#IndiStory

COMMENT: Before jetting off to Glasgow via Rome, Scott Morrison was in full ‘fatherhood’ mode. As prime minister he pledged to shield the nation from the nasty side effects of committing to net zero emissions; and the cherry on top is that we’ll benefit from all the economic opportunities on offer. Maybe we’re even front […]

COMMENT: When Cathy McGowan’s team chose – with permission – a re-write of ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ as their 2013 campaign song, it left me feeling a little uncomfortable. Incumbent Sophie Mirabella’s boycott of the apology to the stolen generation loomed large as a factor for the involvement of some key players in […]

“This place attracts and rewards narcissists, and many narcissists are sociopaths,” a ‘Coalition figure with a long history working in Parliament’ told ABC reporter Andrew Probyn last week. Hard truth last month on who and what our political parties pick for us when we follow the brand not the person. Brittany Higgins’ steel-eyed testimony saw […]

I wrote Get Elected both at the urging of my sister Cathy McGowan, the Member for Indi, as a way of capturing and sharing the Indi experiences, and also to improve the diversity of representation in Australian politics where the vast majority of politicians are ‘older, white men’.  I hope that I can inspire diverse […]

Hi, I’m Wayne Jansson and this is a Margo Kingston’s No Fibs podcast. I came to No Fibs via Twitter during the 2013 election campaign when Margo put a call out for citizen journalists to cover seats where they live. I reported Cathy McGowan’s 2013 Indi campaign, in fact she was my first ever interview. […]

What do shouting at the television and gardening have in common? From little things big things have grown. Gather ’round people, let me tell you a story… or two. Whilst a television was not one of the perks of an Aboriginal stockman’s life in the Northern Territory in 1966, the story of Vincent Lingiari and […]

Margo Kingston’s suggested reading:How Indi got itself on the map: The blueprintChasing involved democracy in Indi: @Indigocathy v Sophie Mirabella MPReporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston Cathy McGowan’s valedictory transcript Mr Speaker – I seek the indulgence of the house:  Hello everyone and thank you for coming. Six years ago when I rose to […]

For six years Indi has been an example of a different kind of political representation. ‘The Indi Way’ has become part of the vernacular and my communities continue to celebrate the many achievements of Independence. We have acted in parliament on many issues since those very first ‘Kitchen Table Conversations’ in Indi. In 2013 they […]

The way I see it, every safe Coalition seat must be in play in the sense that quality indies ask tough questions incumbents are forced to answer. That requires courageous indies & committed, creative citizens because a weakened local media can’t do it. Ready to play? #ausvotes — Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) February 22, 2019 Hi. […]

    The result in the seat of Indi is final. Only in the last few weeks, as her 2016 campaign collapsed, has the topic of Sophie Mirabella not rekindled in me the upset and anxiety of the last decade. Rather the emotion was one of grudging compassion. With hindsight, the similarity in the unrelenting […]

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ECE9D8″ border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Speaking to ABC radio on Tuesday morning, Mirabella said the forum failed to raise “any questions about what I think the top issues of concern for Indi are”, which she said were jobs, infrastructure and roads. Excerp from The Guardian – link at end of story.[/dropshadowbox]The ABC […]

Last June when Sophie Mirabella (@MirabellaSophie) won Liberal Party preselection for the Federal seat of Indi, the much anticipated McGowan V’s Mirabella rematch was on and the unofficial campaign was off and running. Mirabella went out hard and early, barely a day went by she wasn’t doing media: I’m back and you will see me, […]

Disclosure: Campbell Klose was Cathy McGowan’s media advisor at the 2013 election. Cast your mind back, if you will, to the 2007 federal election. A rogue Tony Abbott, let off his leash, went through the Coalition’s slim chances of re-election like a wrecking ball; abusing Labor members on live TV, giving erratic interviews and generally […]

#PMLive #Indivotes forum, April 21, 2016

Sophie Mirabella (@MirabellaSophie) and Prime Minister Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) have been accused of “playground politics” during the Spirit Of Anzac launch in Wodonga on Friday, by snubbing “people’s choice” independent, Cathy McGowan MP (@IndigoCathy) and using the event to promote their party for the next federal election. The Border Mail (@bordermail) editorial said: respect for […]

INDI: The Road to Canberra — CROWDFUNDING TRAILER from David Estcourt on Vimeo. INDI: The Road to Canberra  “More than a year has passed since the campaign, so it was interesting seeing our emotions on the big screen…Obviously there are a lot of nuances that can’t be conveyed in a 90 minute film, but [the […]

“What do rowers and politicians have in common?” asked Dr Simon Longstaff AO, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre. “They both look one way and go another.” This resonated with the 265 attendees at the  “Indi talks Democracy” event who came to listen to Simon Longstaff and, “the warhorse from the inside”, former […]

Every now and then in the life of a nation, there’s an event that threatens to change the status quo, bringing the old tired establishment out swinging. You and I, the punters, will be led to believe the assault is for our own good and the sanctity of our institutions. Sophie Mirabella’s (@MirabellaSophie) defeat at […]

By Margaret O’Connor @MargaretOConno5 13 December 2013 It’s Monday December 2 and thirty degrees. The nation’s capital is sliding into a languorous warm late afternoon. I trundle into the Parliament House car park and try, with difficulty, to find a park, because northeast Victoria has come to town. Inside the House of Representatives Chamber, the […]

