For Cathy McGowan, change doesn't come about by waiting for government. Nor for that matter, perfecting theories… it's simply doing. And sticking it out when the work isn't sexy, incremental, and the outcome seems unlikely.

It's something she learnt around this time a decade ago when she toppled a long-standing incumbent in the Victorian seat of Indi — and became Australia's first-elected female independent.

In this National Museum of Australia address, McGowan explains her success wasn't about her. Instead, why it was her community that was central to her campaign, and subsequent parliamentary terms.