{"id":54806,"date":"2021-02-20T18:31:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T07:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=54806"},"modified":"2021-03-02T16:11:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T05:11:24","slug":"how-the-pop-up-drkerrynphelps-campaign-for-wentworth-came-together-margokingston1-a-dinner-party-debrief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/how-the-pop-up-drkerrynphelps-campaign-for-wentworth-came-together-margokingston1-a-dinner-party-debrief\/","title":{"rendered":"How the pop-up @DrKerrynPhelps campaign for Wentworth came together: a @margokingston1 dinner party debrief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Also: Reporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cathy McGowan, Kerryn Phelps and Andrew Wilkie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My interest in community independents began when I covered the successful Cathy McGowan race for Indi in 2013, on Twitter and through my website No Fibs<\/em>. In 2018, I became Kerryn Phelps\u2019 unofficial Twitter campaign manager for the Wentworth by-election<\/a> and focused on independents at the 2019 election, under the #IndependentsDay hashtag<\/a>. After the election, I decided to write a book about the independents I followed, and, with filmmaker Squig, who produced ads for three independents during the campaign, we attended dinner parties hosted by candidates who chose as guests people crucial to their campaigns. The idea was to gain insight into how the campaigns came together and how they worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2019, my mother, with whom I lived for more than a decade, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I dropped the book idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I saw that Kerryn was to be a keynote speaker at Cathy\u2019s summit on how to stand as a community independent<\/a>, I thought I\u2019d publish a piece on the dinner party at her place, for participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trigger for every independent campaign is different, and Kerryn’s began as a pop-up response to the overthrowing of a Prime Minister, the candidate was a celebrity and the electorate was small, influential and, in parts, rich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key elements of all community independent campaigns were also in place \u2013 a coalition of voters across the political spectrum, serious organisational team members, and, maybe most importantly, the fun and even joy of working in a team for a common goal. There’s a big bonus: a blow-by-blow of how Kerryn led an impossible \u2013 successful \u2013 push for legislation to help sick refugees on Manus Island and in Nauru. Independents really can achieve miracles in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope participants enjoy listening in on Kerryn\u2019s dinner party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wentworth, a Federation seat<\/a>, is Australia\u2019s richest and houses some of the most economically and politically powerful people in the country as well as many renters. It\u2019s the fundraising jewel in the Liberal Party\u2019s crown and Australia\u2019s second most compact seat, comprising 38 kilometres of Sydney\u2019s Eastern Suburbs, overlooking Sydney Harbour and Bondi Beach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wentworth includes the highest percentage of Jewish voters in the nation and the 5th-highest percentage of same-sex couples. 63 per cent of voters have a tertiary degree, and many others are students studying for one. It has never been held by the Labor Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won 67.75pc of the two-party-preferred vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the by-election on October 20, 2018, Liberal candidate Dave Sharma suffered a two-candidate-preferred swing against him of 18.96pc and Dr Kerryn Phelps won it with 51.22pc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 2019 election, Dr Phelps lost narrowly, after winning a !6.44pc swing against the Liberals compared to the 2016 election. She lost 51.31pc to 48.69pc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn Phelps<\/strong> and her partner Jackie Stricker-Phelps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Freyer\u00a0<\/strong>worked at the BBC and CNN before gaining her Harvard MBA. Now working a with Kerryn at City of Sydney Council, she joined Kerryn\u2019s team at the 2019 election as a strategist and door-knocker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Hatsatouris<\/strong>, a retired teacher, was an on-the-ground volunteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony Coburn<\/strong> is a consultant at a major law firm and the election numbers man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne Coburn<\/strong>, a former lawyer and now leadership consultant and executive coach, is a former Liberal Party member and elected councillor, was also a strategist and influencer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin Barnett<\/strong> worked for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and set up a political consultancy business with Anthony Reed when she lost the 2013 election. He was Kerryn\u2019s media manager for the by-election, chief of staff to her as an MP and her election campaign manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margie Blok<\/strong>, a former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald\u2019s <\/em>Title Deeds section, was an on-the-ground volunteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Hannaford<\/strong>, film and television producer, volunteered full time in the campaign office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabi Stricker-Phelps<\/strong>, now 21, is Kerryn and Jackie\u2019s daughter and organised the youth group supporting the campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Kerryn Phelps<\/strong>\u00a0(celebrity TV doctor, Australian Medical Association (AMA) president, a leader of the same-sex marriage campaign, shortest serving member for