#085 Politics That Works
A proven way becoming a powerful movement, with Cathy McGowan AO
Cathy McGowan was the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary cross bench. She was elected in 2013 to the federal seat of Indi, which had been an entrenched conservative party seat for 74 years. At the following election, in 2016, she increased her majority, despite the Liberal/National Party coalition going hard to reclaim it. When Cathy bowed out of parliament ahead of the 2019 election, Indi again made Australian political history with the election of Dr Helen Haines as its second successive independent woman MP. And it’s all been achieved on the back of a still growing community movement, now far from limited to Indi.
“That’s why the opportunities for the independents [are so great]. And I say to those who are listening: get your act together, get a group formed. Because now while you’ve got such a poor government, and you’ve got such a poor Labor Party in opposition, the opportunity for the independents to come through in this centralist, sensible, community-minded way - it’s just been made for us.”
This is one of the greatest political stories going in Australia, and arguably the world. It’s a story about how community-minded people are getting elected, getting represented, and getting the outcomes that representation can and should get. In that sense, it’s also a story about how politics in this country – and arguably further afield – can be transformed for the better. Cathy has a vision that in 10 years this transformation could realistically be achieved, starting with the next federal election.
Cathy is now helping to leverage this capacity right across the country. She wrote a book last year, and the enormous reaction to it prompted the first National Convention of Community-Minded Independents earlier this year. Organisers were blown away when 300 people from more than half of Australia’s federal electorates turned up. So with no shortage of people up for this, and more supportive infrastructure developing, a proven way is becoming a powerful movement - with genuine representation, responses to climate and biodiversity challenges, wellbeing economics, reconciliation and regenerative practices on the cards.
“It is past the time of sitting back, hoping that others will do something. It is time to turn up, speak up and step up. The outcomes are worth it. The nation needs it.” – Cathy McGowan.
More on Cathy: Cathy got the Australian Bureau of Statistics to count women’s unpaid domestic and farming work in the 1990’s. During her time as a politician Cathy actively worked in Parliament to develop policy around regional development, constitutional change for first nations people and a solution to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. In 2019 she was awarded The Accountability Round Table award for political integrity. She is an Officer in the Order of Australia, a Churchill fellow and lives very happily on her farm in the Indigo Valley in NE Victoria.
This episode was recorded online with Cathy at home on the farm, on Thursday 27 May 2021.
Get more:
Cathy’s website - including how to get hold of her book, and all sorts of other resources.
Getting Elected - resources from the 1st National Convention for Community-Minded Independents.
Women for Election Australia - aiming to equip 2,000 women to stand for public office by 2022 .
Cathy’s clarion call in the national press leading up to the National Convention.
Music:
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.