The rain patters on the roof, more chairs than comfortable are shoved into a cozy café on Mill Street in Nambour and every one of them is filled. In the middle of the small crowd stands Francine Wiig, with her passion for politics oozing out as she recalls her first encounter with the strength of bringing community together.
Wiig created a petition at her primary school to be allowed to play soccer instead of T-ball or netball. “I got a hundred signatures on that petition from the other kids at school, there were 250 kids,” she said. Her initial petition was successful and was soon followed by a second to allow her to wear shorts like the boys. “That idea that you organise people in a positive way around a good idea and you can effect real change, that has stayed with me,” she said.
Now she runs as an independent candidate for Fairfax hoping to inspire real change on the Sunshine Coast. Through a community listening project launched by Fairfax Matters in August 2024, the main concerns Sunshine Coast residents expressed were cost of living, transport and infrastructure and environmental protection. These and other values are reflected in Wiig’s campaign points.
If elected to represent Fairfax, Wiig said she has the ability to switch sides when voting on policy. Without party guidelines to follow, independents can decide what best suits the needs of the community they’re representing. When it comes to voting on each issue Wiig said “it’s really like getting a red pen out and checking their work”.
Labor’s subsidised battery plan to allow those with solar panels to install a battery cheaper is one issue Wiig supports. “I really agree with that, I think we need subsidised battery programs,” Wiig said. As an independent in a minority government, she says she could leverage her vote to push Labor to expand the policy. “I could go to the Labor Party and say ‘look this is a great idea but if you want my vote for this legislation, I’m going to need you to broaden this clause’.”
Community volunteer Olivia Carey-Foster said the freedom and flexibility of independents was one of the reasons why she decided to support Wiig. “Big parties have big funding and get directed by that in their decision making,” Foster said. “The great thing about Francine are her motives are specifically for the community.”
Wiig said battery legislation is just one step in the right direction for the Sunshine Coast when it comes to green energy and protecting the environment. Fairfax’s current MP is Ted O’Brien, representing the Liberal National Party who are in favour of nuclear energy. The LNP believe nuclear energy is right for Australia to combat the increasing pressure on the energy grid, ensuring home and business energy needs are met sustainably. Wiig said she was not in favour of nuclear energy as she only accepts science-based evidence regarding climate change and clean energy. “Nothing I have read or heard from any expert who knows what they’re talking about suggests that nuclear is the right way forward for Australia,” Wiig said. “I’ve heard a lot of worries from the community about nuclear.”
Another big issue on Wiig’s radar is supporting small businesses. According to the Sunshine Coast Council website, there are more than 33,000 local businesses on the Coast, many of them small and family-owned. “There are things we can do to make things more fair for small and medium businesses,” Wiig said. She has personal experience through the family business she runs with her husband. “The tax burden in business is being carried by small and medium business,” Wiig said. “The top end of town is not contributing their fair share to the tax distribution.”
She said fighting cost of living prices will also have positive effects on small businesses in addition to helping future generations secure homes, start families and live on the Sunshine Coast. “There are really reasonable things we can do in that space to not upend the whole system,” Wiig said. “This is not just about us, it’s about truly future thinking and about long term.”
Wiig said the issues communities are facing today “have come about over successive governments failing to have future thinking and make hard decisions”. “They aren’t things that we can get in and fix overnight,” she said.
As an independent candidate, Wiig hopes to win but more than that she wants to inspire change in an electorate that has been a safe seat for far too long. “Safe seats just don’t get as much funding or attention,” Wiig said. “Winning would be great, but the purpose really has to be to build something that goes beyond this election, Because it’s about making change.”
