Independents a breath of fresh air who have unlocked the power of voters

NOMI KALTMANN stood as a Teal independent in the 2022 Victorian state election. She remains inspired by the potential of grassroots voices, and recalls the hard slog required to achieve it.

The biggest story of the 2022 federal election was the Teals, a group of independent candidates, mainly women, who were elected to the federal Parliament with the backing of the Climate 200 group. Their election sent seismic shifts through the two major parties in Australia, shaking up decades of predictability relating to voting patterns.

Today, the federal Parliament hosts the largest ever crossbench.

With the rise of independents, there has been growing demand from voters in electorates across the country who have finally understood their power. No seat in the country should be considered safe and easily predictable by any party.

The two major parties can no longer ignore policy agenda items that have often been overlooked such as climate change and integrity. The result of independents pushing these policy items have already borne fruit, with Zali Steggall’s Climate Change Bill and the establishment of a federal ICAC.

Voters want to see genuine change and are hungry for fresh representation.

I know this first-hand, as I ran as an independent candidate in the 2022 Victorian State election in the seat of Caulfield as one of four Climate 200-backed candidates in Victoria.

Despite losing my race, there was incredible excitement across the Caulfield electorate that I was running. Even people who were not planning on voting for me thought my entry was a positive development.

“You will force the major parties to take note of our seat” said one person, while another remarked, “Yay, Caulfield’s public schools are finally going to get funding because you’re running!”