The constituents of Indi understand the Coalition’s tactics better than most. In the 2013 election, voting booths were postered, sometimes for 100s of metres in either direction, with negative, dramatic signs warning people not to vote Independent. It didn’t work. People grew tired of the negativity of the Mirabella campaign and voted overwhelmingly in support […]
#IndiVotes
Current Member Cathy McGowan (@indigocathy) won the safe Liberal seat by a mere 439 votes (0.5% margin) from, Sophie Mirabella in 2013. McGowan is supported by grassroots community group, Voices For Indi (@voicesforindi).
At the 2016 election, McGowan again beat, Mirabella increasing her margin by 4.4%.
McGowan is not re-contesting the seat and is supporting Voices for Indi backed independent candidate Helen Haines (@HelenHaines1).
4.9% margin vs LIB
Area: 29,187 sq km
Location: North East Victoria
Australian Electoral Commission seat profile
Division of Indi on Wikipedia
Crossbench shares common ground not votes: @indigocathy comments on #IndiVotes leadership and #IndependentsDay hopes for @HelenHaines1
Helen Haines: website
Cathy McGowan: website
Storify: @indigocathy campaign team share the lessons of #IndiVotes during #IndiShares reports @jansant
June 16, 2014
[View the story “Voice for Indi opens its doors at #Indishares” on Storify]
#Indivotes independent candidate @jenpodesta explains why she’s joined the ALP
May 2, 2014
Last year I stood as an independent candidate in the federal Seat of Indi – now famous for the outstanding win by another independent, Cathy McGowan, over the three-term incumbent Sophie Mirabella. Much has already been said and written about that. The experience of standing as a candidate was at once exhilarating and heartbreaking, but […]
Ordinary people speaking with an extraordinary voice @MargaretOConno5 reports
December 13, 2013
By Margaret O’Connor @MargaretOConno5 13 December 2013 It’s Monday December 2 and thirty degrees. The nation’s capital is sliding into a languorous warm late afternoon. I trundle into the Parliament House car park and try, with difficulty, to find a park, because northeast Victoria has come to town. Inside the House of Representatives Chamber, the […]
Doing politics differently: @indigocathy maiden speech
December 2, 2013
Madam Speaker, Colleagues, special guests, friends and family. Madam Speaker, warm congratulations on your election. I thank you and my colleagues for your warm welcome. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of this land, both past and present. Today I am going to share a story – about myself, about my electorate […]
Reporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston
December 2, 2013
[clear] By Margo Kingston, 1 December 2013 I take the Gold Coast train to Brisbane airport, the plane to Melbourne, the sky bus to Southern Cross Station, the train to Seymour, and the bus to Wangaratta train station. Wayne Jansson leads me to his battered old car and drives me to the hamlet of St James. […]
Sal Kimber on singing the @voiceforindi song, and getting Paul Kelly’s OK
September 20, 2013
[clear] Sheila’s editor and No Fibs columnist Sarah Capper interviews Sal Kimber, who re-wrote and sang From Little Things Big Things Grow for Cathy McGowan’s campaign launch. Sarah was at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre where Sal performed on election night, during which swings going against the tide of the rest of the country increasingly showed […]
The intellectual grunt behind @Indigocathy Indi victory: @sarah_capper report
September 20, 2013
Image by No Fibs citizen journalist Wayne Jansson taken on election night, of Alana Johnson, Cathy McGowan and Mary Crooks.By Sarah Capper Sheila’s editor 20 September 2013 When Jeff Kennett lost the “unlosable” Victorian election in 1999, the Victorian Women’s Trust’s Mary Crooks wasn’t overly surprised. In the years leading up the state poll, in her […]
McGowan to apologise to Indi Aborigines: Transcript of her victory press conference
September 19, 2013
Margo: So it’s the end of the beginning for the member for Indi Cathy McGowan. Wayne Jansson has kindly transcribed her answers to reporters’ questions at yesterday’s victory press conference. McGowan announced that she would end the hurt created by Ms Mirabella’s boycott of the Stolen Generations apology by making a formal apology on behalf of Indi next Sorry Day. Wayne discovered […]
Cathy McGowan’s female indie MP predecessor Doris Blackburn
September 18, 2013
[clear] By Dr Robin Tennant-Wood 18 September 2013 With the news that Sophie Mirabella has conceded defeat to Independent Cathy McGowan in the seat of Indi, the electoral book has closed on one of the most closely watched head-to-head contests in an otherwise lacklustre election. The election of a high profile woman as an Independent MP […]
