How Community Independent campaigns actually work
Cathy McGowan AO, former Member for Indi
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on January 11, 2025 as "Jewels of engagement".
I’m standing in Yulecart Memorial Hall on the Dartmoor-Hamilton Road, just west of Hamilton, Victoria. The building is 100 years old, made of bluestone and well used to community action. On the front wall are gold-printed honour rolls recording leaders of the town’s tennis club, members of its wool craft guild and locals who died in the two world wars.
It is a mild spring day in October, at least five months out from the expected May election. The car park is full and the hall buzzing. It’s a diverse crowd, more middle-aged than old, well dressed in a conservative country way. Together they sort out name tags, bring the makings of a delicious afternoon tea and chat with a sense of low-key excitement and expectation.
The occasion is an opportunity to meet the aspiring Community Independent candidate for Wannon, Alex Dyson. A radio presenter, Dyson has run in two previous elections. But this time it’s different: he’s in with a chance. The crowd could feel it in their bones.
Already the electorate has been bombarded with flyers warning voters about the dangers of shifting their vote from the incumbent. As one participant put it: “They must be worried if they are spending this sort of money on this once-safe, conservative seat, so far from Melbourne and Canberra. And it is only October.”
After introductions and a few short speeches, the work begins. Small groups practise the skills of actively listening, getting feedback on how to resist the temptation to interrupt and impose their own views. They learn how to engage. They are reminded of that old rule of politics: people won’t remember what you said; they will remember how you made them feel.
It’s not only in Wannon that these types of community events are being organised. Data from the Community Independents Project estimates community groups have begun organising in at least 51 federal electorates.
Thirty electorates have already identified Community Independent candidates and another 13 have begun processes for selecting theirs. Twelve are actively looking to 2028. In every state and territory, tens of thousands of people are donating their time, resources and energy to practise democracy in this way.
The reason for this can be explained by a mix of push and pull.
The push is obvious. A deep sense of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with how politics is being done has impacted the major party vote, bringing it to historic lows. People are concerned about the failure of governments to meet basic needs. They are alarmed at the high levels of homelessness and the strains in public health and education. There is also – always – the failure to act effectively on the changing climate.
The pull is a Community Independents model based on hope and process. There is the hope that by working together, backed by agreed values and behaviours within and with community, there can be better outcomes. This hope extends to process: that their own chosen representative will improve the political process by working outside the shortfalls of the two-party system.
While it is still early days, there is strong evidence the Community Independents model is delivering. In Indi, where I was elected as an independent in 2013, there has been significant improvement in the quality and level of representation and active engagement in politics. Locally there has been investment in infrastructure and improvement in the basic level of service delivery, especially in transport and telecommunications.
Community Independents are popular, get re-elected and are having significant political impact.
There are many examples of legislation being introduced and amended by the community independents, with positive results. One example is their pivotal role in the design and delivery of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
These are the things that motivate a group such as Voices4Cowper, covering the coastal New South Wales communities to the north and south of Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, similar in its operations to the many other electoral groups across the country. They engage with their community through a series of kitchen-table conversations, surveys, market stalls and community events. After collating the views and issues, Voices4Cowper published a report and called for interested community members to stand as a candidate. They looked for someone who aligned with the identified issues and their purpose “to encourage community engagement in the democratic process”.
Caz Heise was selected through this community-designed process. With strong professional credentials in health and emergency management, Heise is a skilled community organiser, team leader and policy strategist. She’s a local and knows the communities intimately.
More than 3,000 people – close to 2.3 per cent of the electorate – have signed up to her database. At least 20 have stepped into leadership roles and 500 volunteers have already knocked on more than 2,000 doors.
Heise understands why people want to get behind a Community Independent candidate. She sees the competitive advantage in how the community is engaged. It’s this process that is key to the success of the Community Independents model.
“We put community at the centre of everything we do,” Heise says. “We walk the talk of being the change we want to see. We provide a safe place for people to be together. Everyone signs up to our values. We provide opportunities to learn, for people to step up into leadership roles. We offer excellent training – workshops on doorknocking are very popular and fun, and every volunteer is warmly inducted into the process. It’s not only the creating of a sense of belonging and building the community that appeals to people; we actually do things.”
It is not only individuals who are involved. Community and regional groups are finding their voices and welcome the opportunity to be actively engaged in politics, to bring their knowledge and experience to the table, to be heard.
“In Cowper, we know the local issues and we are acting on them,” Heise says. “We are developing a regional energy power plan. We have a connection plan to address the mobile phone black spots, a working party on NDIS.”
This process of genuinely listening creates a sense of optimism. There is relief in being heard. It counters the sense of disillusionment and offers hope. It is the hope that comes with being part of the solution, the sense of belonging. It’s contagious and it is liberating.
The Community Independents movement is motivated by a shared sense that our democracy is not delivering the benefits it could or should. The offer of this movement is for each and every one to be the change, to turn up, speak up and step up. The Community Independents movement asks of every voter the question, “If not you, then who?”
This motivation, the pull, is well summarised by a participant at the Yulecart Hall gathering: “Being part of the Community Independents movement enables us to return to the founding principle of Australian democracy, where a member of parliament’s sole purpose is to get better outcomes for everyone in the community. No ulterior motives, no hidden donors, no power games, just genuine representation.”
The engagement in democracy doesn’t end at the election. Being nominated and elected as a Community Independent means accepting a compact to establish a genuine, two-way, collaborative process with the community. It is a compact to engage, to listen, to represent.
The candidate seeks to continually understand the views of their community, and constituents actively engage and collaborate with the candidate in return. This form of civic engagement is expressed in many forms: town hall meetings, deliberative forums, street meets, constituent volunteers in electorate offices and Parliament House, and policy advisory groups. This social compact is the bedrock of democracy and a key ingredient for an effective Community Independent campaign.
With this compact, the Community Independents movement is more than soft, touchy-feely do-gooderism. The significant number of Community Independents on the parliamentary cross bench testifies to the effectiveness of this type of community organising power.
Back in Wannon, the proof is strong. There are already three community “hubs” – in Warrnambool, Portland and Colac – with others in Hamilton and Ararat opening soon. More than 1,600 supporters have signed up – 1.6 per cent of voters – and there are more than 400 volunteers. Forty people have entered leadership roles on the campaign and another 1,200 have attending training sessions similar to the event at the Yulecart Hall.
What is really fascinating, and so hard for those outside the movement to appreciate, is that there is no central control. No one is in charge. Each electorate is free to develop its own approach to community organising. While ideas may be shared across groups, the processes within each electorate reflect local geography and the skills and experience of the leaders.
An active democracy is achieved not through telling or preaching. Rather, it is a combination of the powerful, communal experience of “being the change”. The practice of renewing our democracy is a journey. It will never be finished, nor should it be.
To be part of this movement is exciting – exhilarating even. Caz Heise describes it this way: “Even if we don’t win the election, we are still winning as a community, growing in strength and determination. We know we will have won.”
I am proud to be part of this courageous, creative, effective community movement. I know that together we are renewing democracy – something that is desperately needed. If not us, then who?