I am forever grateful that I can call Australia home. We arrived nearly thirty years ago. Having lived in undemocratic, badly governed places, I marveled at Australia’s robust democracy. But as time passed, I started to worry that we were taking our democracy for granted and, because we were not paying close attention, our democratic structures were being quietly eroded. Election time was always the same. As a migrant I didn’t have any family political allegiances to contend with, and I was free to think about which party would provide good government. But it became harder and harder each election to place my trust in the major political parties. I became disenchanted with mainstream politics and disengaged from it.
I was inspired when listening to Kathy McGowan recount Indi’s grassroots campaign. Their tactic struck a chord. So, in January 2022, when our son-in-law’s father mentioned, in passing, that there was an independent movement in our electorate of Curtin, I was in.
I now live in Margaret River, and I am getting behind the Voices for Forrest for the same reason I got behind Kate Chaney. I want good government and I have seen how the independents have already shifted things in the right direction!
