‘Don’t get mad, get elected’

Independent MP, Cathy McGowan gives valedictory speech

'The community took a huge risk in voting for me. However, today it feels less risky to vote for an independent and more like a sane, sensible alternative,' outgoing Independent MP Cathy McGowan said during her valedictory speech to parliament. 'Independents do get things done. Independents deliver', the member for Indi said to a pack gallery of supporters. McGowan first won the seat in Victoria's northeast in 2013, defeating long-serving Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella. After six years, she is retiring, hoping to pass the baton on to another independent candidate, Helen Haines. The MP finished her speech with a 'quote from the back of a toilet door at Mittagundi': ‘The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made and the making of these pathways changes both the maker and the destination’.