Renew Australia for All celebrates eastern Melbourne campaign, welcomes new MPs

"The task at hand is to get to 80 percent renewables by 2030. We need to keep pushing the new government to act."

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Evie Dinkelmeyer
May 20, 2025

Hundreds of Renew Australia for All volunteers met for a post-election barbecue on Saturday in Ashwood.

Made up of more than 70 organisations, Renew Australia for All doorknocked and held stalls in the federal seats of Chisholm, Menzies and Deakin, pushing its pro-renewables message.

Charlie Phillips from the Victorian Trades Hall Council said he was pleased with Menzies and Deakin flipping to Labor.

“People were not interested in Dutton’s nuclear policy that was going to be too costly, too slow and too dangerous,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

“We’re now starting to plan what we do next. The task at hand is to get to 80 percent renewables by 2030. We need to keep pushing the new government to act and hold them to account.”

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The new MPs for Chisholm, Menzies and Deakin attended the celebratory barbecue. Each received the gift of a native plant.

Gabriel Ng, the newly elected Labor member for Menzies, said the group’s work helped attract votes to candidates who were in favour of a renewable future.

“I think it’s so important that people get out there and be activists about the things that they believe in,” he said. “The results in Menzies, Deakin and Chisholm are all collective efforts … everything that everyone did here contributed to re-electing a government that’s taking real action on climate change.”

Labor MP for Chisholm, Dr Carina Garland, was re-elected with a 5.8 percent margin.

“The work of the government is never completed,” Garland said. “We can always be doing more, we can always be doing better.”

Labor’s Matt Gregg, who ousted Liberal MP Michael Sukkar in Deakin, said his main goal was to ensure working people were not left behind by the transition to renewables.

“It’s easy for those of us on a good wage to pay for batteries and solar, but there are a lot of folks like renters and single parents that, unless we put in the effort, will not get to harness the full potential of the technologies that we’re investing in,” he said.

Miriam Lyons from The Sunrise Project, one of the groups involved in the Renew Australia for All alliance, said she had been thrilled watching local organisations “pushing their decision makers to get policies that will really deliver things that are great for people, and great for the planet”.