Legislative Assembly · District of Brunswick
Naomi Farmer
Last verified 23 Sept 2026
Seat context — Brunswick›
Brunswick is a compact (14 km²) inner-north Melbourne seat covering Brunswick, Brunswick East, Carlton North, Fitzroy North, Princes Hill and part of Brunswick West. It was held by the Australian Greens' Tim Read, who increased his margin to 13.5% at the 2022 election, reportedly the safest Greens-held seat at any level of Australian government. Read announced in January 2026 that he would not recontest after a metastatic cancer diagnosis, and died on 19 September 2026, aged 64, while still the sitting MP — the seat has been vacant since. Merri-bek councillor Adam Pulford won a three-way Greens preselection contest in March 2026 to become the party's candidate for the November 2026 general election.
Background
Farmer was involved in the founding of Victorian Socialists in 2018; no formal title (such as co-founder or organiser) is specified in available sources. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
She has been a social-justice activist for roughly 20 years, working across refugee rights, environmental issues, marriage equality and economic-inequality campaigns as a "rank-and-file activist" rather than in public office. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
She documented her experiences during the 2014 Hazelwood coal mine fire in her hometown of the Latrobe Valley, writing reported pieces for Red Flag (Socialist Alternative's paper), including "Disaster in the Valley" (23 February 2014) and "Hazelwood mine still burns" (24 March 2014), plus a 2015 follow-up on the fire inquiry. SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-FARMERRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Author archive: Naomi Farmer"View source
She also bylined a 2019 Red Flag report on a Gippsland dairy workers' strike. SSelf-stated — REDFLAG-FARMERRed Flag (Socialist Alternative), "Author archive: Naomi Farmer"View source
Farmer lives near Anstey Station in Brunswick. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
She moved to Melbourne to study for a teaching degree at La Trobe University and has lived in Melbourne's inner north ever since; sources reviewed do not state whether she completed the degree. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
Her family background — her father was a coal miner and union member — is tied to her hometown of the Latrobe Valley, not to the Brunswick/Merri-bek area; no family history local to Brunswick is stated in sources reviewed. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 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 want to help organise people in our community to challenge growing inequality, war, racism, and the climate catastrophe."
"We could spend money on healthcare and education and disability services if we stop spending so much money on the military and fossil fuels."
"We want to organise people into community and union groups...We're a political home for people who want the world to be better and we do all sorts of things outside the electoral cycle."
Her candidate bio lists her goals as challenging inequality, standing up to billionaires and their allies in major parties, fighting for working-class communities, and opposing public-service cuts and the cost-of-living crisis.
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
"We could spend money on healthcare and education and disability services if we stop spending so much money on the military and fossil fuels."
Party platform (not Farmer-specific): Victorian Socialists push for a public takeover to cap electricity and gas bills and transition to renewables, plus cost-price food hubs and a cap on supermarket prices.
Crime and community safety
Party platform (no candidate-specific statement found): Victorian Socialists would redirect police-budget increases into public housing, youth and social services rather than expanded enforcement.
Party platform also backs the right to vote at 16, full adult pay for young workers, and liveable welfare payments — a justice-reinvestment/youth framing rather than tougher policing.
Housing affordability and supply
Farmer cites housing as her example of Victorian Socialists shaping the major parties' agenda, saying the party pushed housing policy years before Labor and the Greens adopted similar positions.
Party platform: demands a five-year rent freeze, 150,000 new public homes, and a ban on "hoarding property," framed as "housing should be a right, not a commodity."
State government debt and fiscal management
Farmer frames funding for services as contingent on cutting military and fossil-fuel spending rather than raising general taxes — an implicit reallocate-not-borrow fiscal stance.
Party platform: wants to tax the wealth of billionaires and banks to fund essential services, and cap MPs' wages at $96,000 (a sixth-year nurse's wage).
Infrastructure and public transport delivery
Party platform (no candidate-specific statement found, including nothing on the Upfield line, local tram routes, or bike infrastructure): "Public transport should be public" — Victorian Socialists want to reverse transport privatisation, make it free, and upgrade regional rail services.
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
Farmer names education alongside healthcare and disability services as a beneficiary of redirected military/fossil-fuel spending.
Party platform: free, quality public education from early childhood on, universal preschool/childcare, better staff ratios, an end to NAPLAN, and abolition of university fees and student debt.
Health and healthcare access
Farmer works in disability support services and names healthcare, education and disability services as her funding priorities.
Party platform: healthcare should be "universal and free, not for profit," with fully funded public health and expanded free community health clinics.
Urban planning and housing density
Party platform (no candidate-specific statement found on Brunswick planning, heritage or density fights): Victorian Socialists want to end the sale of public land and make developers fund the amenities communities need.
