#MackellarVotes

DR SOPHIE SCAMPS: INDEPENDENT MP FOR MACKELLAR | RSS.com JUST OVER A year ago, on 21 May, 2023, Australia experienced a seismic shift in its political landscape with a federal election that saw six community independents, six women, elected to parliament by defeating sitting Liberal Party members in affluent, blue ribbon seats in Sydney, Melbourne […]

In February at a local RSL club on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Voices of Mackellar hosted what we hope will be the first of a series of Q & A’s to engage more residents to participate in their democracy. The guest of the inaugural event was Federal MP Dr. Sophie Scamps with the focus on learning […]

IN DECEMBER 2021 I became a volunteer for Dr Sophie Scamps.  Why? I became increasingly frustrated about the Government’s total lack of action on climate change and its obvious and escalating integrity issues. So I started following my local MP on social media (I recommend you do the same, regardless of where you stand politically).  […]

I HAVE ALWAYS been interested in politics but hadn’t done any active campaigning before 2022, apart from doing pre-poll for a friend who ran for Willoughby Council. Towards the end of 2021 I became extremely fed up with Scott Morrison’s eternal lying, ducking and weaving, and really wanted to see a change in the Federal […]

You can read part one here and part two here SOME VOLUNTEERS FELT uneasy in the last week of the campaign – what if Sophie didn’t win? In 2019 Zali’s volunteers had also been unsure she would win so I compared the feel of the two campaigns. There were stand-out similarities – the tidal wave […]

A FEATURE OF the ‘Voices for’ community politics phenomenon, since Voices for Indi pioneered it in 2013, is its particularity. Concepts and values are the common thread, but because each group emerges from local community – and depends on that community for purpose and growth – the groups’ processes, positioning and purpose consequently differ between […]

You can read part one – How a #WarringahVotes volunteer did double duty for Sophie Scamps in #MackellarVotes – here I WAS THRILLED when Jacqui Scruby, Dr Sophie Scamps’ campaign manager, responded to my hesitant offer of help at the Ocean film fundraising event with open arms and promptly booked me to help train scrutineering […]

IT WAS THREE years on from that incredible night when Zali Steggall ousted Tony Abbott and the whole of Manly had erupted into a tooting of car horns and shouts of victory at the Novotel. Three years of droughts, bushfires, inaction on climate change by the government, the cries of #metoo echoing through the corridors […]

Kerry I’ve lived on the Northern Beaches most of my life and grew up near the bush. My special places are Long Reef, Narrabeen Lagoon and the beaches, and the National Parks and Nature Reserves which surround Mackellar. An interest in native birds, plants and animals led me to join local environment organisations and support […]

You can read A diary of emails to Ireland – Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here 14 May 2022 – One week to go  Everyone on team Sophie is a bundle of nerves.   I’m not feeling very confident; we’ll go close but we need a very big swing and the other […]

You can read A diary of emails to Ireland – Part 1 here and Part 2 here 5 May 2022 The government is getting worried it might lose seats to the lady independents. There’s six with some chance of winning, and Sophie would be fifth or sixth chance on the odds. The Treasurer and leader in waiting is […]

You can read A diary of emails to Ireland – Part 1 here 12 April 2022 As a local GP, Dr Sophie is well known in the northern end around Avalon where she lives, but it’s about getting her name out everywhere. Knowing when the Prime Minister would announce the election date, a major awareness […]

Messages to friends in Ireland I HAVE NEVER been involved in the political process, except for voting, but I felt I had to do something to help get rid of the Morrison government.  I was fed up with the lack of action on climate, the lies, the waste of money, the treatment of women and […]

A volunteer for Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, Beth wrote this poem the day after the election.  They Listened to the Voices And so,   The people took charge  Of the Country   In it’s near wreckage  Of climate, humanity and ethics  Much like after  A tornado  When the Amish   Come to rebuild,   Raise the barn   Of a […]

I CANNOT REMEMBER when I first became aware of Sophie Scamps. I do remember that my friend Annabelle posted on our “Paddler’s” Facebook Group an invitation to meet Sophie at an afternoon tea at her home on 13 March. After accepting her invitation, I sought more information, liked what I read, and noticed the merchandise […]

I BECAME POLITICALLY active before the 2007 Federal Election, after the community activist movement GetUp! established.  GetUp had a small office in Drummoyne with a campaign objective of unseating John Howard, then Prime Minister, from Bennelong.  I collected How-to-Vote cards from GetUp and with some friends, door-knocked and letter-box dropped over several weekends in the […]

