Legislative Assembly · District of Lara
Sarah Hathway
Last verified 30 Sept 2026
Seat context — Lara›
Lara is a safe Labor seat covering northern Geelong and rural areas to the west, including Lara, Corio, Bell Post Hill, Anakie and Balliang, and held by Labor since it was created in 2002. Ella George won it in 2022, succeeding retiring MP John Eren, with 49.7% of first preferences and 65.9% two-party-preferred against the Liberals' Ralph Krein, and is recontesting. Local issues include a proposed gas terminal at Corio Bay and the Corio refinery. The 2026 field found is five candidates: George, the Greens' Theresa Slater, One Nation's Stephen Spyros, the Victorian Socialists' Oliver Randall and Socialist Alliance's Sarah Hathway. No Liberal candidate has been found, and Wikipedia's 2026 table lists Slater as Liberal and Randall as Greens, which the parties' own pages contradict.
Background
Platform
Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.
A renewable energy transition, opposition to fossil gas development, and community-focused rather than corporate-driven policy.
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
Her page carries the party's 2022 theme "Community Need Not Corporate Greed".
Crime and community safety
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Housing affordability and supply
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
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
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Health and healthcare access
Works as a health sector union organiser.
Urban planning and housing density
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Climate and energy transition
Her page lists a renewable energy transition and opposition to fossil gas development, and she is active in the Geelong Renewables Not Gas campaign.
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.
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.
Hathway polled 2.6% in Lara in 2022, below the 4% mark, so no public funding was earned for that contest.