HI, I’M VANESSA BLEYER
When I was in High School, my father went away on business and didn’t come back. My mother worked night shift at the hospital whilst I cared for my sister living with Downs Syndrome. My mother took over by day when I attended school and my evening job. We couldn’t earn enough to pay the mortgage and were evicted from our home. I know what it is like to struggle. It filled me with strength, to fight for access to secure housing and the services we need.
Towards achieving this and the protection of all living species on Earth, I became a lawyer. I secured the first permanent injunction to end native forest logging in Victoria in 2010 and in Tasmania in 2025. I ran cases to end the proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill from 2007 and the proposed Wesley Vale greyhound racing track from 2023. I stopped evictions of long-term residents at the Beauty Point caravan park from 2024 and was instrumental in the Bill currently being presented to parliament to protect caravan park residents across the State.
These great wins come, not just from strong strategy, determination and passion, but from loyalty to the cause and successful teamwork. They come from kind and measured approaches to decision making. All of which are conducive to a consensus driven party room.
As a little girl, I walked through fire ravaged native forest near my home, picking up the empty shells of turtles near the river. I mourned their death. I watched the bright green leaves pop out of the black trunks and branches of the trees as the birds returned to sing. Then I knew. There is and will always be hope. In my 20s, I found where hope lives.
It's in the people and policy of the Greens.