Wentworth) and her partner Jackie live on the 15th floor of a Potts Point Apartment near the CBD with views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s exactly four weeks since election night, when Wentworth, despite the unanimous \u2018expert\u2019 view that Dave Sharma would easily retake Wentworth for the Libs, was too close to call on the night. Postals won it for Sharma, but the result officially turned Australia\u2019s richest electorate marginal. I thought the mood would be down; I mean she lost, not by much, but she lost. Instead Yvonne Coburn says hi with a big smile and alludes to a well-known Leonard Cohen line, \u201cSometimes the vessel has to break for the light to shine in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We eat a simple meal of salmon and greens, and I discover there hasn\u2019t been a debrief since May 18, and that this is it. Everyone is up, like they\u2019ve been waiting for this chance to work out what happened and if anything comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn is a councillor for the City of Sydney. She was elected on Mayor Clover Moore\u2019s ticket, but they fell out in a specular Eastern-Suburbs-of-Sydney way. She says she\u2019d just pulled together a small group to challenge Clover for Lord Mayor in the 2020 election (postponed due to COVID-19 to September 2021) when the Liberal hard right knifed Malcolm Turnbull.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then people called, emailed and tweeted her to stand for Wentworth. Margie accosted her in the local liquor store. She\u2019d never done politics before, \u201cbut I thought what a pack of tossers, and they\u2019re in charge of us? This is\u00a0appalling, so when I ran into Kerryn I said \u2018stand and I\u2019m there\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia\u2019s only previous involvement in politics was handing out how-to-votes for former member Peter King because Peter\u2019s son was at school with her son. She called Jackie who she has known for forty years since they were young teaching graduates. \u201cI said if Kerryn\u2019s in I\u2019m there. I\u2019ll do pre-polls, I\u2019ll do election day. I\u2019ve lived in the area for a time, I\u2019ve taught in the area and I know a lot of people.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Kerryn consider standing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a real determination to do something about the climate change issue and the treatment of refugees and the lurch to the right of the Liberal Party and what I saw as a very disturbing direction that the country was taking,” she says. \u201cPart of what I\u2019ve always done is thinking why doesn\u2019t someone do something about it and look around and you\u2019re the person there who needs to do something about it. I had to ask my support team for the council election if they were prepared to shift focus for the Wentworth by-election. Their support was an essential prerequisite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, she had support, lots of it, but she had no idea how to run an election campaign. She adds that she decided to run after Darrin and his business partner Anthony sat at this table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very big deal for a politically-ambitious celebrity to put it on the line for a pop-up campaign she\u2019ll probably lose. I steal a glance at the composed, frighteningly-intelligent woman beside me and realise how much I admire her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask the volunteers at the table, why get involved? Was it because Turnbull was rolled or because of the reason he was rolled: to stop any action on climate change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s where Yvonne and Tony \u2013 who\u2019d never met Kerryn before the by-election \u2013 enter the fray. She is Jewish, a former Liberal councillor representing the very Jewish conservative suburb of Dover Heights. He scrutineered in other election campaigns. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe two things go together,\u201d Yvonne says. \u201cHaving a candidate who genuinely embodied the principles of small-l liberalism and was all about actual change was incredibly motivating for us to join. It was about having somebody who with great authenticity was prepared to take a stand. I actually resent, at one level, that people say it was because Malcolm was rolled \u2013 that was really unfortunate but it was a much bigger thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne had left the Liberal Party some time earlier. After serving as a Liberal councillor on Waverley Council she and Tony moved to Victoria for a time. \u201cI watched the general trend in the party of being more concerned about internal factional fighting and politics as opposed to really thinking about what constituents wanted,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Turnbull resigned Yvonne went to see Kerryn and Jackie. \u201cI really cross-examined both of them, actually. I thought these are amazing women and they genuinely care about the community and things I care about so I brought Tony along to the next meeting (Kerryn: \u201cFor the next interrogation\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony: \u201cBoth of us were very disappointed with the turn inside the Liberal Party over the last two or three years, and the failure of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) was the last straw. We wanted to go along and see how we felt about this candidate. We\u2019d heard great things about Kerryn, and we both had the sense that she was likely to be an evidence-based person so we visited her campaign office during my lunch hour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne: \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to do anything behind people\u2019s backs, so I told Liberal people \u2018I\u2019m supporting Kerryn and this is why\u2019, because the bottom line is I actually care about real leadership, and about supporting someone who effectively will make a change and care about the things I care about\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I became an adviser to Kerryn and an influencer in terms of the community, certainly in terms of the Jewish community, and helping my friends to understand that a vote for Kerryn didn\u2019t mean they were moving so far across to the left that they couldn\u2019t stomach that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony: \u201cOn a two-candidate preferred basis, up on Dover\u00a0Heights where Yvonne\u2019s base is, Turnbull achieved a vote\u00a0just over 80 per cent in the 2016 election and at the by-election Sharma was in the low-mid 60s, and for mine, it had a lot to do with you getting out there with Kerryn, and doing some door-knocking,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cYes, we had some surprised looks on their faces in Dover Heights when Yvonne and I turned up at their doors in Dover Heights and said hello.