Campaign Launch Speech – Stella Yee, Independent for Menzies

Good afternoon everyone,

Thank you for being here today.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we’re meeting today, and pay respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.

It means so much to see so many of you — friends, neighbours, and community members — standing together as we take this important step in this campaign. A campaign to put our community first, to put people first, and to hold our leaders accountable.

Who I Am and Why I’m Running

My name is Stella Yee, and I have called Menzies home for 24 years—2 in Surrey Hills and 22 in Doncaster. I’m a small business owner, an active community member and advocate, and a volunteer. Most of you would probably know this about me already or you’ve read it from the flyer that Al and I have been handing out at various places.

What very few people know is that I can say that I have been an environment activist for as long as Bob Brown! He had the first meeting with a group of people in 1976 which led them to form a group to stop the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania.

I was in primary school in 1976 and grew up living in a small kampung (a village) in Sabah which was subjected to nonstop pollution from open burning of scrap timber by the sawmills and plywood factories nearby. Even as a child I knew that it wasn’t right. When I said this to my father, he said they’re burning it on their land. So I said then they should also keep the smoke and ash to their land. That was the logic that I had picked up from reading The Merchant of Venice where Portia said you can have a pound of flesh but spill no blood.

Anyway, I took photos of the billowing smoke from the burning piles over the kampung to send to the newspaper. But the only English newspaper was in the capital city so I never did send it.

That was an important moment in my life: I realised I did not like people who abuse their power, who did not care about how their actions affect others, I did not like being powerless to change things. Importantly, I also realised that I did not simply accept the injustice. I tried to do something about it.

I’m telling this story because it’s relevant today. I am someone who believes in fairness, justice, and the power of people to make a difference.

In 2019, I ran for federal parliament as the Labor candidate for Menzies, believing that change could come from within a major party. But over time, it became clear that both major parties are failing us. The two-party system is broken. They serve their donors, their party interests, and their own political survival first and not us, the people.

That’s why I’m running as an Independent. Because I refuse to accept that politics is just about power. I believe it should be about people.

The System is Failing Us

We are living in a time of crisis.

The cost of living is soaring.
Home ownership is slipping further out of reach for young people and older people.
Infrastructure is years behind where it should be.
Climate action is too slow and too weak.

It wasn’t long after we came here from Malaysia that I first heard the saying “She’ll be right.”

Well, to be honest, having followed politics for the past little while now I’m not so sure that Australia will be right if we keep doing the same things the same way that led us to this point.

We have done our part. We work hard, pay taxes, obey the law, we volunteer and contribute to our communities. But what’s failing us is our government.

We all remember the destructive Abbott government, the ineffective Turnbull government, and the godawful Morrison government, whose greatest legacy was Robodebt—a scheme that wrongly targeted half a million Australians, causing real harm while those responsible faced no real consequences. The powerful abusing their power with no regard about the impact of their actions on innocent people. Everything I had disliked from all those years ago.

And in 2022, when Labor won, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We thought, finally, no more incompetence. But over time, we started to see a familiar pattern—the same preference for big business over everyday Australians.

We saw it on climate action, where they approved more gas fields and coal mines.

We saw it on gambling reform, where they backed down in the face of big money.

And we saw it clearly when Senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to vote in line with her own party’s platform — to recognise the state of Palestine — only to be punished for showing moral courage.

I’m grew up in Malaysia where people were punished for speaking out, for following their conscience and for having moral courage. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I knew I could not stay in a party that demanded absolute allegiance over standing up for what is right.

The 3-Year Election Cycle is Holding Us Back

A big part of the problem in Australia is that our government never plans for the long term.

Because of the three-year election cycle, both major parties are either trying to get into power or trying to hang on to power.

That means:

No long-term planning.
No vision for future generations.
No real solutions to issues like housing affordability and infrastructure development.

And at the heart of this failure is a lack of intergenerational equity. Each generation should be able to build on the successes of the previous one, not be burdened by their failures. But right now, young Australians are being priced out of housing, forced into insecure work, and left to deal with the consequences of climate inaction. Instead of investing in their future — through affordable education, sustainable infrastructure, and meaningful job creation — the government prioritises policies that benefit short-term profits over long-term prosperity. If we continue down this path, we will be the first generation in modern history to leave our children worse off than ourselves. That is not progress — it is a betrayal of the Australian promise.

Governments fail us because they don’t plan for the long term.

Let me give you some examples.

Housing & Infrastructure Failures

Singapore — a small island nation, only 60 years old and has nearly 6 million people — has 90% home ownership.

Meanwhile, in Australia, we’ve been a country for double the time, 124 years, only 66% of us own our home. We have a situation where young and older people are being priced out of the housing market and more people are becoming homeless.

On Infrastructure

We are falling behind — and nowhere is this clearer than in public transport.

