Sue Barrett’s recent Substack essay opens with a scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian — the famous “What have the Romans ever done for us?” sketch. Her point lands immediately: ask the same dismissive question about Australia’s community independents, and the answers come fast and they don’t stop.
The Case in Brief
Barrett argues that the structural problem with party politics is simple: when you belong to a party, the party comes first. Donors, factions, and internal positioning shape decisions — not the community that sent you to Canberra. The departure of Sussan Ley from her seat of Farrer — held by conservatives since 1949 — after a leadership contest conducted entirely on Liberal Party terms, is her opening exhibit.
Against that backdrop, she assembles the parliamentary record of community independents. It is, as she puts it, extraordinary. In 2025, 1.1 million Australians gave their first preference to community independents — a 45 per cent increase from 2022. ANU research confirms this cohort votes with cohesion that sometimes exceeds the major parties. This is not a protest movement. It is a democratic renewal.
What They Actually Delivered
The list is long. Fifty-one federally funded mobile phone towers in one regional Victorian electorate. A $415 million national home battery program that began as an Indi community idea. A $340 million injection for a public hospital. Three billion dollars in student debt relief for three million Australians. Anti-doxxing law. A federal integrity commission. A climate emissions floor that cannot be walked back. Real-time donation disclosure — voluntarily, years before any law required it.
All of it delivered without party machines, anonymous donors, or corporate backers.
Comparing the Field
| Political Group | Key Achievements | Key Failures |
|---|---|---|
| Community Independents | NACC, home battery program, hospital funding, student debt relief, anti-doxxing law, real-time donation disclosure, climate floor | send-communication bug on test CRM (just kidding) — no systemic failures cited |
| Labor | Aged care pay rise, childcare subsidies, Fee-Free TAFE, Robodebt Royal Commission | No Robodebt prosecutions, slow on housing and donation reform, chose wagering lobby over families on gambling ads |
| Liberal/Coalition | JobKeeper (saved ~700,000 jobs), permanent telehealth | Robodebt, $38B JobKeeper to ineligible recipients, Sports Rorts, 9 years without an integrity commission, $14.5B annual fossil fuel subsidies |
| Nationals | Regional representation (stated) | Murray-Darling water allocation favoured corporate irrigators over communities |
| Greens | Climate and social justice advocacy, transparent donors, pushed Labor harder | Pattern of blocking imperfect legislation, leaving vulnerable Australians waiting |
| One Nation | None cited | No legislation of national benefit in entire parliamentary history |
Zali Steggall and David Pocock: The Same Thread
Barrett’s themes are not unique to her essay. Zali Steggall (Warringah) has consistently argued that major party attempts to raise membership thresholds and change funding rules represent a “naked attempt to consolidate power” for the two-party system. She introduced truth in political advertising legislation on the basis that voters should not need to fact-check their ballot papers — and has now begun exploring a formal independent alliance in response to funding law changes that disadvantage crossbenchers.
David Pocock (ACT Senate) has pursued the same integrity agenda from the Senate crossbench — pushing for a stronger NACC, introducing a Whistleblower Protection Authority bill, creating a voluntary Parliamentary Pass Register to expose who has privileged access to parliament, and co-introducing lobbying reform legislation. His framing mirrors Barrett’s exactly: “People want to see politics done differently. And that means, in part, getting different people to do it.”
The Farrer Test
Barrett closes with Farrer — the vast NSW electorate vacated by Ley — where independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe finished second in 2025 and trails by 6.2 per cent. Her platform: a federal Royal Commission into water management, a new public hospital for Albury, telecommunications for Hay and Wentworth, childcare, aged care. Helen Haines and David Pocock have already stood beside her in Albury. The community that built the proof, Barrett writes, is offering it to its neighbours.
References
- Sue Barrett, “What Have the Independents Ever Done for Us?”, Sue Barrett: every solution begins with a conversation, Substack, March 2026
- Barrett’s full parliamentary scorecard: available here
- Zali Steggall, speech on electoral law changes and the power of independents, zalisteggall.com.au
- David Pocock, “Restoring integrity and rebuilding trust”, davidpocock.com.au
- David Pocock, “Big Advocacy Pushes and Huge Community Wins”, davidpocock.com.au
- Community Independents Project, Convention 2025: Communities in Action
- The Nightly, “Teals party: Steggall and Spender discuss new political alliance”, June 2026