→ Rob Cameron's Front Page on 94.7 The Pulse - 7 April 2025:
S28 E19: Kate Lockhart Independent candidate

TRANSCRIPT

Rob Cameron:
Welcome back, Monday Front Page 94.7 The Pulse, we've been a bit sporty, we've gone right into a serious community issue and now because we are not far away from a federal election and the station here at Pulse is making no apology for a really important election coming up.

There's three electorates very close to Geelong, Wannan, Corio - and Corangamite, which we're focusing on this morning and they're all quite different in that there's a sitting Liberal in Wannan who is receiving a lot of pressure from a Community Independent. There's Richard Marles, the Deputy Prime Minister in the seat of Corio, who has won that seat very easily in every election he stood. In fact sometimes he probably doesn't even need to be there and people are still going to vote for him. So that one all looks lopsided. But in that position the seat of Corangamite has been very much Liberal versus Labor, hard fought, very close elections. This time a subtle difference: a Community Independent standing - a local woman we're going to learn a little bit more about today: Kate Lockhart - and good morning to you and welcome to the pulse It's an absolute pleasure. Just tell us a little bit about you and where you have been before politics entered your life?

Kate Lockhart:
Thanks for having me! Well, I'm a good country girl. I've always believed in community contribution and I've traveled. I'm an ag scientist. So after university, I traveled and worked in Thailand. I've had a couple of stints overseas in the Netherlands and China. But in the last 10 years, we've been back in Drysdale. So, and we settled here after pregnant with the first born and he's off to university at Deakin.

So, yeah, we've been here nearly 20 years and just a very kind of connected local community advocate, suppose. think that growing up in a village was really valuable to me in a small country town. And I saw how people connected and how they're valued and how they can make change. And so I've just continued that in the little town of Drysdale and yeah, keen to do a little bit more for community.

As some of you will know, I ran as a local candidate in the North Bellarine ward of Murredock and was deeply disappointed that an outsider came in and won by 350 votes, which is a percent or so. And you can see the destruction that the local council are doing. If you're not an older person with a tie and a suit, then you're not really that valued and it's very hard to watch.

Rob:
How important in shaping your political ideology was the time overseas and seeing how other countries operate?

Kate: (at 02:56)
yeah, absolutely. We've got a fantastic democracy, you know. We can all vote. It's compulsory, but it's a great opportunity. It's a great responsibility. And you can see, you know, what's happening in America, the disenfranchisement of the middle ground and the, you know, the chaos that that's causing when you don't keep parties accountable.

Rob:
Have you always been a little bit of a political animal or has the rise of the community independent sort of empowered you, emboldened you a little bit to say well look these people are standing up, they are making a difference, I want to be part of that or do you think it was always in you to do this?

Kate:
I just really would shy away from political animal, but I've always been interested in public service and community contribution and the power that good leadership can do in the private sector and in the public sector. I think if you can handle your leadership with humility and compassion, then you can really do some really good things. I think the political animal strikes to me as the Alpha, and perhaps more interested in making a noise and listening and community independence. They really want to listen, they are really listening to their community and they're striking the middle ground and that is really powerful, they're making real change.

Rob:
You're probably correct to pull up on the word animal. What I probably meant was has politics always been something that's interested you? Clearly local government you looked at issues around your community and you stood for council to say well I'm here to make a difference but although you're standing as a member of parliament in this region politics is very much a national thing and there's a lot of national decision making that affects the local region. you always kept your eye on the politics at the top level?

Kate: (at 04:50)
Yeah, I guess so. And I think that's the interesting dichotomy of growing up on a farm. We're small, independent business people, but as an Australian farmer, you are exporting to the world market. so I listened to independent radio and TV all through my childhood. And my dad in particular was always very interested in global politics because it affected the price of wheat, whether China was taking it or... Russia was selling it or Ukraine was selling it or where there's a drought in America. So you had to have an eye on the global trade markets to understand where you are at year in, year out. And so, yeah, we very much work locally, but I think maybe that's the magic about being a farmer is that capacity to look long into the long distance as well.

