Across Australia in state, federal and local elections, candidates of all stripes are adopting the community-independent moniker to win support from those dissatisfied with politics.

Ahead of the Australian Capital Territory election on October 19, five candidates have coalesced under the Independents for Canberra banner and registered as a political party, marking a different strategy from the teal wave at the 2022 federal election.

Tom Emerson, the self-described leader of Independents for Canberra and a candidate in Kurrajong, told The New Daily that what they are trying to do has not been done in Australia.

“We’re working together as a group of independents with candidates in all five electorates, basically using the party system to beat the system and level the playing field,” he said.

“We’ve got a really good shot in the ACT under the Hare-Clark system, you need just 16.66 per cent, or one-sixth of the vote plus one, to get elected.”

ACT Labor has targeted Independents for Canberra, and other minor parties and candidates, in an attempt to tie any success of their candidates with the Liberal Party election chances.

ACT Labor has run this advertising targeting independents 21 times on Meta platforms, according to Politidash. Photo: Facebook

Emerson said that attacks by Labor are proof that they are “upset that we’re using the system against them”.

“They’ve ruled the roost for the last 23 years and we’ve now seen the Labor Party resort to fear-based campaigning,” he said.

“It is exactly what people say they are sick of from the major parties.”

Who is an independent?

Although Independents for Canberra is unconventional in structure, Emerson does have community-indie credibility. He was previously employed by Senator David Pocock and shares a friendship with the former rugby player.

Dr Zareh Ghazarian, a political scientist at Monash University, said that independent or minor parties grouping together has a long history in Australia.

“Some candidates use voting above the line as a strategic way of boosting their electoral fortunes,” he said.

“If they were to appear as an independent, they’d be just one of many that people are confronted with on the ballot.”

He said despite this history, registering as a political party could hurt their credibility in the eyes of the public.

“An increasing amount of voters are moving away from the major parties and the votes have been moving towards independents,” Ghazarian said.

“Independents who are a political party potentially place them in a difficult position to explain how they are different to other political parties.”

Teal appeal

Research from the ABC found that one in 10 candidates who ran in the local government elections in Queensland were aligned with a political party, including those who labelled themselves as independents.

Michael Randall, a Mosman councillor, said that candidates with political affiliations, including access to resources and volunteers, misrepresenting themselves as independents were rife during the recent New South Wales local council elections.

“Many voters are unaware of these affiliations because major party membership is either buried deep in electoral commission documents or blatantly omitted,” Randall said.

“We urgently need stronger safeguards from the electoral commission, and more robust processes to prevent this kind of misleading practice.”

One candidate in his electorate, running and advertised as an independent, had a state Liberal MP campaigning on their behalf.

Ghazarian said that the appeal of the community independent tagline is all about “momentum”, but the decentralised nature of the movement allows anyone to adopt it.

“Independents performed exceptionally well at the 2022 election, but polling has shown that Labor has lost support in Victoria,” he said.

“That support doesn’t seem to have gone to the Coalition.”