Voices groups in Australia

In 2012 a community group in the division of Indi, in northern Victoria wanted to approach the local MP, Sophie Mirabella to express their concerns over various local issues. The group formed under the name Voices for Indi and conducted a series of Kitchen Table Conversations in order to gather the views of a cross section of the community.[5]

When the group presented Mirabella with the report, they felt ignored, at that point their view was the only way to get their needs on the heard in parliament would be to make the electorate marginal and to force the Liberal party to preferences in order to win the seat rather than winning on primary votes, as they had in every election since the formation of the Liberal party in 1949 when the Nationals were not running. In order to achieve that goal they decided to endorse an independent.[5] The group endorsed Cathy McGowan as their candidate. At the 2013 federal election McGowan received a very favourable preference flow and won the seat by 439 votes.[6] She also won in 2016.

The Indi group does not run a candidate, rather they endorse a candidate and provide the candidate with a volunteer base and advice and expertise when needed.[7]

McGowan chose not to contest the 2019 election. Voices for Indi endorsed Helen Haines, who ultimately won the election. It represents the first time in Australia that two independents were elected consecutively.[8][9]

In the lead-up to the 2019 elections, two groups were formed in the division of Warringah, whose MP was former prime minister, Tony Abbott. One was Voices of Warringah which modeled itself on Indi, the other being Vote Tony Out which targeted Abbott directly, claiming that his views on issues such as climate made him a poor fit to represent the electorate.

The group endorsed former Olympic skiing medalist Zali Steggall. Steggall won the election with over 57% of the two candidate vote.[10]

Following the 2019 election in which Voices endorsed independents won two seat, many other communities have started their own Voices groups. These extend across urban, suburban and peri-urban electorates in metropolitan areas and rural electorates in regional areas in all of Australia's states and territories except NT.

In early 2021, Cathy McGowan headed a conference for community minded independents to give them support and encouragement to run for elected office. The conference had representatives from 78 of the 151 divisions of the Australian parliament,[11] and counted 28 Voices groups at the time of the conference.[12][13][14] Initially the conference aimed for 50 attendees, but over 300 attended.[15] In mid December 2021 there were 39 groups around Australia.[16]

The Voices groups have engendered some confusion in the Australian media which has traditionally framed political discourse in Australia as a struggle between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) versus the long-time Coalition of the Liberal Party, National Party and Liberal National Party (in Queensland).[17][18] News Corp Australia is struggling to sustain a political narrative in which it can continue to exercise decades of political influence in Australia.[19][20][21] The Australian's Paul Kelly called the candidates "anti-coalition independents and reported on National's leader Barnaby Joyce's warning to not vote independent."[20][22]

The various Voices groups are independent of one another but often identify similar issues of concern within their electorates,[23] which are most often focused on addressing issues with government integrity and political corruption and addressing environmental issues, particularly climate change.[24] Most of the Voices groups are focused on participatory democracy and community engagement with some eventually endorsing independent candidates.[25][26][27]

Reflecting the values and issues that Voices groups are identifying in their electorates many of the Independent candidates that have been endorsed by Voices groups have policy positions which align with traditional Liberal policies.[28] A number of the candidates have indicated that they had recently voted for the Liberal party[29][30] One candidate, Allegra Spender, endorsed by the Voices of Wentworth is from a high profile Liberal family.[31][32]

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said of the movement "Indi and Warringah are not 'special cases' but templates for further change if the Coalition cannot deliver on climate."[33] Turnbull has also called the growth of these groups as a "very very healthy development" that allows people to vote for candidates that align with their views.[34]

Ian Macphee who was a minister in the Fraser Government and an MP for Goldstein endorsed the Voices of Goldstein and the broader movement, saying "I believe grassroots activity is imperative and can be done by supporting good independent candidates."[35][36]

Former leader of the Liberal party, John Hewson said of the movement "taking the vote for granted has been a mistake from both parties for quite some time and you're starting to see protest movements gain momentum . . . over time, you're going to see it reflected in the ballot box."[37] Former Labor MP, Barry Jones and former Democrats leader, Meg Lees joined Hewson on the board of Climate 200, a fund aiming to financially support independent candidates.[38][39]

The movement has also received endorsements from former members of parliament, Kerryn Phelps, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.[40]

Opposition to the movement is coming from the Liberal Party which is sensitive to the threat of moderate Independents in progressive inner-city electorates,[41] and the National Party which is seeing its support being eroded in regional electorates.[41][42]

News Corp Australia also appears to be opposed to Voices groups and the Independent campaigns Voices groups have endorsed with biased news coverage, op-eds and providing op-ed space to Liberal and National party incumbents.[19][21][22] [20] [43] [44]

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who is being challenged by a Voices candidate, accused Voices candidates of being single issue candidates, and ineffective at passing new legislation. However, Julia Banks, who was an MP for the Liberals before moving to the cross-bench, contends that she was most effective when she became an independent.[45]

In September, Senator Andrew Bragg wrote to the Australian Electoral Commission to ask them to ensure that the groups were fulfilling all the requirements for disclosures for political donations. This is despite the fact that the groups were not political parties, and at that stage had not endorsed any candidates.[46]

The Liberal party then passed a law to force third party campaigners to register as political campaigners, and asked his MPs to dob in any group that had not registered.[47]

In passing this law the Liberals conflated the grassroots volunteer base which is the Voices group, the Climate 200 fund, which provides money only and the campaign of the candidate. It was for this reason that many of the Voices groups or Climate 200 had no need to register.[7]

In November 2021, it was reported that Voices of Goldstein in Melbourne had received a significant donation from a former member of the Greens.[48]