Voices of Mackellar: talk given at Newport RSL, 24 March 2021

Change happens slowly, then it happens fast

This is (more or less) a transcript of a talk I gave for the organisation, Voices of Mackellar, their first major public event as they try and follow in the footsteps of other Voices Of movements around the country. I am republishing it now in the wake of the 2022 federal election results. It’s a little historical capsule.

Avalon Beach

Hi Everyone,

I understand this evening is a bit of thank you by the organisers to all those who helped get Voice of Mackellar off the ground, and so I wanted to talk a little tonight in terms of the sort of work you are doing.

I wanted to put it in the context of democracy more generally.

What do we actually mean when we talk about being a democratic country?

It seems obvious, but I think we forget some basic things.

There are more than 20 organisations in Australia, like VoM, trying to find good independents to represent them in federal parliament, and this is something new in our politics.

Especially from the conservative side of the aisle.

The push for indepe…