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne: \u201cWhat was beautiful was that everybody was talking about Kerryn being supported by Labor operatives, but, hello!<\/em> We\u2019re talking about people who\u2019ve always voted Liberal, their parents have always voted Liberal, it\u2019s who they are. Rebranding themselves was very big.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margie was chief volunteer for Potts Point and Kings Cross. She did every market till by-election day. \u201cDay one, never done this before, put my purple T-shirt on, up to the market, and know most of these people,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the beginning people were skeptical \u2013 what does she think she can do? Why? So we had to say why Kerryn was going to be good, and I had known Kerryn for a long time so I could talk off the top of my head that this was a very good person. And I helped write a page of policies we could all share. Unfortunately I fell over two days later after I began campaigning and broke my ankle. So I\u2019m on crutches, and I got a lot of sympathy in the moon boot and crutches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turn to Julie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been involved in politics before. I\u2019m in the film industry; traditionally I\u2019m a Labor-Green voter, but Malcolm Turnbull inspired me with his positivity. So for the first time in my life I voted Liberal,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a person desperate for positive change. I was emotionally devastated with the Julia Gillard treatment. I grew up on the northern beaches in a misogynistic culture, and Julia Gillard was the mentor of hope that I always wanted. When she was so mistreated by the misogyny and chauvinism I was devastated. Similarly with Hillary Clinton. Malcolm was my next hope, then he was mistreated and ousted. I knew Kerryn, we\u2019d worked together a long time ago, in 1984, on the ABC\u2019s Everybody\u2019s Health <\/em>program, where she was the resident doctor. I just wanted a strong, intelligent, independent woman of integrity to give me some hope that there are women who can be role models for the next generation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went through Howard, with his regressive policies, and Abbott as Minister for Women, and I was just desperate for something good to happen. So I heard on the grapevine that Kerryn might stand and\u00a0I was in my bedroom sending my vibes \u2018stand, stand, stand\u2019. She announced and I turned up in the office and said, \u2018Hi, I once worked for you and I\u2019m here now\u2019. And I stayed for the entire time full time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a big commitment but I wanted to commit because I believed we could make a change. It was not egotistical, I wanted positive change. I worked with Darrin on policies, on press releases, videos, we had a core team of about 14, and I have to tell you it was like being in a little film crew. It\u2019s always wonderful to work in a small team where the goal is beyond self. That core team was all of us working 24\/7, we were getting texts from Darrin at midnight, and Google alerts, Google alerts, Google alerts, but we all worked as a team supporting each other, helping each other. It was collaborative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie was one of many who just turned up and asked to help, including on policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cI\u2019d be at the railway station or the Rose Bay ferry wharf and they\u2019d say you have to be back at the campaign office at 11 o\u2019clock. And I\u2019d walk and there\u2019d be this amazing national or international expert on something giving me a tutorial on an issue \u2013 refugee law climate policy, energy policy, superannuation policy \u2013 and they\u2019d line people up for me through their contacts, or contacts of contacts who wanted to come in and be a policy adviser for me to develop policy. We pulled together an extraordinary manifesto of sensible, economically conservative, socially progressive policies over a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie: \u201cKerryn and I have been walking our dogs through Rushcutters Bay for eight years, and there\u2019s this woman we put in my telephone as \u2018Lyn with the poodles\u2019. So I walk into the campaign office and there\u2019s Lyn with the poodles. And our volunteer Penny had found her, because she was a brilliant superannuation expert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie: \u201cShe\u2019d retired and was looking for things to do; and she not only lectured and presented forums for Kerryn, she stood at Paddington every day, by-election and election, every day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter John Hewson, former Liberal Party leader and member for Wentworth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie: \u201cOne of our volunteer\u2019s daughters was at school with his daughter, and she thought he would be a really good person for Kerryn to talk to because he knows everything about climate and energy, and she gave me his phone number and I rang and he said he\u2019d love to talk to her, and he did. (He also door-knocked for Stop Adani, did a forum for Kerryn and advocated for her election on television).