24 years ago, when I left Malaysia, they had two train lines:

The old KTM railway built by the British,
And the KLIA Express train to the airport.

Today?

They have the MRT, LRT, monorail, KTM, and ERL.

A modern, efficient system that connects cities, suburbs, and people.

Meanwhile, right here in Menzies, let’s talk about Doncaster Rail.

First promised in 1890.
Land has been bought, land has been sold, plans have been made and scrapped.
Five generations of Doncaster residents have waited in vain.
Now, we are being told to wait for the Suburban Rail Loop, which might—if it even happens—give us a station in 2050. Maybe.

We are being left behind. And it’s not an accident.

We’re left behind because we’re not a priority to the major parties. They care about marginal seats, not safe ones, and Menzies has been a safe Liberal seat for decades. They care about their own survival, not our future.

Government Favoritism Towards Big Business Over Everyday Australians

Another example of how governments of all stripes put big business ahead of ordinary Australians is the massive subsidies handed to the fossil fuel industry.

In the 2023–24 financial year, federal and state governments allocated $14.5 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users. That’s a 31% increase from the $11.1 billion handed out in 2022–23. Over time, fossil fuel subsidies have cost $65 billion—lining the pockets of multinational corporations while Australians struggle with rising energy costs and suffer through climate-related disasters.

But here’s the real kicker — many of these companies pay little to no corporate tax. The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) is so poorly designed that over half of all gas exports incur zero royalties. In fact, the government collects more revenue from student loan repayments (HECS) than from the PRRT.

And who owns these massive fossil fuel companies?

ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP—foreign multinational corporations.
The wealth generated from our resources doesn’t stay in Australia. It goes offshore, while we are left to deal with the environmental and economic consequences.

While we’re on the topic of fossil fuels, have you heard of the great Australian gas rip-off?

Australia is one of the largest gas exporters in the world. Yet, despite exporting billions of dollars’ worth of gas, we are now experiencing gas shortages at home, driving up energy prices for Australian households and businesses.

How did this happen? Because in the early 2000s, under the Howard government, Australia failed to introduce a domestic gas reservation policy—unlike countries like Qatar and even Western Australia, which ensure a portion of their gas production is reserved for local use at reasonable prices.

As a result:

We sell our gas overseas for a fraction of what Australians pay at home.
Multinational companies profit, while Australians struggle with soaring energy bills.
The government refuses to act because they prioritise the interests of the fossil fuel industry over everyday Australians.

Is this a good deal for us? Absolutely not. This is economic mismanagement at the highest level, and it’s everyday Australians who are paying the price.

Contrast this with how Norway manage their wealth in natural resources: Through the Sovereign Wealth Fund (Norwegian Oil Fund), they prudently invest Norway’s oil and gas revenues. Oil wealth helps fund universal healthcare, free higher education, and generous social welfare programs. And Norway has one of the highest standards of living and lowest income inequality globally.

Finally, imagine there is one family-sized pie to be shared among all Australians.

Instead of ensuring a fair share for everyone, governments have handed half the pie to a handful of individuals and big corporations. That leaves the rest of us — millions of Australians — fighting over the remaining half, scrambling for just a tiny sliver, sometimes just a crumb.

And if that’s not bad enough, some politicians — leaders of their own parties, even — try to pin the blame on “them.” Over the decades, “them” has referred to different groups: Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese, Chinese, Africans — anyone who migrated here. They claim “they” are stealing our jobs, coming here just to collect Centrelink payments, and so on.

But the truth is, the problem isn’t “them”. The problem is a system, put in place and adopted by governments of all stripes, that lets a privileged few hoard half the pie while the rest of us are left to struggle.

A Different Way Forward

This election, we have a choice.

We can continue voting for the same parties that have:

Failed to put people first.
Failed to plan for the future.
Failed to give us the government we deserve.

Or, we can do something different.

We can elect independents who will:
✅ Hold the government to account.
✅ Fight for real investment in health, housing, public infrastructure, in people, and in the health of the planet
✅ Represent our community, not party donors.

A Moment in History

We are living in a moment in history filled with challenges.

After World War II, we never thought we would see the rise of authoritarianism in Western democracies, or a return to a time when governments sought to limit our rights.

And now, with the Earth warming at an unsustainable rate, we must ask: What kind of world are we leaving for our children?

We all say we want to leave the world a better place, but what kind of choices are we making today?

Will doing the same thing lead to a different outcome? Or do we find the courage to do things differently?

The major parties have had their chance. They have had the privilege of forming government in their own right and they have taken it for granted. Taken us for granted.

The time has come for sensible independent voices to sit at the table— to represent their communities and hold the government to account.

A Vote for Stella is a Vote for You

This election, vote for a representative who puts YOU first.

I am Stella Yee, and I am ready to stand for you. I hope I have your support.