"It's not all about getting your candidate elected"

A conversation with former member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, about the real promise of community engagement

[What is required is] cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.

—Greta Thunberg

I have half-followed reports over the last few weeks about both Labor and the Coalition moving into “election mode”, that they are soft-launching their campaigns, settling on slogans, rehearsing their killer lines, and cycling through endless interviews to “hone their messages”.

The more I read, the more I could feel my skin going clammy with a sort of dread.

Is this really what they think democracy is? Must we really put up with x months of the mindless ritual of two-party politicking in lieu of actual problem-solving and meaningful democratic deliberation?

Of course it is. Of course we must.

One person who has done more than almost anyone to break this tired template of political campaigning is former independent member for Indi, Cathy McGowan. She contacted me recently, wanting to speak about what the community independents movement was doing acr…