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cHe sat down with me for hours and helped me to really understand the economics of climate and energy policy, from a standing start \u2013 a massive learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie. \u201cAnd a lot of people invited Kerryn into their homes \u2013 the Israeli model \u2013- to talk to people who then went and talked to their friends.\u201d (Kerryn did one the week before our dinner, on climate change, for 40 people).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a circus, the by-election, a circus of national media and 18 candidates and Liberal members from all over Sydney and beyond, Getup! and Stop Adani activists, and people who, well, just turned up to do their own thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie: \u201cSomeone came down from Lightning Ridge who we didn\u2019t know, and he just wobble-boarded a Kerryn corflute for about nine hours a day then packed up and went home. Flagrant India, which was directly over the road from our office, bought food for us during the day. When he was delivering menus he delivered a Kerryn poster, and he delivered lunch to Mr Lightning Ridge every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo Chinese men from Wetherill Park (40 kilometres from Wentworth in Western Sydney) \u2013 the father was in his 80s and a son who was in his 30s \u2013 wanted to meet Kerryn because Kerryn to them was freedom and independence. They waited for Kerryn from ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, then we arranged for them to go to Bondi Junction where Kerryn was. They wanted to meet her because she supported the refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margie: \u201cA lot of people out of the area were engaged. A man who has a sheep property at Bathurst, Charles Boag, he came down and said \u2018wouldn\u2019t miss this for quids\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mains<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a safe seat is under threat, let alone in a by-election when numbers in parliament are tight, the people in the party under threat get nasty. Very nasty. It hadn\u2019t been seen in Wentworth before, and the people around the table told painful stories of friendships strained and traditional Liberal Party supporters estranged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margie: \u201cBy-election day I woke up at 4.30 and hobbled over to our booth to here and check out our booth because I was booth captain and I\u2019d never done anything like this before, and they\u2019d defaced all our stuff, and we\u2019d bugger all money to put our things up. They had that ghastly, enormous \u2013 the size of that wall over there \u2013\u00a0picture of Kerryn with the worst photograph that\u2019s ever been taken, and Bill Shorten in her colours thank you very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy 7am they had swamped the place, there were maybe 30 young Liberals, aggressive, the most awful, awful, awful people, they were shoulder charging people, and by 10.30 in the morning there was a particular Liberal boy there who was extremely abusive and rude to me, incredibly rude about Kerryn, saying \u2018Why are you doing this?\u2019. The Labor guy, he just said, \u201cMargie, enough\u201d and at 11.30 he went and got the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) fellow out and he was spoken to severely and told to move away and back off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony: \u201cAt Dover Heights we had three people handing out how-to-votes, and at about 7.30 a bus arrived with what seemed like about 30 people in blue T-shirts, some of whom said they were from Brisbane, and I had two of them on my shoulder just taunting me for the whole day, \u2018Hung parliament. Disaster. How can you do it. How can you do it. Disaster\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get on with people. If you win or lose you\u2019ve got to get on the next day. This election there was a lot of nastiness. There were people I\u2019ve known for a long time who were really abusive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dessert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn\u2019s been quiet so far, but when Yvonne asks her about the Medevac Bill, those halcyon days \u2013 for me at least \u2013 when the crossbench held the balance of power and a breakthrough was possible on big, important matters that seemed always stuck, she comes to life. I am riveted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was an extraordinary experience and Darrin and I worked hand in glove because I couldn\u2019t have done it without Darrin and his connections in the Labor Party,\u201d she says. \u201cThe Labor Party had been fiddle-farting around with its refugee policy for a really long time and they were completely paralysed, they weren\u2019t game to step up and do something because the right couldn\u2019t agree with the left\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said to the refugee advocates, \u2018What is the biggest problem?\u2019 They said we cannot get medical care to the people who need it, because the doctors were recommending transfer to Australia for treatment and the bureaucrats under the minister\u2019s instructions were blocking all of those medical transfers and setting up legal obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin: \u201cThey were doing it according to the profile of the person, not the medical\u00a0need. Effectively, if you\u2019re a single bloke on Manus Island you\u2019re not going to get evacuated, so someone died from a cut on his foot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cSo I said the way we do this is we get a couple of doctors to give an opinion and then you can make things move. And the refugee advocates wherever they were arrived in our office and set up camp and stayed for two weeks. At any one time we had 21 people sitting in my office on chairs, on floors, on the lounges. Forget me having an office, if I wanted to have a phone call I went to the toilet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had shadow ministers coming in and out and the reason we got away with it without the Liberals twigging until the night before it went to the Senate was we were right down the end of Parliament House with no through traffic, so people were just wandering through coming to my office and no-one could see them coming or going to this hive of activity. And I said to Shane Neumann (Labor\u2019s Immigration Spokesman), \u2018Will you agree to this?