Climate and energy transition
Farmer's own stated goal is to organise people to "challenge growing inequality, war, racism, and the climate catastrophe," and she names fossil-fuel spending as something to redirect toward services.
Party platform: a public takeover of energy to cap bills and transition to renewables, and a demand for 100% publicly owned renewable energy with an end to old-growth logging.
Treaty and First Nations affairs
Party platform (no personal statement from Farmer found): "Treaty should deliver material change — not just symbolic recognition," grounded in acknowledgment that "Australia is built on the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
Regional and rural Victoria
Party platform (statewide, not seat-specific — Brunswick is inner-city and no candidate-specific statement was found): seeks to "rebuild regional transport, secure sustainable jobs, and end the exploitation of rural workers," alongside a broader policy to halt old-growth logging.
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.
Victorian Socialists maintain a campaign headquarters on Sydney Road in Brunswick. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
The party reports having recruited 120+ active local members in Brunswick. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
The article frames Victorian Socialists' Brunswick strategy as targeting progressive voters disaffected by what it describes as the Greens' rightward shift locally — a journalist's characterisation, not a direct Farmer quote. RReported — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMERBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View source
Farmer's own public statements are thin on issue-specific detail and mostly reiterate Victorian Socialists' general reallocate-spending-from-military-and-fossil-fuels frame (health, education, disability services) rather than stating distinct positions of her own. SSelf-stated — BRUNSWICKVOICE-FARMER, VS-FARMERBIOBrunswick Voice, "Socialists dare to dream big in Brunswick" (18 May 2026)View sourceVictorian Socialists, "Naomi Farmer — candidate bio"View source
No divergence from the statewide party platform was found on any of the 11 issues; where she speaks, her framing (inequality, military spending, climate catastrophe, disability services) summarises rather than extends the party's detailed policy pages. SSelf-stated — VS-FARMERBIOVictorian Socialists, "Naomi Farmer — candidate bio"View source
Track record & prior candidacies
No record of Naomi Farmer as a councillor or candidate in Merri-bek (2024) or Moreland (2020) City Council elections, per VEC official ward-by-ward results. VVerified — VEC-COUNCILS-FARMERVictorian Electoral Commission, "Local council election results — Merri-bek (2024), Moreland (2020), Yarra (2024)"View source
No record of Naomi Farmer among current or past (1996–2024) Merri-bek/Moreland or Yarra City Council councillors. VVerified — WP-COUNCILSWikipedia, "Merri-bek City Council / Yarra City Council"View source
The 2022 Victorian Socialists candidate for Brunswick was Nahui Jimenez, not Naomi Farmer, confirming she was not a Brunswick candidate in 2022. VVerified — WP-BRUNSWICKDIST-FARMERWikipedia, "Electoral district of Brunswick"View source
Naomi Farmer does not appear as a candidate anywhere in Wikipedia's 2018 or 2022 Victorian state election articles, for either house or any party. VVerified — WP-2018ELECTION, WP-2022ELECTIONWikipedia, "2018 Victorian state election"View sourceWikipedia, "2022 Victorian state election"View source
In the 2025 federal election, the Victorian Socialists candidate for the overlapping Division of Cooper was Kath Larkin, and the left-of-Labor candidate for the Division of Wills was Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) — neither is Naomi Farmer. VVerified — WP-COOPER2025, WP-WILLS2025Wikipedia, "Division of Cooper"View sourceWikipedia, "Division of Wills"View source
No record of Naomi Farmer as a candidate in Merri-bek (2024), Moreland (2020) or Yarra (2024) City Council elections. VVerified — VEC-COUNCILS-FARMERVictorian Electoral Commission, "Local council election results — Merri-bek (2024), Moreland (2020), Yarra (2024)"View source
Victorian Socialists' own candidate bio page for Farmer lists only her 2026 Brunswick candidacy and does not reference any prior run for office. SSelf-stated — VS-FARMERBIOVictorian Socialists, "Naomi Farmer — candidate bio"View source
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
Naomi Farmer would be eligible for Victorian state election public campaign funding if she receives at least 4% of first-preference votes in Brunswick, or is elected. Funding is then calculated as the lesser of her audited campaign-expenditure statement or the statutory per-vote maximum — currently $7.70 per first-preference vote for Legislative Assembly candidates — indexed annually on 1 July per the Consumer Price Index (per the VEC's own funding guidance, accessed 2026-09-23).
Victorian Socialists, the party endorsing her candidacy, is a properly VEC-registered political party (first registered 6 June 2018, re-registered 7 November 2024) — distinct from the separate, unregistered Socialist Alliance. The 1 July 2026 indexation round also set the political-donation disclosure threshold at $1,290 and the general donation cap at $5,190 per donor, rising to $7,740 from 29 November 2026, after the election, following the Electoral Further Amendment Act 2026.