CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As was the case in the lead up to the 2022 Federal Election, the Australian media are again working tirelessly to avoid mentioning the enormous grassroots campaigns of Independent female candidates and their thousands of volunteers.
However, the betting markets have taken notice, and so have the polls.
Last election saw 6 female Independents ousting complacent Liberal MPs from the blue ribbon seats that the party had taken for granted.
They were Allegra Spender MP (East Sydney), Monique Ryan MP (Inner-Melbourne), Zoe Daniels MP (Inner-South Melbourne), Sophie Scamps MP (Sydney’s Northern Beaches), Kate Chaney MP (Perth) and Kyle Tink MP (North Sydney).
With the shifting of electoral boundaries in NSW, that latter’s seat has since been abolished and absorbed by the upper North Shore electorate of Bradfield – which is also tipped to be won another Independent Candidate in Nicolette Boele.
But it wasn’t just the Liberals losing safe seats, Labor lost one of the most reliable electorates in all of Australia to the Independent Dai Le, after patronising the local voters by parachuting in a former state Premier as their candidate – rather than a democratically pre-selected local.
These six Independents join three pre-existing female Independents who had previously been elected in rusted on Coalition seats. Rebekha Sharkie MP (Southern Adelaide), Helen Haines MP (North-East Victoria) and Zali Steggall MP (Tony Abbott’s old seat).
The injection of highly competent, extremely motivated and emotionally balanced professional women has rocked Parliament, mostly due to their work ethic – with attendance rates that almost double the flakey major party MPs.
With local issues and values at the front and centre of their politics, it seems other parts of Australia would also like to be represented by Independent female candidates.
It looks as if both Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast are looking to follow the lead of the southern voters, with Independent candidates Caz Heise and Erchana Murray-Bartlett tipped to get elected on May 3 as well.
In fact, there could be close to ten more Independent local MPs being sent to Canberra at the 2025 election, a prospect that is horrifying to the old men that control the major parties, and their dear friends in the Australian media.
With the commercial news networks refusing to cover these groundswell movement, voters can look forward to journalists and politicians rushing to protect the two-party system by telling them that democracy is under threat from all of these sheilahs.