I USED TO be a little left of centre with my views on social policy; it probably ties back to my love of the fair go culture of our Aussie colonial origins. Yet I grew up in a blue ribbon Frenchs Forest home where you didn’t talk about your politics and no one could ever […]

THAT EAR SHATTERING moment around 8.30 on Saturday 21st May, 2022, won’t be forgotten by anyone who was there. We made history! Only once before have I experienced screaming and excitement like this, the moment Cathy Freeman came around the final corner in her Sydney Olympics gold medal run.  We were actually, though, already winners […]

IN SEPTEMBER 2021, my grandchildren were aged two and five and another term of the Morrison Government seemed likely. I think it was a tweet from the warrior, Wendy Bacon, that said you need to get involved in the political process. I reached out to Voices of Mackellar (VOM), although I had little understanding of […]

Margo’s note: I met Leonie Scarlett and Rebecca Clarke, two co-founders of Voices of Mackellar, at the Canberra #march4justice on 15 March, 2001. In 2019 No Fibs covered the #IndependentsDay campaign of Alice Thompson in Mackellar and her efforts helped set the stage for Dr Sophie Scamps’ win this time. I called Mackellar as a dark horse […]

HERE IN THE #transitzone we have documented and examined, in some detail, the rise and evolution of the “Voices for” independents movement across Australia. We have spoken to founders of movements in specific electorates and independent candidates, including pathfinder, Cathy McGowan in Indi, in NE Victoria, and the independent who defenestrated former Prime Minister Tony […]

Afternoon Briefing episode: https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NU2222V011S00 Jason Falinski: We have seen today that if we are not willing to have free and open discussion – we have seen that today with a with exposure today of donations to independent candidates from coal mine interests – Greg Jennett: Just to be clear, this is Zali Steggall a couple […]

I’D LIKE TO begin by acknowledging the Garigal people as the traditional custodians of this land we are meeting on today, and thank them for protecting this coastline and its ecosystems since time immemorial. We pay our deepest respects to their elders past, present and emerging.  Greg Mullins, Lisa Forrest and Ed Halmagyi – thank you so […]

Ta da…. #lisaforrest fellow athlete and friend to @SophieScamps meanwhile Dr Sophie is literally helping an injured child who fell over 🥰#MackellarVotes — Kay Richardson (@younggourmet) December 5, 2021 And now ☄️☄️☄️Sophie takes the stage and shares the history of @MackellarRising and her decision to stand for #thespiritofmackellar #mackellarvotes — Kay Richardson (@younggourmet) December 5, […]

As the next federal election looms, there’s much more focus now on centre-right candidates running against Liberal incumbents in blue-ribbon seats across Australia, especially inner-urban seats in Sydney and Melbourne, but also more generally. In this latest edition of @transitzonepod we continue our side-bar series on grassroots democracy and the growing independents’ movement, modelled by […]

Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) caught up with Mackellar Independent Alice Thompson (@Indy_Ally) in a brief break from her time at the pre-poll stations in Mackellar, in the final days before the election. I think Mackellar is a sleeper seat Alice Thompson People just don’t know where to place me: I am taking instructions from the Turnbull […]

Cutting his parliamentary teeth in the Tony Abbott opposition of the 43rd Parliament, Josh Frydenberg could be excused for thinking that with a blue-ribbon seat and a bit of judicious backing in the leadership spills he was set for life. Certainly, since winning the seat of Kooyong in 2010, his rise through the Liberal Party […]

A transcript of Independent candidate Alice Thompson’s (@Indy_Ally) speech during her campaign launch at Mona Vale in Sydney’s northern beaches electorate of Mackellar on Wednesday, May 1. This is a sobering moment. An idea that built gradually over the years, became a decision my family felt we had to act on only a few months […]

Now that pre-polling stations have opened nationwide, voting in the 2019 federal election has begun, so here’s my strategic voting guide in our #IndependentsDay seats. As many No Fibs readers know by now, I waged a relentless strategic voting education campaign at the Wentworth by-election after Kerryn Phelps upset progressive voters by preferencing the Liberal […]

In the wake of the ongoing #Watergate scandal, Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) talks to Alice Thompson (@Indy_Ally) Independent candidate for the Sydney Northern Beaches electorate of Mackellar. Alice provides further insight and context to Margo regarding her recent Twitter thread about integrity in government. My legacy in the PMO was to reduce the autonomy of incoming […]