The brand images of independents and minor parties are now totally confused because in the Senate the antics of so-called independents who flit backwards and forwards are almost unbelievable. The time is right then, when the independent/micro party brand has been so badly damaged, to look at the success stories in the non-major party world.
The Greens, often side-lined in current debates, have largely held together despite their bitter internal arguments and divisions in places like their NSW branch and in Batman in Victoria. They have managed the leadership transition from Bob Brown to Christine Milne and then to Richard di Natale and voted together as a unified Senate team throughout the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott-Turnbull years. More importantly they have maintained deep, grass-roots community links and attracted extensive, and often youthful, representation in local governments and state parliaments.
Cathy McGowan (pictured), independent MHR for Indi (Victoria) since 2013, has also been successful. The Indi story has been dissected by Associate Professor Carolyn Hendricks of ANU in the Australian Journal of Political Science and her article, called 'Citizen-led democratic reform', should be read by anyone interested in independent or minor party politics. The ingredients were displayed earlier this month in Wodonga in a workshop for 'people interested in representing their community by standing as a candidate at a local, state or federal election or people seeking to support a future candidate'.
This workshop, 'Getting Elected to Represent Your Community', was presented by Voices4Indi, the community movement behind McGowan's election, which has grown and diversified to be a powerful force for community education, engagement and activism in the wider north-east Victoria region. This intensive workshop was addressed not only by Hendricks and myself, but also by Mary Crooks of the Victorian Women's Trust on 20 years of the trust's 'Kitchen Table Conversation Model', which is a successful approach to grass-roots-led change in organisations and in political representation.
McGowan spoke too, along with other successful Independents like the State Member for Shepparton District, Suzanna Sheed, and young Independent and Green new-style local government representatives, including Dr Amanda Cohn, Greens Deputy Mayor of Albury, and Jenny O'Connor, Independent Mayor of Indigo Shire Council.
Yet work-shopping in Wodonga we seemed to be in a parallel universe because, in the middle of such positive energy, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party was disintegrating once again. But that was just one example of failure and confusion as Independents Nick Xenophon, Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie formed parties, teams or networks.
The replacement of Senators who are declared ineligible under S. 44, like Lambie, Malcolm Roberts and Bob Day, showed the organisational immaturity within these micro parties. Their replacements have each joined other parties after a brief period as an Independent. Steve Martin is now a National, Fraser Anning with Katter's Australian Party and Lucy Gichuhi a Liberal.
"Constantly in the limelight, they are pursued relentlessly by the government and opposition. It has made teamwork essential but fraught, while giving many team leaders dangerous delusions of grandeur."
The parliamentary instability in micro parties, like the Palmer United Party and Hanson's One Nation, has been exacerbated by their leaders' failure to knit together the disparate bunch of MPs elected in their name.
Unlike the Green Senators these independent-cum-micro party senators are not bound together by party values or even by tribalism but by the thin threads of anti-major party angst. Without roots in the community or a decent organisational wing they fall apart.
The Nick Xenophon Team, now Centre Alliance, did best because they came from one state, and several of them had previously worked for Xenophon. Even then the choice of replacements for Xenophon and Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore caused internal dissension, meaning Tim Storer now sits as an Independent.
The final straw has been the pressure that holding the balance of power has put on these newly-elected teams and individuals. Constantly in the limelight, they are pursued relentlessly by the government and opposition. It has made teamwork essential but fraught, while giving many team leaders dangerous delusions of grandeur.
The contrast between success and failure shows that successful independents and minor parties cannot just be based on major party disillusionment, creative election campaigns, or attractive candidates, but also on deep listening to and engaging with their communities which enable a positive and grounded alternative to be offered to voters.
John Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University and chairs Concerned Catholics Canberra-Goulburn.