Rob:
We have Liberal and Labor as I suggested standing but we also have Greens, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, will be a Clive Palmer candidate, a Libertarian candidate, you are a genuine Independent. So what is the difference with where you sit, what you can bring to the electorate that sets you aside from the rest?

Kate:
Well, think it is that Community Independent is that capacity to listen, that willingness to listen and to strike a balance for the community of Corangamite. All of the candidates that I've met, they're good people, but they are encumbered by their party membership. They can see what needs to be done for Corangamite, but they have to toe the line on what the party machine says from Melbourne and from Sydney.

And that inhibits their flexibility and it inhibits their capacity to represent Corangamite. And I think all of them, you know, we live in a coastal, a coastal environment. We're going to be seriously impacted. We are seriously impacted by climate. And the major parties are not addressing that in the short or the long term. And I think that's a real missed opportunity.

Rob (at 06:52)
It seems that the two major parties while energy is talked about it's really only focusing on the cost of energy as opposed to the way to make energy that best suits the environment and the future. Is that something you think also sets you aside when you're actually going in and talking about climate change as opposed to the cost of energy on your bill which is the big focus?

Kate:
Yeah, well I think the whole nuclear sideshow is a distraction. know, South Australia have got 70 % of their electricity coming from renewables because they see their comparative advantage is sunshine. And I don't see why we can't do the same. Victoria's got a lot of wind, we've seen a lot of wind turbines come up, we're up to 40 % and there's no reason why we can't move forward on that. The technology is affordable and I think we just need to progress it.

Rob:
The community independence or some of them referred to the Voices of model and the Voices of is certainly part of the campaign in Corangamite have certainly been very successful so now three years on from seven new parliamentarians based on this particular model that Kathy McGowan started in Indi, does that give you a lot more confidence going out to talk to people that already they have some understanding of who you are, where you sit as a representative.

Kate: (at 08:28)
I think so to a certain extent. A lot of people are pretty deeply disengaged with politics though because of the fatigue that they're receiving from the major parties. They're saying one thing and then they're doing something else and I think that leads to a real disenfranchisement. think also it's really difficult to get out an independent voice even in our local media.

And then this Facebook stuff, the social media stuff, everyone's got their algorithms. So it's very hard, even if you want to break out of what you want to think, if that makes sense, it's very hard to change those algorithms. And so we're increasingly being polarised and I think that's a real threat to our democracy. And that's part of the reason why I'm standing, to give people a choice, to let them really think about it and make an informed decision on why they're voting and who they're voting for.

Rob:
One of the successful modeling methods of Voices-of or Community Independents I call them and we're seeing it certainly with Alex Dyson next door in the seat of one is going out and engaging with the public talking to them finding out what they want I guess that's a big part of your campaign and how are you enjoying that face-to-face interaction with people that you've never met before

Kate:
Well, as you might, I'm a natural extrovert, so I actually really quite enjoy meeting new people. I see it as a new challenge and I really love it when I foolishly make an assumption on where a conversation is going to go and then all of a sudden you see a little opportunity to agree on something and then open up that conversation and I find that really fascinating, the way people aren't always the stereotype that you assume them to be. And so really do enjoy that. find that very refreshing.

And I don't know how much of this skill has been required in your working life but if successful this type of engagement also prepares you better for what you need to be doing in Canberra as a representative which is engaging with people, fighting for an outcome, using evidence-based conversation to bring a result. So I guess you're improving who you are anyway by having these types of conversations.

Kate:
Yeah, well did agricultural science and so I've got a good science background but I've also got a pretty good business background in that degree and I think that's actually always been where I've played that middle ground as the negotiator, as the communicator, as the facilitator, as the translator between different parties, between farmers and bureaucrats or between Dutch nationals and British nationals or between the Thai people.

