As someone who has run as an independent candidate, Kookaburra can assure readers that the group of candidates standing for election under the banner of Climate 200 resemble true independent candidates as much as a dog resembles a cat.
When I ran as an independent, there was no uncle Simon Holmes a Court freely handing out thousands, he now talks millions, for my campaign. Apparently, with no questions asked and no obligations felt. Seriously? As soon as someone gives you money, you owe them. Whether it is by clear obligation, or implied obligation, you owe them.
The last campaign in which I stood as an independent, as I recall, had a budget of, let me think, around $10,000. No teal t-shirts, banners, and assorted campaign odmentia. Just limited supplies of corflutes, leaflets and how to vote cards – and lots of petrol. The rural seat in which I ran, the old Hume, stretched from Pheasant’s Nest just outside Sydney down to Coolac, up north west to Caragabal past Grenfell and down to Wamboin east of Canberra.
Not a comfy inner city up market Liberal seat littered with cafes for the latte set and inhabited by members of the upper middle class pontificating about the climate whilst they decide which petrol guzzling SUV to acquire next, no doubt to be parked in a multi-story home containing enough power points to light up the Harbour Bridge.
Even though my indefatigable partner, Fiona, and I were a two-person band up against the odds, I felt obliged to put out a comprehensive policy agenda across the entire range of federal government activities. I believe that if you are running as an independent, you need to demonstrate to your potential electorate that you have the capacity to represent them as effectively as any member of an established political party. Focusing on just one or two issues described vaguely just does not cut it. It is insulting to your potential constituents and demonstrates laziness and lack of application on the part of a candidate.
I made it clear also that, if elected, I would support a Coalition Government. Your electors need to know in advance where you will stand on the crucial issue of the formation of a Government. You owe them that courtesy. You owe them that transparency.
Returning to the animal analogy. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck – it is a duck. Climate 200 is a political party. Members of the Climate 200 ‘Advisory Council’ include six former M.P.’s – John Hewson, Tony Windsor, Meg Lees, Kerryn Phelps, Rob Oakeshott and Barry Jones. The ‘team’ behind the candidates includes a number of journalists and political operatives. That team is providing the candidates with resources identical to those provided by registered political parties to their endorsed candidates.
If the candidates running under the banner of Climate 200, who include four sitting M.Ps. (Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, Rebekha Sharkie and Zali Steggall), wish to fulfill their promise of re-introducing integrity into politics then they can start by being honest about who they are and admit that indeed they are a political party – and start playing by the same rules as the rest of us.
