Independent MP Helen Haines on using ‘soft power’
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Helen Haines, who does not have the real legislative power her predecessor, Cathy McGowan shared after the Coalition fell into minority government, says "building relationships is key to getting things done".
The stakes for the Nationals in the seat of New England are extraordinarily high.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Apart from the main game, watch for the drawcard contests on Saturday night. Among them will be the performance of the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), the battles in the Nationals’ seats of New England and Cowper…
Older people in the Indi focus group regarded Malcolm Turnbull as the more charismatic, but felt Bill Shorten was ‘more for the regular Joe’.
AAP
Malcolm Turnbull is overwhelmingly more trusted than Bill Shorten to lead the country in the final round of Indi focus group research among ‘soft’ voters in the seat.
Cathy McGowan is a community-minded representative who seeks to build her electorate’s capacity to respond to rural challenges.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Indi has a potentially large number of floating voters at the local scale, mirroring the situation nationally. What do the people of Indi think about issues of trust?
The battle for the Victorian seat of Indi is shaping up as a three-way contest.
Former independent member for Wills, Phil Cleary, joins Sophie Mirabella and Cathy McGowan in photos at a Wodonga football match.
Sophie Mirabella/Pat Hutchens
Phil Cleary, left-leaning one-time independent member for Wills, and Sophie Mirabella, the former Liberal MP for Indi who is trying to regain the seat, are far from political soulmates.
Cathy McGowan rates strongly for fighting for Indi, being hard working, approachable, responsive and a good communicator.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Sophie Mirabella has delivered an early blow to her campaign to regain Indi with an unsubstantiated claim that the seat missed out on $10 million in hospital money because it elected Cathy McGowan.
The New England contest will be about many things, but in particular it will test how Barnaby Joyce handles extreme pressure.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Barnaby Joyce should be afraid. The Nationals profess they’ll hold New England, and Joyce is the favourite. But Tony Windsor is likely to drive Joyce mad.
Last year’s election of federal independent MP Cathy McGowan as a result of Voices 4 Indi’s kitchen table campaign was a spectacular demonstration of the potential power of this model of community engagement.
Voices4Indi/Facebook
Grassroots common sense and decency lie at the heart of two growing movements to reassert the voice of the people in the management of our local and national affairs. Kitchen table conversations and community…
Liberal politician Sophie Mirabella, who is likely to lose her Victorian seat of Indi, has been subjected to the misogyny that continues to pervade Australian politics.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Hard-faced. I’m looking at that phrase and wondering exactly what it means. Of course, I know what it means when it’s applied to men. They are heroic, they’ve seen things that those of us who are more…
Coalition frontbencher Sophie Mirabella appears likely to be unseated in her rural Victorian seat of Indi by a popular local independent candidate, Cathy McGowan.
AAP/Julian Smith
Following a close count on election night, the result in the rural Victorian electorate of Indi is still unknown. As the counting of votes continued, it was still unclear whether Liberal incumbent Sophie…
Coalition frontbencher Sophie Mirabella has an unexpected fight on her hands is to retain her rural Victorian electorate of Indi.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The federal Victorian seat of Indi covers a major part of Victoria’s northeast. The Hume Highway and the Melbourne-to-Sydney railway run through the electorate’s demographic centre and at various points…
