The rise of Independents in Australian politicspublished at 01:44 British Summer Time
Katy Watson
Reporting from Perth
Independent candidate Kate Chaney
this week joined canvassers outside the early voting centre in Subiaco, an
upmarket suburb of Perth, to try and convince undecided voters. It’s going to be a tight race in
Western Australia’s most affluent electorate of Curtin.
She’s one of a growing number of Independents in Australia winning
seats from the major parties.
In the 2022 federal elections, 10
Independents won seats in the House of Representatives.
“We’ve seen a steady decline for primary support for the two major
parties over the past 20 years and I don’t think either party has done
anything in the last three years that would change that trend,” she says.
“Increasingly people are seeing there’s a lack of courage from both sides and
they are looking further afield to find candidates who actually are answerable
to them, not to a party structure.”
Kate says that among her electorate increasingly people are worried about
politics outside of Australia too.
“Since Trump has come in, we’ve seen a huge shift in the
geopolitical order and Australia is in this position where the US is a close
ally and has been for 80 years, but China is our major trading partner so we
have to balance these interests very carefully.
“People are starting to question
whether the assumptions on which our defence strategy is based still hold.”
