#114 Independents Surging Towards the Election
With Cathy McGowan AO
I had this conversation with Cathy McGowan in the middle of last year, just as the community minded independents movement in Australia was really picking up. Since then, it’s been astronomical – the number of ‘voices for’ groups has exploded around the country, followed by an array of quality candidates that have responded to their communities’ calls to contest the next federal election. And many of them are genuine contenders. So with the election now due next month, it seemed a good time to re-release this pragmatic and inspired last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Cathy.
3 billboards in Indi - Cathy McGowan’s successor, Helen Haines, is contesting the upcoming election, and these posters are a prominent presence in town after town right now (pic: Anthony James).
“And we’re letting that happen because we don’t put into the battleground of politics really good community candidates who could actually take the fight up to these people and say ‘look, it’s not good enough’. If you’re not able to stand on your beliefs in parliament, well we don’t want you there. And you might be a wonderful person, you might be a really good bloke, and you might be a really clever person, but if you’re not able to stand up for us in parliament, well we’re going to run candidates against you. It’s as simple as that.”
The community Cathy represented in the seat of Indi changed the trajectory of politics in this country, and may just be about to see it transform altogether. I’ve actually just spent some time visiting people around Indi, and seen posters of Helen Haines, Cathy’s brilliant successor, in town after town. And why wouldn’t they be? Perhaps this little excerpt can help spur us along towards what Cathy envisages as the transformation of politics in this country by 2030.
We pick things up with a powerful sequence from Cathy, and an insight into what’s bubbling up around the country in the lead up to the next federal election. We then go into how things worked for her, as the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary crossbench, and other increasingly successful independents, on the ground – the practical realities, the value set, and the networks of support that make it all possible. We close with more of the vision, strategy and supportive infrastructure being developed, to get more community-minded independents elected. Oh, and an express request from Cathy to share this podcast.
Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 85, ‘Politics That Works: A proven way becoming a powerful movement’.
And my conversation with our local independent candidate, Kate Chaney, is in episode 110, ‘Independents Day: Kate Chaney on contesting a key seat & transforming politics’.
There are a series of links on each of those episode web pages too.
Music:
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.