\u2019 and he\u2019d say in principle, \u2018Yes, I have to go back to the caucus\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin: \u201cThis was all playing out while Kids Off Nauru was still a campaign. There\u2019s\u00a0no doubt that the Wentworth by-election put Kids Off Nauru on the map. There was always a big set of events for that campaign planned for that final sitting fortnight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cSo we were out the front of Parliament House with hundreds of people, little kids, placards, refugees, Jimmy and Jane Barnes, there were truckloads of petitions, and Andrew Wilkie (independent MP for the Tasmanian seat of Clark) and I carried this massive petition into the Prime Minister\u2019s office \u2013 which we never got a receipt for.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had #6000doctors, and we said we know you\u2019re behind the Kids Off Nauru campaign, we need you to get behind Medevac legislation. So once we announced what we were going to do the 6000 doctors signed the petition within 48 hours, and the AMA came in behind it, which brought a dozen medical colleges in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen as we were getting agreement with the Labor Party I had to individually talk to Richard di Natale, Adam Bandt, Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie and get their agreement. All the refugee lawyers contacted their external legal advisors who drafted and\u00a0redrafted the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew from my time as AMA president that you need to listen to what everyone is saying and know what the different political agendas are, and find a compromise that is politically satisfactory, even though not ideal, to everyone. We had Ged Kearney, Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese talking to us about what the friction points might be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin: \u201cAnthony Albanese got shadow cabinet to come and talk to you one-on-one and then went back into shadow cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerryn: \u201cWe then had to work out how to get the House of Representatives to debate this and pass it before everything finished. We didn\u2019t have the numbers to suspend standing orders because you have to have an absolute majority, so Quiton Clements, who works for World Vision (he\u2019d been chief of staff to two Senate presidents) piped up and said, \u2018Ha, but there is a nondescript miscellaneous Home Affairs amendment bill going through the Senate on this particular day\u2019. So we said this is miscellaneous and bolted it onto that bill and it went through the Senate and then we waited for it to come back, but Hanson and Bernardi filibustered in the Senate so it took much longer that we expected and then Morrison said ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas and closed down parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin: \u201cLabor had to do it so it would go to national conference in December with something on refugees for the left \u2013 people like Tanya [Plibersek] and Ged were insisting that something be done. But because of the filibustering the bill just sat there as the first notice of business for 2019. So Morrison got all the kids off Nauru, so he could run the more potent line that all those left could be rapists or murderers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Government went feral over the break, and Mike Pezzullo\u00a0[head of the Immigration Department] was of the view that Medevac was a pull factor, then\u00a0Shorten and Tanya did a briefing with him and said it would be limited to those already on Manus and Nauru. So Pezzullo said that meant no pull factor \u2013 he didn\u2019t have to say that, I think that was his way of saying he wanted to keep his job under a Labor government. For us, that was when it all calmed down, that was the critical piece of information that allowed Labor to say we had the briefing Pezzullo was thinking that Labor was gunna win the election… and for us, that was when it all calmed down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, for me it\u2019s a tragedy Kerryn didn\u2019t sneak in again. I\u2019m thinking Sharma will want to get in the ministry so he\u2019ll keep his head down. For me, Kerryn would have been a natural leader on the crossbench, and a shining star for Wentworth. Still, she came bloody close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The election campaign was different, very different… the national media circus, the first-time creative activism by constituents, Getup! and Stop Adani, and the Liberal Party nastiness moved across the harbour to another blue-ribbon seat, Warringah. The Libs spent another million dollars in Wentworth, but this time they didn\u2019t attack Kerryn, they ignored her, publicly at least, and plastered Dave \u2018modern Liberal\u2019<\/em> Sharma everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign, in short, became more normal, though still very hard-fought. The Liberals changed tack from relentless advertising against Kerryn to virtually ignoring her, instead spending this million dollars on ads for Sharma, everywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen:\u00a0 \u201cSome volunteers peeled off now the seat-of-the-pants excitement was gone and the election wasn\u2019t about Malcolm, but others joined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was quite involved in the Labor Party, and really frustrated