And so that capacity to listen and then translate, of precipitate and in many ways simplify, I think that is one of my actual real strengths. And so, yeah, I'd really love the opportunity to take that to Canberra. I'd actually know how many scientists are in Parliament House. I'd really like to know that. I think that the fact that there aren't many scientists in Parliament House as parliamentarians means that I would bring a bit more diversity and I think that's what we're wanting. That's what the community independents are showing. They are more representative and they're bringing a new voice to Parliament that's productive as well as powerful.

Rob: (at 12:13)
How thick is your skin? Because what we're noticing with the community independents as they become more known and successful and start to break through, the campaigns can get very personal and we're certainly seeing that around the nation now that the sitting members and some of the independents that are standing for the first time are really taking some personalised hammering from particularly the two major parties. How would you handle that if it came to that?

Kate:
Well, you've just got to be like an elite athlete when you're playing against an Australian at the Australian Open. You just have to turn that perceived negativity into a positivity. If they're getting personal, they're obviously feeling threatened or challenged and they're under pressure and they're not debating the issue, are they? And so I think you've got to take it as a compliment.

Rob:
I think that is good, it's just a matter of being able to deliver that when the pressure's on and I know I couldn't do it because of the fact that my skin is not thick enough and that'll be one of the tests. The other thing of course is the profile, known and as you drive around the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast as I have done recently, there's an awful lot of pretty photographs of a couple of key candidates but haven't seen too much of Orange Kate Lockhart. How do you go building that bridge between the electorate knowing who you are, just some sort of identity compared to these billboards everywhere of the opposition.

Kate:
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? And I think that speaks volumes about the money that might be behind some of the candidates versus perhaps their actual local profile or their local contribution. I just want to go back to the previous one. I do enjoy my sport. I've often played sport in mixed circumstances and so that capacity to mix it with the best of them. Certainly has been with me for a long age. As being the youngest in the family often makes you a little bit sharper. You've got to play to your strengths and I think my quick wit has always served me in good stead from a very, very young age.

That is help. think all of the very best orators have had a great sense of humour and a wit to be able to deal with a lot of that stuff. The sporting analogy is really good because it's dealing with that adversity when you're under pressure. There's a prize and there's an attack coming. How do you raise above that? if you've got some grounding in that area, it's probably a pretty good start. The funding, where does it come from from you compared to the juggernauts of the two majors?

So we're very much a local grassroots organisation. It's coming from local people. We are a little bit late to the party, even on the Climate 200s sort of funding train. So we've had some good conversations with them. They respect what we're doing, but they are feeling their priorities are with the first seven or so that are in parliament and then their second priority is with those ones really knocking on the door.

And we're providing a new challenge because we're challenging the Labor Party's lower first preference preferences. And that's a new challenge that the traditional Climate 200 backed candidates, they're a slightly different scenario.

Rob:
The preferential voting mechanisms are really interesting and I'm sure you and those around you have done them. the final question is expectations. I imagine being a person who's very evidence-based all their life, you would not be getting ahead of yourself because there's logic comes into everything you work through. But what are your realistic expectations for an outcome at this election based on the fact you're starting late and limited resources?

Kate: (at 16:09)
Well, I'm here to progress the equity debate. I'm only one of two women candidates on the ballot paper at this stage, so I think that's an important... That's right, and so I think that's an important milestone that we'll achieve this week when I put my nomination in. Providing a choice is also a success point and I think it's really... and the other one being the sitting member, of course, a very open game. I think one in four people across the country now have the opportunity to vote for community independent and I think they'll take that opportunity. I think they'll take that opportunity to have their voice heard and send a message to all parties, literally to all parties, to find the middle ground. Stop bickering on the left or the right and find the middle ground. Middle Australia wants us to progress down the middle path. It's really not that hard.

Rob:
Thank you so much for your time best wishes We might tap into you again later, but we'll certainly be following the campaign with a great deal of interest - best wishes!

Kate:
Thanks very much.