Article
Local Party Launches Federal Campaign
Transcript of media conference at launch of The Local Party campaign, Deep South Brewing, Hobart, 10 April 2022.
Leanne Minshull
I’m Leanne Minshull. I’m running as the lead Senate candidate for The Local Party at the next federal election. And I’d like to acknowledge that we’re standing on unceded land here, in lutruwita, Hobart – forgot where I was for a minute – nipaluna, in fact, in lutruwita.
We’re launching our federal election campaign today, we’re really excited to do that. 12 months ago, we were weren’t even registered, we were an idea. And that idea was to give people in Tasmania and eventually Australia an alternative to the established parties, an alternative where each of the candidates running as an independent in that we have our own vote on every piece of legislation that comes before us.
We believe that we’re a safe pair of hands. And we want to do democracy differently. We want to have citizen juries that everybody can engage with, and help government to create policies because after all, it’s us that the policies become legislation and then affect all of our lives. So we want a deeper and broader discussion with the community and deepen and strengthen our democracy. That’s our bigger picture, our long term vision for the federal election.
We think that we’re very much in play for the last seat in the Senate. For that last seat in the Senate, I’m the only candidate running as an independent in play for that last seat, who’s got a record of taking action on climate, and has done extensive work and research into integrity in politics, donations reform, and anti-corruption committees. I’m really happy to put myself forward as an alternative for people who are walking away from toxic politics in the established parties.
So with that, I just like to hand over to…our Senate ticket has three women on it. One of them’s here with me today, a very well known, well regarded lawyer from Westbury, Linda Poulton.
Linda Poulton
Thank you. Hello, everybody would probably know me from my fight against the Westbury prison, which has been going on for two and a half years now. When Leanne contacted me and asked me whether I’d be interested to run with her on this ticket, I was incredibly excited. My interests are wide, but they’re pretty much based on social justice issues. So I’m very focused on justice reform, and also on the reform of Centrelink, which I’ve had personal experience with and that experience was not pleasant. If I were elected to the Senate, I would be very interested in looking into Centrelink and giving it a complete overhaul, it’s touched on my life personally. That’s where my focus is and that’s why I put my hand up to run for the Senate with Leanne. I could talk for a very long time, but that’s probably only need to say I’m going to hand over to Anna who’s running in Franklin.
Anna Bateman
Journalist – Imogen Elliott
Yeah, and I might ask you, since you say you’ve been door knocking, how do you explain the citizen jury element? And also, how do you explain how this party actually works?
Anna Bateman
So the first thing I say is that we’re effectively an umbrella for independents. So everybody has to sign on to our constitution, which demands action on climate, integrity, and signing up to the Uluru Statement of the Heart. So we all have to sign up for that. But then when it comes to our own campaigns, we run our own agenda. So I tell them that and I say ‘So, if I’m elected, when I get in, in terms of every piece of legislation, I’ll be voting for my community’. Nobody in The Local Party will be telling me how to vote. So we’re effectively a party or network of independents.
When explaining citizen juries, and I’ll try to do this really fast, but citizen juries are very popular all over the world, there’s 80 to 90 of them going on at any one time. There was a very famous one in Australia in 2016, where Jay Weatherill wanted to put in a nuclear waste dump, community were very concerned about that. So he agreed to have a citizens jury. So that means you randomly select 30 to 40 people off the electoral rolls, some will be for, some of them against, some of them not sure. Then it effectively operates like a trial. So people came in and said this is how long it takes to get rid of nuclear waste, this is how everything works. At the end of that the community said no thanks. And Jay Weatherill had to say ‘Okay, so.’ Victoria is using them a lot in tourism planning, WA is using them. Tasmania actually has a page on its health, Tasmanian Health Department page that explains it, but we’ve never had one. And we think they’re part of the answer. They’re not the whole answer. But they’re a big part of the answer.
Tasmanian Times
One of the issues of the first week of the electoral campaign, was about an Independent Commission Against Corruption in federal parliament. So do you as a party take a position on that to election? Or do you wait for that to come up in the next term, and then you’ve got your citizens jury?
Anna Bateman
I’ll speak quickly. But then I think I’ll hand over to Leanne because Leanne is actually of all of us has done substantial work looking at corruption, not just on a national level, but at a state level. So we’re committed to a national ICAC. So if Helen Haines’s Bill came before me, I would absolutely be voting for it. I might just hand over to Leanne.
Leanne Minshull
I have done a lot of work on both state Integrity Commission and a federal ICAC. I’m 100%, behind the need for a federal ICAC. I’ve written on it rather extensively. And so anybody voting for me in the Senate would know that I am going to not just wait for that legislation to come up, I’d actively pursue it. And I would continue to advocate for it in the community, and get the community more involved. The Local Party, and, you know, I can speak for myself, I’m certainly not about sitting around waiting for someone else’s legislation to come up. It’s a core tenet. It’s a core part of what I’m campaigning on. And that’s the need to clean up politics. And that’s more than actually just a federal ICAC. It’s the culture that makes our major parties and some minor parties think that it’s okay to send you a letter in the mail that says ‘this is important information from the AEC’. When it’s not. That’s not going to be captured by an ICAC, that’s going to be taken on by cleaning up the culture, and having parties and politicians understand that that’s just not on anymore.
Journalist – unidentified
You touched on this a bit before. But there does seem to be a bit of a genuine distaste for the major parties at the moment. Do you think this election is the first time the independents really have a stronger chance than ever to be elected?
