Why the map?

Australia’s democracy is barely functional: we have free and fair elections, but there’s a lack of choice. On all the important issues, the duopoly of Labor and the Liberal/National coalition have very similar policies and what they do in practice is even closer. And what they both do is making their rich donors richer and sending ordinary people and the whole country backwards.

At best, minor parties can win a very small number of seats, but the community independents have shown they can win lower house seats, and this can be scaled. They arise from community groups getting together to participate in our democracy and fight for better representation, but not all seats are equally indy ready.

We urgently need the duopoly parties to be pushed into minority, with independents and minor parties holding the balance of power. Better representation benefits the nation as well as each community. This map highlights seats where the chances of success are greatest, based on election data from past independent wins.

Why Community Independents?

Community independents have been winning elections since Cathy McGowan, supported by Voices for Indi, won the safe federal seat of Indi in 2013. In the ‘teal wave’ of 2022, seven Community Independents won lower house seats and David Pocock joined the senate.

The community independents model is for a group of ordinary people to build a movement, find an outstanding candidate, and support their campaign.

The community independents movement is not centrally coordinated; groups develop separately and set their own agenda. But the Community Independents Project facilitates networking and knowledge sharing – highly recommended.

Who’s behind this?

We’re a small group of people experienced in starting Voices groups, growing them to the point of candidate endorsement, and running campaigns. We do not represent any other group, including CIP, we just mention them because they’re awesome.

We know that problems like climate change, inequality and the housing crisis are too urgent for 3-year cycle after 3-year cycle, so we offer this site to help us collectively maximise our impact.