The New Daily: major parties put on notice
Home » Election news  »  The New Daily: major parties put on notice
The New Daily: major parties put on notice

"The teal wave has proven it is still a force in Australian politics, with both the Labor and Liberal parties in their sights."
~ Parker McKenzie, The New Daily

→ The New Daily - 21 October 2024:
State success proves that community independents are a force to be reckoned with
"NSW Independent Jacqui Scruby and independents for Canberra have reaffirmed that the teal wave wasn't a flash in the pan."


Two election results over the weekend reaffirmed the staying power of the community independent movement: Jacqui Scruby’s win in the NSW Pittwater byelection and the success of independent candidates in the ACT state election.

Dr Zareh Ghazarian, a political scientist at Monash University, said the weekend’s results continue to demonstrate that voters are looking for other options.

“One of the theories in 2022 was that many voters were angry with the Coalition and that is why they supported independents,” he said.

“Independents are successfully presenting themselves as not just for the disenchanted, but are resonating with voters because of a very specific set of policies.”

Some 20 per cent of voters in the ACT cast their ballots for either independents or minor parties and both the Labor and Liberal Party continued to lose primary votes.

(...)

Alex Dyson, the community independent candidate for Wannon in Victoria, marked the end of September by announcing he now has more than 1000 volunteers signed up for his campaign to unseat senior Liberal Dan Tehan.

He told The New Daily that “the major parties aren’t learning” why community independent campaigns are attractive to voters around Australia.

“Their primary votes keep dropping and it is because they aren’t listening to people,” he said.

“They’re meant to be the best of us, yet they’re getting distracted with their own egos, in my opinion, and gamesmanship, resulting in that sort of politics filtering down.”

Dyson said that he and his volunteers are focused on being a positive change in politics.

“We’ve seen people calling out for these issues, like gendered violence or climate change, to be taken seriously,” he said.

Read more