Sunshine Coast independent candidates say the region should not be written off as safe LNP seats as the major parties ask voters to stick with them for stability and reform. With the Federal election on Saturday, Labor and the Coalition are not only fighting each other to win Government but attempting to fend off the rise of minor parties and independents that may end up deciding who will govern Australia for the next three years.
The so called ‘teal’ challenge has reached the Sunshine Coast seats of Fairfax, in the north, and Fisher, in the south. which outside of Clive Palmer’s brief stint in the former electorate in 2013, have been held by the Liberal National Party since the 1990s. The new Climate-200 backed independent candidates, Francine Wiig in Fairfax, and Keryn Jones in Fisher, want to turn the tables on this Coalition stronghold.
“It’s really interesting, because traditionally, this has been a very conservative seat, and … we are a safe, what’s considered a safe Liberal seat, and that was another big driver that got me into this to start with,” Ms Wiig said. “Safe seats just don’t get as much funding or attention as marginal seats, so [with] both major parties, one party doesn’t bother putting money in there because they don’t think they have to, because they think they will win and the other one doesn’t bother because they think ‘I’ll never win that’.”
Ms Wiig, who is a recent UniSC law graduate and mother of twins with a history working as a Legal Aid, said she became interested in the community independents movement because of her despair at the current political landscape. “I have been a swinging voter my whole life…. I’ve never really found a political home where my values really end up,” Ms Wiig said. “I came across Fairfax Matters doing a listening project, which was based on kitchen table conversations, so people in their own homes, with friends and neighbours… it was really exploring the issues that were important to the community. The group then took nominations for candidates, and I was quite surprisingly but, gratefully, nominated.”
Further down the Coast in the seat of the former House of Representatives speaker, Andrew Wallace, Climate 200 and the Voices of Fisher group is backing a former councillor, Keryn Jones, to flip this seat for the first time since 1993. Ms Jones said people on the Sunshine Coast were becoming open to change as they became tired of the major parties offering only short-term, opinion-poll politics without addressing structural issues for her region.
“Many people have said the same old, same old, same old, and they want something different,” Ms Jones said. “They want something that’s policy based on evidence. If it’s a tight parliament, the crossbench has an awful lot of power to make sure they get things right.”
The Teal Trend
Ms Wiig looks towards the result of the 2022 election as a signpost of what’s achievable this time around. She says the work of the current independents like Monique Ryan and David Pocock inspired her campaign. “Those independents that are there already really are the ones I see making real change,” Ms Wiig said. “Dr Monique Ryan had that petition that got nearly 300,000 signatures that result in… real money being taken off student’s…. HECS debt.”
Climate 200 is now backing 35 independent candidates from across the country in every state and territory. Most of the wins at the previous election occurred in New South Wales and Victoria in wealthy city and suburban electorates, but in 2025 the movement has spread to new corners. In Queensland, there are six candidates receiving support in contests that are uniquely different from the previous election as rural and coastal regions are included.
Outside of the Sunshine Coast, Ellie Smith is challenging Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Dickson, north of Brisbane, while Susie Holt hopes to pick up Toowoomba’s electorate of Groom after securing a significant swing towards her in 2022. In the LNP stronghold of the Gold Coast, Nicole Arrowsmith and Erchana Murray-Bartlett take on the region’s two seats. Murray Bartlett, a marathon runner, is running across the electorate of McPherson in the hope of taking advantage of former Coalition Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrew’s retirement from politics.
Achievers of change or powerless pollies?
While the growth of minor parties’ and independents’ voter share has increased at every election in the past two decades, the traditional major parties say they deliver the stability and uniformity that allows for sensible reform. At the launch of Labor candidate for Fairfax, Naomi McQueen, ALP heavyweight and current party president, Wayne Swan, told The Student Correspondent that the only way to achieve meaningful change was to elect governments with strong agendas.
“A lot of people want to see some fundamental change, and some of them think that that could be achieved by independents, but history tells us that doesn’t work that way,” Mr Swan said. “What you need is strong grassroots movements behind parties with a strong platform, and that’s the way in which we stop the fragmentation.”
On the other side of the ledger, Coalition MP, Andrew Wallace, in a statement provided to TSC had stronger words regarding the rise of independents, arguing they push for The Greens’ policies. “They are billionaire-backed Greens wearing Teal shirts, whose votes have driven up the cost of living, driven down living standards, and driven forward a reckless and radical agenda,” he said. “They commit nothing to the local community because they can’t… they offer nothing to the debate except vacuous talk.”
Mr Wallace said his work to provide for the electorate over the last three terms has only been achievable because of his involvement in a party that can form a government. “You can only deliver those kinds of outcomes as a member of a team and a party of government,” he said. “A minor party or a so-called can talk the talk, but when push comes to shove, they have no power to effect change or deliver for the local community.”
With the chance of a hung parliament, independents are arguing the time is ripe to push a Labor or Coalition minority government to achieve serious reform. Ms Jones said independents would be given the power to push major parties from the cross bench over issues like climate and energy whilst remaining politically independent from each other.
“In terms of what the cross bench could do for a minority government, well, they cannot make it worse, that’s for sure. All they can do is make it better,” Ms Jones said. “I think, for me, and I know a lot of other cross benchers that are currently in, feel pretty strongly about climate change… I think they’ll struggle to get anything through if they don’t do the right thing on climate.”
An Uninspired Electorate
All sides of politics are battling to grab the attention of voters who are disengaged and uninspired by the whole political arena. Dr Shannon Brincat, a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said a lack of differentiation between certain policy fronts of the major parties has contributed to the general public’s disconnect.
“The points of policy difference have become too narrow… this is where independents are becoming more seen, more heard and more active because they are filling that sort of political vacuum,” Dr Brincat said. “The electorate is more issues focused rather than voting for the two established parties.”
Dr Brincat said an electorate on the Sunshine Coast was a suitable environment for a professional independent to emerge. “I think the teals have run a good campaign, because they are not seen as left wing like the Greens but they are taking their key issues of meaningful climate action,” he said. “At the same time, they appear moderate to Liberal in the sense of favouring small business. “That could potentially really gain traction in this community”.
