‘It’s been safe Liberal for so long. I’m the daughter of a footballer. I’m competitive’

ASHLEY BROWNE: Zoe Daniel, independent candidate for Goldstein, says the Libs have lost touch with the electorate - and clears the air on the ‘Palestine’ petition

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN journalists and politicians by nature, is supposed to be adversarial. And yes, it can sometimes spill over into something more combative and downright dirty.

But while there are plenty of ex-politicians who end up in the media, usually as pundits but occasionally as journalists, there hasn’t been that much traffic going the other way.

Which is why Zoe Daniel’s bid to win the bayside Melbourne seat of Goldstein at the forthcoming federal election is notable. She is the latest in a growing line of high-profile independent candidates standing for federal parliament and in her instance, seeking to win a seat that for generations has been held by the same party, the Liberals.

Daniel hopes to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Cathy McGowan, who won the rural Victorian seat of Indi in 2013 and was the flag-bearer for many independents, and former Olympian Zali Steggall, who knocked over former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to win Warringah in 2019, to become the rock star of the independent MP movement.

Given Daniel’s long background as a former ABC journalist in Australia and then on postings as a foreign correspondent in Africa, southeast Asia and the United States, where she covered Donald Trump’s election as President, she was not deterred, although she did think hard about it when the grassroots Voices of Goldstein advocacy group asked her to consider standing.

“I was quite cautious because politics is quite toxic,” she told Plus 61J over a recent coffee. “I thought about it for a couple of months because I’d dealt with politics around the world. I know what it is.”

But Daniel also understood that she has many of the necessary tools to make the great leap. Journalists need to listen in order to their job properly. As do politicians. “My real love was interviewing people face-to-face in their own comfort zone and environment.”