People in National party seats will be turned off by Bridget McKenzie’s characterisation of community independents as “Simon Holmes à Court’s groupies”, the former Indi independent Cathy McGowan has warned.
McGowan said the Coalition’s increasingly strident rhetoric was “sliding off” rural and regional independent candidates and it showed voters that the Nationals and Liberals did not understand the movement.
“I don’t think it’s landing at all,” she said. “It reflects back on the name-caller. People go, ‘She doesn’t understand’ – particularly in the National party seats … they don’t like what Bridget’s done in that regard. Because what these people are trying to do is something they think is good for the country.”
McGowan, who toppled the Liberal Indi MP Sophie Mirabella, said the government’s rhetoric showed a lack of understanding of the dissatisfaction with the structure of governance that was driving the demand for political change.
She told Guardian Australia in a live Q&A that McKenzie’s slur was a “poor name-calling effort” against candidates in the 23 seats where community independents are following the model she pioneered.
“Because they actually haven’t understood they’re using “groupie” – what a poor name-calling effort – to people who go, ‘I’m not a groupie! I’ve made a decision to support Monique [Ryan] because she’s a better choice.’”
McGowan said independents were tapping into a genuine desire in many communities to see the structure of political governance itself change.
“What these people are trying to do is something that they think is good for the country. They’re actually doing community service. They’re working from a sense of duty … They want to give people a better choice and they’re making the competition of the election work better.”
She believed the government’s criticism had the opposite effect than intended. McGowan said it highlighted the disconnection between a government which believed taxpayer money should be used to protect its own power and the demand coming from Australian communities for better processes.
“People are prepared to do enormous amount of work because the good ship of Australian democracy is heading towards the rocks,” she said. “We don’t want to go there – let’s start rowing.”
While the rhetoric tries to frame the independents as a political movement in themselves, McGowan says there was no attempt by any independents to form policy that was consistent.
Instead, she said, the priorities that independents often had in common, including action on climate and a federal Icac, were to do with the structural reform needed.
“I don’t think there’s a political agenda other than they want their government to be better … I’m not really seeing left or right in all of this,” she said. “I’m seeing an enormous sense of disappointment that the government is not delivering.”
But while many say the slurs against independents are evidence that the Coalition is worried it will lose seats to independents, McGowan said winning was simply about getting more people engaged in local politics, calling for better representation and making seats more competitive.
Getting the candidate elected was “the icing on the cake”, she said.
McGowan said rural Australia had held on to its sense of community and it gave her much joy that cities were discovering it for a political purpose.
There was “enormous possibility” in bringing together the popularity of independent movements in city and country areas, combining urban money, influence and connection with rural knowledge and expertise.
McGowan has been running workshops as part of the Community Independents Project for the past two years, catering to a “profound” interest in community political engagement.
She expected 50 people might attend the first convention she held in February 2021. Instead more than 300 people attended from more than 80 electorates.
Despite the groundswell of support, McGowan said the future of politics and the longevity of independent representation was a “fluid situation – nothing is set in stone”.
If a community independent was to take their position for granted and stop doing the hard work, she said there was nothing to stop people looking for better representation, which a local Liberal party candidate might offer.
McGowan said she hoped the momentum around community independents would carry into more participative democracy beyond the election.
She will be holding another national convention for the Community Independents Project in August where community groupswill be able to come together to workshop specific issues such as housing, water or energy with peak national bodies.
