Tim Dunlop - Voices of us: The independents movement transforming Australian democracy

1. 4 When the country changes:
   Reforming democracy for a new era

TIM DUNLOP is a writer who lives in Naarm (Melbourne). He is a sought-after panellist and public speaker in Australia and overseas, and has written extensively on grassroots democracy and the role of the media, as well as technology and the future of work. He runs an active Twitter feed as @timdunlop, and his popular newsletter The Future of Everything (on Substack) is available for subscription. Voices of us is his fourth book.

Save the world, save our democracy: this book shows how maybe we can do both. JONATHAN GREEN

Tim Dunlop puts the rise of the Community Independents in its historical place not a flash in the plan, neither the beginning nor the end of a process, but a crucial step in our democracy. This is an important and easy read for anyone wishing to understand more about how we can reclaim and reshape our politics. TIM HOLLO

Tim Dunlop provides a compelling examination of the long- term trends that led to the wave of independents being elected in the 2022 election. Rather than just treat the election in isolation, Voices of us shows how we got here, what it means, and crucially, highlights the powerful forces in politics and the media that will continue to try to reverse the tide. GREG JERICHO

The rise of the Voices Of movement has shaken the two-party system in Australia to its foundations, laying the basis for a fundamental realignment in the near future. But most of us know little about the history of the movement or about the theory of politics behind it. Tim Dunlop provides us with both an inside account of the way the movement developed, and an insightful analysis of the challenge it poses to Australias political class. JOHN QUIGGIN

A thoughtful, provocative and historically informed analysis of the rise of the independents in the 2019 federal election. Tim Dunlop charts how we arrived at this moment, the institutional failures (and some strengths) in media, political parties and in our sense of citizenship, and the possible ways forward from here, including reconceived democratic forms. This will be an influential book. MARGARET SIMONS

For Sally and John

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

https://unsw.press/

Tim Dunlop 2022

First published 2022

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

ISBN:	9781742237831 (paperback)
9781742238630 (ebook)
9781742239569 (ePDF)

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Phil Campbell

Cover image (wings) S-S-S, iStock by Getty Images

Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests.

When the country changes:
Reforming democracy for a new era

Still there are seeds to be gathered, and room in the bag of stars.

Ursula K. Le Guin

On 4 April 2018, I received a private message via my Facebook page:

Hey Tim. Im in Warringah and were soon to launch our movement based on the Voices4indi model (kitchen table conversations etc where they managed to vote in Cathy McGowan and boot out Sofie [sic] Mirabella). We are also going to host events, which will include author talks Id absolutely love you to come to Warringah and start a new conversation about the sort of future we want. We are called Voices of Warringah and our website/social media will be launching soon

My correspondent was Louise Hislop, founder of Voices of Warringah, and later she would also be involved with Voices of Mackellar, the neighbouring electorate a little further up the coast on Sydneys Northern Beaches. Its not often you have in your possession let alone addressed to you a document that could be called historical, but I think that Facebook message has a claim to the description. It not only records the origins of an influential political movement; it also captures the tentative but determined attitude that would characterise their whole approach, and most of all, the clear-eyed optimism that drove them to believe that a better politics was possible.

It was obvious to me as it was to all those who joined the various grassroots Voices Of organisations around Australia that there was something fundamentally wrong with the way our politics worked, and that mainstream political parties were a big part of the problem. To their eternal credit, ordinary-extraordinary Australians like Louise Hislop dreamed that a better way was possible, and they set out to make that happen and I can barely believe it even as I write this they succeeded beyond anyones wildest expectations. On 21 May 2022, Australia voted not just for change in individual seats, but for a major realignment of the way in which our political system worked.

As 2022 began, the planet was under threat from climate change; the United States was falling into turmoil; China was aggressively asserting itself throughout the AsiaPacific; we were still dealing with the effects of a pandemic which had not just messed with our health but with how we worked and how we purchased the necessities of life (especially toilet paper); and we saw Russia launch a war in Ukraine, a reminder of the fragility of the international order, including the economic supply chains that kept us all clothed and fed. We were wearing masks, and desperately seeking RATs, and theories of society most of us thought had disappeared with the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 were gaining a new lease on life. Frightened and frightening mens groups and their gurus were violently trying to re-establish total control over women and their bodies, winding back generations of feminist victories. Even transformative moments, like the success of the equal marriage plebiscite, were being undermined by a new wave of anti-trans hatred, that, shamefully, would be weaponised by Scott Morrison himself during the election.

By the start of 2022, the LiberalNational Party Coalition was moving into its tenth year in office. Labor, having lost the so-called unlosable election of 2019, was doing its best to make themselves invisible, living in terror of what the Murdoch press might say about any policy they happened to come up with. The polls said Labor was well ahead, but nobody trusted the polls anymore, polling being another of the institutions we had lost faith in. Besides, for many, Labor was hardly an inspiring alternative.