Leanne Minshull
Look, the march is on for the independence, there’s no two ways about that. What I think, though, is that this is the start of something new. I mean, people in established systems always think that their system is the best and that it can never change. You know, you go back a couple of hundred years when the Labor Party started, people told them they were crazy. 50 years ago, the Green Party started and the Labor Party told them they were crazy. Politics, just like our lives is something that evolves. We have agency in it. So I think this is the start of a new way of doing politics. This election is certainly not the end. It’s not a blip.
Journalist – unidentified
And both of the major parties tell us that they aren’t looking to do any deals with independents to form government. How does that affect you? We’re hoping to perhaps look at doing some deals with the major parties.
Leanne Minshull
So the major parties say – I have never seen a politician who won’t walk over hot coals to get into power. So the idea that they’re saying to people, number one, ‘if you don’t give us a majority, there will be no government’ rubbish. The major parties saying that ‘we won’t do deals with independents’, rubbish, and insulting. They’re saying that they will do deals with lobbyists, commercial interests, just about anybody other than someone that the Australian people have elected. Outrageous, and rubbish.
Journalist – Imogen Elliott
Where’s the line drawn in terms of the views, people that are affiliated with this kind of party? Can they have [inaudible] different from those three co founders? For example, what if someone comes out and says something incredibly transphobic, what would you do?
Leanne Minshull
So we have rules within the party, we’ve actually already expelled one member who was making – I’m not going to repeat what he was saying, but he was making very sexist comments on Twitter. And so we have got ways that we can expel members if they do things that we feel are outside the bounds of what we would call mainstream, a moral compass.
To sign on to the party, you do have to sign on to climate action, citizen juries and integrity. So far, we haven’t had anyone come forward and want to run for us, who is way outside, I guess, what our culture has, what our values are. As we get bigger, that that could become more of a problem. But guess what, there’s only people who are really passionate about their communities, and passionate about helping people, who at this point are putting themselves forward. I haven’t had a call from anyone that currently works for one of the fossil fuel companies wanting to run on our tickets. So at the moment, that’s not a problem.
Journalist – Sarah Maunder
This morning, Senator Wendy Askew put out a press release, saying, you know, ‘how can you guys say you’re independent when you’re a party?’ What’s your response to that?
Leanne Minshull
Our biggest mistake, as Andrew Wilkie pointed out to us last week, was to call ourselves The Local Party and not The Local Network. What I will say is that language is a human concept. It exists to explain what we do and how we interact with people. It’s not the other way around. So my belief is that we are starting something new, our democracy is crying out for something new. And just because we don’t fit into established old ideas of what that language and what that label is, then it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it. And just because you did bring up the, you know, what would happen with a transphobic? If you go back 50 years, our language, I don’t think we had a name for transgender. We certainly didn’t have Google, we didn’t have the internet. So this is just an evolution of political dynamics. And and we may not have the word exactly right yet, but what we are doing in reality is changing. And by no means are we a traditional party.
Journalist – Sarah Maunder
If you are successful, you will receive a politician’s salary. For that you are paid to make decisions. Why have citizens juries to outsource what theoretically your job should be, which is to make decisions on behalf of people?
Leanne Minshull
Of all of the legislation that goes through Parliament, roughly about 95% is non contro, or not controversial. And it’s relatively easy to make decisions on. I’m not going to be running off down and holding a citizens jury every time something, an issue comes up. When I will do it – so we agree that we’ll do two per year – and we do that on complex, seemingly intractable problems within the community. So you would do something on…if you’re in Tasmania, I’d love to do a citizens jury on what’s the future of our marine environment, because there’s so much community division on that. This conversation will go on for years, why not bring everyone in on it at the start and get an outcome that everybody agrees to? To me, that’s just common sense and better democracy. Of course, I’m going to be making decisions without running back to a citizens jury. But I tell you when else I’ll be making a decision, I won’t be going into a party room behind closed doors and have to think, oh, will this be good for our senator in New South Wales, if I oppose Marinus for example? No, I won’t. And every decision I make I have to stand by 100% by myself. I will not be able to say either publicly or privately. I’d like to have supported you but party room voted me down. I think it’s actually more transparent.
Tasmanian Times
You’re obviously out here providing an alternative, but what’s your kind of report card on the Morison Government, in fact the nine years of Liberal National Party government?
Leanne Minshull
Yeah, I think someone from your, a media person commented about a week or so ago that Morrison campaigns far better than he governs. And what an indictment on a prime minister. My personal view is that Morrison and the LNP government is possibly one of the worst that we’ve ever had. He’s failed in leadership. He’s failed to take action on climate change. He’s failed women. He’s failed on the issue of integrity. He’s failed on just about every measure that you would want from a leader.
And I am genuinely hoping that we do not have Scott Morrison as the prime minister after the next election. That’s my opinion. I can’t say it for all of the other candidates standing here with me. And I think that Scott Morrison has even let down Liberal voters. There’s good, decent Liberal voting people who I know who are distressed that their Prime Minister, their leader, Scott Morrison, has been such a divisive one and let them down on so many fronts.
Journalist – Imogen Elliott
Is there any bad blood between you and Craig Garland?
Leanne Minshull
No, there’s no bad blood between Craig and any of us. I saw Craig a couple of weeks ago. I wish him all the best. I think we need more people like Craig Garland out there. My personal ethos in the way of working with The Local Party is that we’re about collaboration, not competition, and anybody who puts their hand up to run for public office, I completely applaud and I wish them well. And the next time I’m up in the north-west, I look forward to having a good fish feed with Craig because he’s one of the best fishermen on the north-west coast.
Editors’ note: TLP candidates not in attendance were Scott Rankin, Lara van Raay & Pat Caplice.