-LAWSRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament" (12 Aug 2026)View source
Self-describes as having been "a fighter for education, public services, immigrant and workers' rights both here and in the United States," indicating prior activism experience in the US, though no specific US campaign, organisation, or dates are named in sources reviewed. SSelf-stated — VS-BIO-LAWSVictorian Socialists, "Brendan Laws — Niddrie candidate biography"View source
No prior candidacy for any office was found. VVerified — ABC-NIDDRIE-2022ABC News, "Niddrie - VIC Electorate, Candidates, Results (2022 Victorian state election guide)"View source
He did not contest Niddrie (or, per available search results, any other Victorian state or federal seat) at the 2022 Victorian state election — the Victorian Socialists' 2022 Niddrie candidate was Brad Reich, not Brendan Laws. VVerified — ABC-NIDDRIE-2022ABC News, "Niddrie - VIC Electorate, Candidates, Results (2022 Victorian state election guide)"View source
And no local council candidacy under this name was found in a search of Victorian Electoral Commission and local government sources. VVerified — ABC-NIDDRIE-2022ABC News, "Niddrie - VIC Electorate, Candidates, Results (2022 Victorian state election guide)"View source
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
Per the VEC's own funding guidance (Funding for Independent Candidates page, accessed 2026-08-22), a candidate is eligible for public election funding if they receive at least 4% of first-preference votes in their contest, or are elected; the payment amount is then calculated from the candidate's audited statement of election expenditure, the number of first-preference votes received, and the legislated maximum amounts.
This 4%-or-elected eligibility test was unaffected by the 2026 donation-regime disruption — the High Court's 15 April 2026 ruling in Hopper v Victoria struck down Part 12 of the Electoral Act 2002 (donation caps, foreign-donor rules, and disclosure/reporting requirements), and the subsequent Electoral Further Amendment Act 2026 reinstated donation caps and disclosure obligations retrospectively from 15 April 2026, but the VEC states this same legislation maintained eligibility for the other two streams of political funding — policy development funding and public funding — leaving the vote-share/election test unchanged.
As a minor-party candidate in Niddrie, a very safe Labor seat, whether he individually clears the 4% first-preference threshold is not yet known this far from the 28 November 2026 election.