Independents for Canberra registered and building candidate list

After a successful Kurrajong electorate community meeting in Turner last month, Independents for Canberra is gearing up for meetings in Murrumbidgee on 17 March and Yerrabi a week later, confident it is building momentum towards the ACT election later in the year.

Now officially registered as a political party, the independents push modelled on Senator David Pocock’s successful Senate campaign is out meeting the people and fielding dozens of bids from people wanting to run under its banner in October.

Party secretary and its only official candidate, Thomas Emerson, said that interest so far had come from a broad spectrum of Canberrans including small business owners, former police officers, health care workers and those involved in community organisations.

Senior Commonwealth public servant Anne-Louise Dawes put her hand up as a potential candidate and the party was excited to have attracted someone of that calibre.

Mr Emerson said it was expected that candidates would be finalised by mid-May or June after an endorsement process overseen by the Independents for Canberra organisation rather than a preselection vote, which he said could be manipulated.

This would give the party time to whittle down the list and then plumb for a final selection across the five electorates.

Mr Emerson said the party hoped to have a minimum of two to five candidates in each electorate to maximise its chances.

He said candidates would have to commit to the party’s 10 core principles and present to the community to “stress test” their suitability for the job.

The party would also reserve the right to disendorse candidates who didn’t measure up.

Independents for Canberra had achieved its minimum 100 members to be registered by Elections Canberra, and had attracted about 50 volunteers so far, a good and growing base, Mr Emerson said.

The Kurrajong meeting had drawn a better-than-expected 60 people.

“A lot of Canberrans want the same sorts of things – a livable city as it grows, those fundamental responsibilities of health care, education, and housing – they want them ticked off and for us to be solid in those areas,” he said.

Mr Emerson said they want to be part of the conversation about their aspirations for Canberra.

“But that conversation doesn’t appear to be there on either side of politics,” he said.

“Above all, it’s time for a time for a change. We’ve had the same government for a long time but they don’t really want the opposite. They want something different.”

Mr Emerson said people wanted health care and education that led the nation and was available to all, and serious housing solutions.

Interestingly, small business owners were looking beyond the Canberra Liberals for someone to take up their cause in the current difficult trading climate, especially on policy settings that made it harder to stay in business, such as payroll tax and no-limit workers’ compensation, which fed into higher premiums, and portable long service leave.

Mr Emerson said they didn’t feel the government was listening to them or responding to their needs.

Ginninderra and Brindabella could look forward to community meetings early in April.

Elections ACT said Independents for Canberra on 8 March became the 13th party to be registered for the 19 October poll.

The others are: Animal Justice Party; ACT Labor; the Belco Party; Canberra Progressives; David Pollard Independent; Democratic Labour Party (DLP); Liberal Democratic Party; Canberra Liberals; Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party; Sustainable Australia Party – Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption; ACT Greens; and Community Action Party.