with organised politics and how it rewarded longevity rather than skill, and I was really inspired by a true independent succeeding who had arrived where she was through intelligence and skill rather than mates and just being there for a very long time and not having done anything else. One of the greatest things that we\u2019re missing in politics is that it\u2019s not representative of the population. You have all these white guys who\u2019ve done nothing else but politics and we give them portfolios they have zero experience in with huge amounts of money and I think that needs to change. And what I really valued about Kerryn was that she was talking about and addressing the issues that were on everybody\u2019s minds and effecting change. And that I found to be so refreshing. I was inspired by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So does the purple army disperse, or is this the beginning, not the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone bar Jackie wants Kerryn to stand again, to her surprise, and all would help her have another go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne: \u201cI have had so many people say, Yvonne, the only reason we didn\u2019t vote for Kerryn is we were terrified Shorten would get in; and so many people have said to me since the election, she cannot give up, she is the voice of reason, she\u2019s the change we\u2019ve been looking for, please tell me she will continue. I want her to not give up because she has a really important, national voice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jackie believes the time has come to take Clover on for the Lord Mayoralty. Kerryn is noncommittal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say, if not Kerryn, someone else maybe mentored by Kerryn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne: \u201cPeople are starting to have real conversations about the existing situation and about what they would like to see for the future and that kind of real community engagement is something I\u2019m seeing more and more. I\u2019ve been along to quite a few young womens\u2019 groups and there is an energy there and a sense that we need to get off our butts and do something. So what I\u2019m hearing in terms of these conversations is we are engaged we are ready and we are waiting for our leader to make a decision about what she wants to do. There is a genuine commitment to going beyond the status quo. I think there\u2019s an increased awareness that future generations are looking to us for something else, and I think there\u2019s an increased consciousness. Like I said to you, \u2018Sometimes the vessel has to break for the light to shine in\u2019<\/em>. It\u2019s true, and I think that vessel has broken and the light is starting to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony: \u201cWe\u2019ve got 500 or 600 people who are still enthusiastic, who are still posting messages on Facebook. We can reach them again. We\u2019re talking about a highly-educated group of people, with a duty to this country. And I accept that people are worried about the hip pocket and there\u2019s ego involved, but there\u2019s also an intellect in this seat, and lots of opinions. We could have forums in which we harness that opportunity, I think it\u2019s not over yet. We had no time. Both elections were pop-ups. The by-election was a pop-up, because Kerryn you rightly gave a huge amount of energy into getting something done in parliament. We as a group could run a three year election campaign this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the ability to engage with this electorate in a way which is a bit different to the way you might engage with the general public, if you can just capture their interest. In the by-election campaign we were able to pull together residents who were experts in different fields, to volunteer. What if we took those connections and said let\u2019s start educating some people on what good policy would actually look like, which if I may say so is entirely the way Kerryn thinks, which is very evidence-based.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne: \u201cWe don\u2019t need a new party. I think it is a movement. I think it\u2019s stronger than just a party but how do we do that in terms of effecting real change? The younger generation is looking for that. They don\u2019t want any more parties, they don\u2019t want same old. We need people to actually say, enough\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darrin: \u201cWentworth is winnable for an independent again, and it needs to be someone with a profile. I would help Kerryn run again. Someone with a profile can win Wentworth again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we leave Squig says, \u201cI wonder if we witnessed the first meeting of Voices for Wentworth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postscript: Kerryn recently announced she would stand for Sydney Lord Mayor. A Voices for Wentworth group has formed.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Also: Reporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston My interest in community independents began when I covered the successful Cathy McGowan race for Indi in 2013, on Twitter and through my website No Fibs. In 2018, I became Kerryn Phelps\u2019 unofficial Twitter campaign manager for the Wentworth by-election and focused on independents at the 2019 election, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":54809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"How the pop-up @DrKerrynPhelps campaign for Wentworth came together: @margokingston1 a dinner party debrief #auspol","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,2969,3330,2198,3402,2021,3300,585,26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/phelpsmcgowan.png?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-efY","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54806"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54933,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54806\/revisions\/54933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}