Legislative Assembly · District of Box Hill
Saravina Afaj
Last verified 22 Sept 2026
Seat context — Box Hill›
Box Hill is a 29 km² district in Melbourne's east covering Box Hill, Box Hill North, Box Hill South, Mont Albert, Mont Albert North, most of Blackburn, and parts of Balwyn North, Burwood, Burwood East and Surrey Hills. It has been held by Labor's Paul Hamer since he won it from the Liberals in 2018. At the 2022 election he was re-elected with 57.2% of the two-party-preferred vote, a 7.2-point margin.
Background
States she has been involved in campaigns against racism, homophobia and transphobia, and in climate justice protests. SSelf-stated — VICSOC-AFAJVictorian Socialists, "Saravina Afaj - Candidate profile"View source
States she has campaigned in solidarity with the people of Palestine and against what she describes as Israel's genocide in Gaza. SSelf-stated — VICSOC-AFAJVictorian Socialists, "Saravina Afaj - Candidate profile"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.
"The challenges we face today require bold, collective action and a fundamental shift towards justice and solidarity."
Economic justice: fair wages and workers' rights, and ending inequality through access to quality education, healthcare, and affordable housing.
Environmental sustainability: "ambitious policies that prioritise renewable energy and sustainable practices."
Social equity: fighting "all forms of discrimination and oppression," supporting gender and racial equality.
Democratic participation: a more democratic and transparent political system empowering ordinary 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
Party platform (not candidate-specific): a $35 minimum wage on government-funded work, MPs' wages capped at $96,000 (a nurse's wage level), and "cost-price food hubs" with capped supermarket prices.
Party platform: an immediate cap on household electricity and gas prices, funded by windfall taxes on energy companies, plus wiping existing household utility debts and arrears.
Crime and community safety
Party platform: reform bail law to remove the requirement for accused people to prove why they should be released, with detention reserved for "an immediate and identifiable risk to a person's safety."
Party platform: raise the age of criminal responsibility to 16, and "reverse all funding increases to Victoria Police over the last decade," redirecting it into social welfare spending.
Housing affordability and supply
Party platform: a 25% cut to all residential tenancies followed by a five-year rent freeze, then ongoing rent control capping annual rises at half of CPI or wage growth, whichever is lower, enforced via a proposed Rental Inspectorate Victoria.
Party platform: at least 15,000 new public housing units a year for ten-plus years, plus 15,000 shared-ownership homes a year capped at $400,000 with a 2% interest loan for first-home buyers.
Party platform: a ban on owning more than five properties, with excess holdings seized for public housing; a 30% vacant-land tax after six months vacant; and a requirement that new developments be 30% public or inclusionary-zoned housing.
State government debt and fiscal management
Party platform funds services by taxing wealth rather than austerity: a 10% annual wealth tax on Victorian billionaires, a 5% annual luxury property tax on the top 1% of residences, and doubled payroll tax on firms with $5 million-plus wage bills.
Party platform: resource royalties raised from 2.75–10% to a flat 35%, a 20% bank profits tax on Victoria's five largest banks, and a 20% super-profits tax on retailers earning $100 million or more a year.
Infrastructure and public transport delivery
Party platform: make all public transport permanently free, funded by ending private operator contracts and reversing the privatisation of Victoria's train, tram and bus system without compensation to private operators.
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
Party platform: reduce class sizes to a maximum of 15 (against a current average of roughly 25 in secondary and 26 in primary schools), hire 12,000 additional teachers and support staff, and fully fund the AEU's log of claims in the 2026 Schools Agreement.
Party platform (tertiary): federal abolition of university fees and reinstated free tertiary education, student debt cancellation for below-median earners, and a requirement that most TAFE/VET providers be publicly funded and controlled.
Health and healthcare access
Party platform: lift public hospital beds to at least 3 per 1,000 Victorians, raise healthcare worker wages by at least 2.5% above inflation, and introduce enforceable staff-to-patient ratios.
Party platform: expand the ambulance fleet to cut wait times, make ambulance services free by eliminating Ambulance Victoria membership fees, and establish a state-owned pharmaceutical company.
