Cathy McGowan was the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary cross bench. She was elected in 2013 to the federal seat of Indi, which had been an entrenched conservative party seat for 74 years. At the following election, in 2016, she increased her majority, despite the Liberal/National Party coalition going hard to reclaim it. When Cathy bowed out of parliament ahead of the 2019 election, Indi again made Australian political history with the election of Dr Helen Haines as its second successive independent woman MP. And it’s all been achieved on the back of a still growing community movement, now far from limited to Indi.

This is one of the greatest political stories going in Australia, and arguably the world. It’s a story about how community-minded people are getting elected, getting represented, and getting the outcomes that representation can and should get. In that sense, it’s also a story about how politics in this country – and arguably further afield – can be transformed for the better. Cathy has a vision that in 10 years this transformation could realistically be achieved, starting with the next federal election.

Cathy is now helping to leverage this capacity right across the country. She wrote a book last year, and the enormous reaction to it prompted the first National Convention of Community-Minded Independents earlier this year. Organisers were blown away when 300 people from more than half of Australia’s federal electorates turned up. So with no shortage of people up for this, and more supportive infrastructure developing, a proven way is becoming a powerful movement - with genuine representation, responses to climate and biodiversity challenges, wellbeing economics, reconciliation and regenerative practices on the cards.

“It is past the time of sitting back, hoping that others will do something. It is time to turn up, speak up and step up. The outcomes are worth it. The nation needs it.” – Cathy McGowan.

This episode was recorded online with Cathy at home on her farm in the Indigo Valley, Victoria, on Thursday 27 May 2021.

Title slide: Cathy McGowan (supplied).

You can see the promotional card from the National Convention that I mentioned in our conversation on the episode web page.

Music:
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.

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