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!”

When a seat becomes marginal, the local people benefit. There is a flurry of high-profile visits, promises of funding for local projects and increased media attention, ensuring the voices of voters in the electorate are heard.

During my 11-week campaign, the energy in Caulfield was frenetic. The electorate was showered in attention like never before. Longstanding issues, from public infrastructure woes to problems for our local public schools and a lack of open green space, were lavished with promises from both major parties.

While I did not come close to winning, and the seat was retained by David Southwick, Victoria’s Deputy Liberal leader, I do not believe my run was a waste. My campaign as an independent planted the seeds for future candidates to consider running as independent candidates.

But they will need to be dedicated. Running as an independent is seriously hard work because you have to create your campaign from the ground up.  In Victoria, the maximum individual campaign donation is $4320, and any donation over $1100 must be recorded on a publicly searchable register. Each donation I received was a result of me hitting the phones and courting people who I suspected might be sympathetic to independent candidates.

There were no pre-made lists or donor information I could use. And I had no large fundraising vehicles that are exempt from existing donor laws like the Liberal Party’s Cormack Foundation and the Labor Party’s Labor Services and Holdings, which gave both parties millions of dollars as a head start.

I spent hours personally answering emails from constituents and writing out my policy positions. When someone wrote into my campaign email on a niche topic, I wrote back and said that I did not yet have a policy position but was keen to meet with them to know more as I formulated a position, to which they responded: “Wow, that was the most authentic response I have ever received from someone in politics.”

I had no paid staff, only volunteers and support from longstanding friends and the newly recruited. Each day started at 6:30am as I posted on social media, went to a railway station to meet constituents, held street stalls at busy central locations across the electorate, and engaged with constituents and met with community groups. The hours were exhausting, and I have newfound respect for long-serving members of parliament who keep up this gruelling schedule for years at a time.

When people used to tell me that being backed by Climate 200 meant that I was not independent as I had a team behind me, I would laugh and tell them how, at six months pregnant, I would sit on the floor of Australia Post with one single volunteer hand-packing mailouts to constituents for hours at a time. Show me any party-backed candidate who does that themselves, I would challenge these naysayers!

And I am watching with great interest the upcoming NSW election, to see how the independent movement resonates there with voters, particularly as independent candidates are running in seats with large numbers of Jewish voters.

Traditionally, Jewish people are often cautious about political upheavals. In this country, it’s no surprise that many within the Jewish community regard the rise of the independent movement with some level of caution and distrust.

Australian Jews are one of the largest communities of Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors outside of Israel. In Europe, great political upheaval and change traditionally meant bad news was coming for the Jewish people. Some vestiges of this historic fear is burrowed into the minds of many of our community members.

But this need not be the case. An independent candidate, supported by local grassroots groups, will always put the needs of the community they are elected to serve first. Our votes are powerful. And the ability to shape public discourse is better than it has ever been.

So, NSW voters, don’t squander the opportunity. Vote independent, you just might find that you enjoy the breath of fresh air.

Photo: Crossbench MPs Kate Chaney, Zoe Daniels, Monique Ryan, Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, July 27, 2022. (AAP/Lukas Coch)