The work has continued since the election.
Independent for Sturt was originally set up to contest one election. Since then we've been rebuilding it into something that can keep working between elections as well as during them, with a board to govern it, a policy platform developed by asking people across the electorate what their needs are, and a selection process that puts the choice of candidate in this community's hands.
There's a fair bit still to do, and plenty of room for people who want to help do it.
Sign: make the gas companies pay their share See where we're up to
What we stand for
Three commitments, and a test that every policy we develop has to pass.
Integrity
Can you say with any confidence that your representative answers to you, rather than to a party room, a donor, or a factional deal made behind closed doors? Most people can't, and that's a large part of why trust in the major parties has drained away. An independent has no party line to follow and no obligations that aren't on the public record, which means every vote in parliament is taken on the merits of the legislation and on what it means for the people who live here.
Fair
Fairness means more than treating everyone the same. It means a child growing up in Sturt can get a good education whatever their family's circumstances, a young person can still reasonably expect to own a home one day, a small business can compete without the field being tilted toward multinationals and overseas retailers, and older residents can reach the aged care and health services they need with their dignity intact. Those conditions are what allow people to contribute in the first place.
Sustainable
A community needs an economy built for the long term, which takes responsible spending, fair taxation and sound financial management rather than announcements timed to the electoral cycle. Interest rates, budget decisions and the cost of living reach every household in Sturt, and we think that deserves a representative who reads the detail. The environment that economy depends on needs the same treatment. Climate change is already showing up in our homes, our hills and our household bills, and preparing for it properly is an investment in how liveable this place stays.
Every policy we develop has to answer two questions. Is it fair, in the sense that burdens and benefits are shared reasonably between industry and workers, between generations, and between those who earn wages and those who hold capital? And can it be kept up over decades rather than a single term?
Where we're up to
We're in the foundation stage, and most of what's happening right now is fairly unglamorous. The work is governance, team and platform: a board designed to carry the movement between elections rather than dissolve after each one, a policy framework built through consultation with both the electorate and subject matter experts, and a candidate selection process run so that whoever ends up standing in Sturt was chosen here.
It takes longer than simply announcing a name, but it's the reason there'll eventually be something solid to announce.
Read the full updateRight now
Australia gives away its gas, and the rest of us make up the difference.
Australia collects less tax overall than most developed countries, and what it does collect falls more heavily on wage earners than in almost any comparable nation. Meanwhile the gas exported from here returns a small fraction of what other countries collect from the same resource, which is a choice successive governments have made and are still defending.
There's a live argument in Canberra about whether that changes, and how it lands will depend partly on how much public pressure sits behind it. Add your name and we'll pass Sturt's numbers on to the national campaign.
Sign the petitionChip in
$22 a month, or about five dollars a week.
There's a long way to go before the next election, which is exactly why regular giving matters now rather than later. Money that arrives predictably lets us plan, commit to things and organise ahead of time instead of scrambling once a date is called.
It also shapes who the campaign ends up answering to. A few hundred people giving a small amount each month is a very different kind of accountability from a handful of large cheques, and we'd rather have the first one.
Donations are processed monthly. We publish what we're required to disclose, and we won't take money that comes with conditions attached.
Coming soon
Soon we'll be asking what's on your mind.
Over the coming months we'll be running an open consultation across the electorate, built to shape the platform rather than confirm what we already think. The issues on the table will be the ones you raise. Register now and we'll let you know the day it opens.
Tell me when it opensTwo things coming up
A get-together
Most of this has happened over email and in meeting rooms so far. Come along, meet the people doing it, ask whatever you want to ask, and work out from there whether you'd like to be involved.
Date and venue to be confirmed
A community conversation about AI
AI is going to reach into almost everything, and most of the decisions about how it gets handled are being made a long way from here. We're bringing in a couple of people who work in the field to explain where things genuinely stand, opportunities and risks both, and then the floor goes to you: what it means for work locally, what it costs in energy and water, who ends up with the productivity gains, and what protections are worth having.
Date and venue to be confirmed