On a sunny Sunday morning in Bunbury, people from all across our beautiful electorate came together to attend the candidate launch.

"Hi everyone, welcome to this very special event!

"I want to start by talking about three things:
1. What is Voices for Forrest and what is our history
2. Why did we decide to find an independent candidate
3. How did we choose our candidate

"First: what is Voices for Forrest and what is our history

Voices for Forrest is an incorporated association with members who are from the electorate – not outside. We’re not a political party. We exist to listen to the community and empower people to have their say. We do not have an ideology, instead we have values and a commitment to follow the process of community consultation. A third important difference is that we selected our own candidate without any influence from anyone outside the electorate. And our candidate is a community independent candidate. Both of those words are important: community because that’s whom she’ll represent, and independent of party or other influences.

We’re actually part of a Australia-wide Voices-movement. That movement started in Indi (NSW) in 2013, a rusted on seat where the community felt that surely politics could be better than that. They got together to talk politics at the kitchen table. One of them was Cathy McGowan, who went on to become the first community independent MP, and the godmother of the Voices movement.

In July last year, a group of people came together in the Bunbury library. They helped Voices for Forrest to be where it is today: a community group with more than 500 supporters across the electorate, and an extensive community consultation process.

I would like to read a few things people said at that first meeting.

“I’m here because I want to know that we can make a difference and enable people to start speaking up. I see a total disregard from elected representatives at state and federal level, which is very upsetting.

“I think we should find out what matters for most people, through community engagement and involvement.

Since then, we’ve heard this so many times: politicians don’t really represent us but rather their party, and that there is a growing divide.

Our community consultation process included almost 500 people in the electorate, through kitchen table conversations, surveys, stalls, and doorknock chats. What came out of this was not just people’s concerns and issues, but also their shared appreciation of their communities and of our beautiful places to live.

I will now talk about why we decided to find an independent candidate.

When we started, it was our aim to do the community consultation as best as we could, and to hear what people thought of their representative. Like other Voices groups, we planned to write our report and then use it to improve the relationship between the next representative and the community.

However, it quickly became clear that the majority of people who shared their views with us were very unhappy with the current state of representation. We felt it didn’t make sense to expect change. And so, we decided to start looking for a candidate willing to stand as Community Independent at the next federal election.

We started our search in April and worked hard for four months to find a candidate. We were committed to finding a local person who represented the profile and values that came out of our community consultation:

1. Connection with the community
2. Experience outside of government
3. Honesty and integrity
4. Consultation
5. Courage
6. Desire to engage with the complex issues facing our electorate
7. Action focussed.

After lots of conversations with potential candidates and lots of advertising, we had a shortlist of 4 potential candidates, of whom 2 submitted an expression of interest. We then formed a selection panel consisting of four members of the Voices for Forrest committee, and two local community and business people with a background in policy and HR. We put our candidates through a process that has been designed by an election strategist.

It takes great courage to put up your hand for this role, and we are grateful to everyone who gave this some thought or even all out applied.

Ultimately, our candidate was selected with flying colours. She has a proven track record of community involvement, leadership, and local advocacy. She has a generous smile, is kind, professional, driven, intelligent and has a cute dog. We couldn’t wish for more.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dr Sue Chapman!"

Gita Sonnenberg, VFF convenor