Urban planning and housing density
Party platform: mandate 30% inclusionary/public housing in all new developments, require 30% canopy tree coverage per suburb (doubled in western suburbs), and permanently extend Victoria's Green Wedges to prevent rezoning and sprawl.
Party platform: protect heritage buildings and streetscapes with no-compensation public-acquisition penalties for breaches, and end the sale of public land and assets and public-private infrastructure partnerships.
Climate and energy transition
Party platform: bring energy infrastructure into public ownership "beginning with distribution networks and progressively extending to generation and retail," via a new publicly owned, not-for-profit energy operator — the party's own, more expansive alternative to the government's existing State Electricity Commission.
Party platform: accelerate to a 100% renewable energy grid, with major investment in offshore wind, solar, battery storage and pumped hydro, plus an expanded Neighbourhood Battery Initiative for community-scale storage.
Treaty and First Nations affairs
Party platform: Treaty must deliver "material change – not just symbolic recognition," including a proposed reparations tax on commercial and investment properties to fund land-theft compensation and reduce the number of First Nations children in out-of-home care.
Party platform: implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Yoorrook Justice Commission, and address stolen wages via payment schemes.
Regional and rural Victoria
Party platform (statewide, not seat-relevant to inner/middle-suburban Box Hill): a dedicated rural and regional roads maintenance program, and reversing rural population decline by building public and low-cost worker housing in regional towns.
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.
Her own candidate page states only broad, generic party themes — workers' rights/economic justice, climate action, anti-discrimination/social equity, democratic transparency — consistent with, but far less granular than, the party's detailed statewide platform on housing, energy, tax and education. SSelf-stated — VICSOC-AFAJVictorian Socialists, "Saravina Afaj - Candidate profile"View source
No evidence was found of her adding personal emphasis or Box Hill-specific detail beyond the party line — her profile reads as a standard candidate template rather than an individually tailored platform.
Track record & prior candidacies
Ran for Sparks Ward on Whitehorse City Council in the October 2024 Victorian local council elections, receiving 678 first-preference votes (9.30%) — last of five candidates. Peter John Allan was elected after preferences. VVerified — VEC-WHITEHORSE2024Victorian Electoral Commission, "2024 Council Election Results — Whitehorse City Council (Sparks Ward)" (2024)View source
Victorian council ballots don't print party affiliation, so whether this 2024 run was formally Victorian Socialists-endorsed could not be independently confirmed from the official result alone. VVerified — VEC-WHITEHORSE2024Victorian Electoral Commission, "2024 Council Election Results — Whitehorse City Council (Sparks Ward)" (2024)View source
No record found of any other prior candidacy: she did not appear in the 2020 Whitehorse council election, the 2022 Box Hill state race (which Victorian Socialists did not contest), or the 2025 federal election for Deakin (the federal division covering Box Hill, which no Victorian Socialists candidate contested). VVerified — VEC-WHITEHORSE2020, WP-BOXHILL-ELECTORATE, WP-DEAKINVictorian Electoral Commission, "2020 Council Election Results — Whitehorse City Council" (2020)View sourceWikipedia, "Electoral district of Box Hill"View sourceWikipedia, "Division of Deakin"View source
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
Under the Electoral Act 2002, a Victorian state election candidate becomes eligible for public campaign funding if they receive at least 4% of first-preference votes in their contest, or are elected. Funding is then calculated against the candidate's audited campaign-expenditure statement and first-preference vote count, up to legislated maximum amounts — currently $7.70 per first-preference vote for Legislative Assembly candidates and $3.84 per vote for Legislative Council candidates, indexed annually on 1 July under section 267 of the Act. As Box Hill is a Legislative Assembly seat, Saravina Afaj would need to clear the 4% first-preference threshold (or be elected) for a public funding claim to arise from this contest.
The 1 July 2026 indexation round set the political-donation disclosure threshold at $1,290 (donations at or above this must be disclosed to the VEC within 21 days) and the general donation cap at $5,190 per donor to a single recipient for the period 15 April – 28 November 2026, rising to $7,740 from 29 November 2026, after the election (per the VEC's 'Political donations' and 'Indexation' pages, accessed 2026-09-21).