Madam Speaker, Colleagues, special guests, friends and family. Madam Speaker, warm congratulations on your election. I thank you and my colleagues for your warm welcome. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of this land, both past and present. Today I am going to share a story – about myself, about my electorate […]

[clear] By Margo Kingston, 1 December 2013 I take the Gold Coast train to Brisbane airport, the plane to Melbourne, the sky bus to Southern Cross Station, the train to Seymour, and the bus to Wangaratta train station. Wayne Jansson leads me to his battered old car and drives me to the hamlet of St James. […]

[clear] Sheila’s editor and No Fibs columnist Sarah Capper interviews Sal Kimber, who re-wrote and sang From Little Things Big Things Grow for Cathy McGowan’s campaign launch. Sarah was at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre where Sal performed on election night, during which swings going against the tide of the rest of the country increasingly showed […]

Image by No Fibs citizen journalist Wayne Jansson taken on election night, of Alana Johnson, Cathy McGowan and Mary Crooks.By Sarah Capper Sheila’s editor 20 September 2013 When Jeff Kennett lost the “unlosable” Victorian election in 1999, the Victorian Women’s Trust’s Mary Crooks wasn’t overly surprised. In the years leading up the state poll, in her […]

By Jennifer Podesta, 13 September, 2013 As the dust begins to settle across the nation after the 2013 election, the significance of what has been achieved in the electorate of Indi will continue to be a talking point for some time to come. It will no doubt be analysed from multiple positions: by engaged and […]

The Indi Seat election seen through the lens of our local No Fibs Citizen Journalist and Photographer Wayne Jansson 9 September 2013 Roll over photos to read captions and click on photos to see bigger versions. Election Win Celebration Roll over photos to read captions and click on photos to see bigger versions. No Fibs #Indivotes […]

[clear] By Wayne Jansson September 7, 2013 In what can only be seen as a desperate act, Sophie Mirabella’s early Friday night took almost all available space at polling booths for Liberal posters. https://twitter.com/thejackseymour/status/375966007652651009/ The Mirabella team then posted security guards at booths in Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla. Citizens took to Twitter to voice their […]

by Tom Anderson September 5, 2013 I became aware of a film crew in Indi earlier this week when they visited the pre-polling booth in Wodonga to interview and film the loyal band of volunteers (including myself) manning the booth and handing out How to Vote cards on behalf of candidates. Members of the independent […]

By Jenny O’Connor, Greens Candidate for Indi September 1, 2013 This is my tenth year of campaigning for the Greens in Indi – and by far the most interesting. Usually there is no contest: Labor runs a well-meaning but no-chance candidate; I try to increase the Green vote – it’s risen from less than three percent […]

By Tom Anderson 30 August 2013 Ken Jasper interview Cathy McGowan’s response and Al’s questions on robocalling See Tom’s calculations of how McGowan might win Indi. Margo: No Fibs citizen journo Tom Anderson attended yesterday’s press conference in Wangaratta where long-time National Party MP for Murray Valley Ken Jasper explained why he supported Cathy McGowan’s […]

By Ben McGowan 29 August 2013 Drive 40 minutes north of Melbourne, cross the Great Dividing Range, and you will drop into the electorate of Indi. Keep driving north and you’ll travel another three hours before you cross the border in NSW. Indi is an electorate of catchments – the King River, Ovens River, Kiewa […]

By Wayne Jansson 27 August 2013 #IndiVotes created its own version of #QandA on Monday night at The Cube in Wodonga. It was a night full of passion and at times fire as the candidates battled it out in front of a capacity crowd of more than 300. The #IndiVotes hash tag was displayed on […]

By Van Badham  August 27, 2013 The tactical employment of demeaning stereotypes has always been popular in the Australian political discourse.  Just lump together some universally loathed behaviours – like vanity, self-indulgence or entitlement – dress them as communities you’re trying to discredit, and parade them like carnival villains. “Union thugs”, anybody? “Feminazis”?  “People smugglers”? “Asylum […]

By Wayne Jansson, !8 August, 2013 The contest for Indi hit the national media this week with a hint of friction in Liberal-National coalition ranks, as reports emerged of National Party members being involved in independent Cathy McGowan’s push to unseat the Liberals’ Sophie Mirabella. “I’m getting support right across the political spectrum in Indi,” […]

By Wayne Jansson, 16 August, 2013 The Voice4Indi candidate Cathy McGowan has hit back at claims by unnamed Liberal sources that she is a front for the National Party in Indi, saying she has support across the political spectrum. Ms McGowan acknowledged she was a close friend of Mr Tim Fischer, a former National Party […]

By Wayne Jansson, 7 August, 2013 Now that the election has been called, it’s time to give my first seat update on Indi. The campaign period wasn’t even a day old when the first shock came through – independent candidate Alan Lappin pulled out after suffering a heart attack. Alan received 5.84{17ac88c265afb328fa89088ab635a2a63864fdefdd7caa0964376053e8ea14b3} of the primary […]

Wayne Jansson interviews Cathy McGowan, the leading independent candidate for the regional Victorian seat of Indi held by Sophie Mirabella. No Fibs previewed her campaign in Chasing involved democracy in Indi. August 2, 2013 Q: What were you doing before becoming involved in politics? A:  I’ve always been involved in politics. I run a consultancy […]

Margo: Cambell Klose has volunteered to do media for Cathy Mcgowan, a community candidate challenging Sophie Mirabella in the safe Liberal seat of Indi at the federal election. His piece is the 4th in our series on new political activists. Those of you who read Not Happy, John! know that grassroots democracy is very close […]