David Pocock is the first to admit he had "a lot of help" when he was campaigning as an independent Senate candidate for the ACT.
That's why, almost three years after he was elected, the former Wallabies captain found himself at a NSW pub, sharing a beer and a chat with voters, to campaign for a fellow independent running in the National Party's most marginal seat in Australia.
Senator Pocock is funding his own trips to support independent candidates like Ms Heise. (ABC Coffs Coast: Claire Simmonds)
"I know how hard it is when you're up against an incumbent, in what has been a traditionally safe seat,"
Senator Pocock said.
Cowper spans from Coffs Harbour to Port Macquarie on the NSW mid north coast, where Independent Caz Heise is making her second attempt to win the seat which has been held by the National Party and its predecessors for all but three years since 1901.
In 2022, she put the seat within a 2.4 per cent margin of sitting Nationals MP, Pat Conaghan.
There was standing room only for "Pocock at the Pub" in Coffs Harbour. (ABC Coffs Coast: Claire Simmonds)
Ms Heise enlisted the help of Senator Pocock in February to talk with her potential constituents at a hotel in Coffs Harbour.
A crowd of 250 turned out.
"Getting 250-plus people in a pub on a Friday night in Coffs Harbour to talk about politics is a pretty rare event," Ms Heise's campaign manager, Clancy Barnard
said.
Campaigning without a party machine
The Australian Parliament website lists 13 independents in the lower house and four in the upper house.
Independent politicians have long highlighted their separation from a party machine as an important point of difference, but their collaboration is expanding.
Just as members of major political party leadership teams visit electorates to support their candidates, independents are doing the same for unelected independent candidates in other electorates.
Kylea Tink was applauded on her first speech to parliament by fellow crossbenchers. (Supplied: Parliament of Australia/Mel Adams)
After his Coffs Harbour event, Senator Pocock headed to the Gold Coast and launched Erchana Murray-Bartlett's bid for the McPherson electorate.
In early March, he travelled to the southern Victorian seat of Wannon to support Alex Dyson in his second attempt at election and and also visited Goldstein sitting member Zoe Daniel in Melbourne.
He said he funded the visits himself.
Senator Pocock supported the launch of Erchana Murray-Bartlett's campaign for the seat of McPherson. (Supplied: Masao Tamaoki)
"There is a new wave of community-backed independents who have a real shot at winning a seat at the next election," Senator Pocock said in a statement.
"After the major parties' stitch-up deal on electoral reform earlier this year, this will be the last election where new independent candidates can compete before the system is skewed even further to the advantage of major parties.
"My focus is on fighting to keep an independent voice in the Senate for the ACT and maximising support for these new candidates so they have the best chance to represent their communities."
Senator Pocock says it's the last election where new independent candidates can compete with major parties. (ABC Coffs Coast: Claire Simmonds)
In late 2024 the independent member for North Sydney, Kylea Tink and her Warringah colleague, Zali Steggall, visited southern Queensland seats.
"I thought this was a great opportunity to encourage those communities if they are feeling frustrated, that the alternative is not as hard to imagine or hard to achieve as they might think," Ms Steggall said.
Zali Steggall (back right) visited Queensland to support Voices of Moncrieff, Fadden and McPherson. (Supplied: Zali Steggall)
The trips were also about helping the would-be MPs with the challenges they faced, including how to access the media.
"We try and be helpful and 'pay it forward,' because ultimately the bigger the movement gets, the more effective it is at improving politics and getting better policies in place,"
she said.
Early community-driven independents led the way in helping newcomers.
Independent Member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, said she received advice and support when she first ran from Cathy McGowan "who is a bit of a godmother to the independent movement".
"Helen Haines, who is current incumbent in Indi, offered a bit of advice about how to set up an electorate office," Dr Ryan said.
"And I've been dependent on her for a bit of advice and encouragement at times."
Monique Ryan, Senator Pocock and Helen Haines collaborate in parliament and outside of Canberra. (Supplied: Monique Ryan)
University of Technology Sydney political scientist Mark Riboldi, who has studied independents and minor parties, said collaboration did not make independents a party.
"Climate 200 … have provided elements of party-like coordination and support for these independents, not in the same way that a party does," Dr Riboldi said.
"They offer a coordinated funding mechanism through donations to a central place and then they distribute it, they have access to research, polling, marketing, communications that individual candidates wouldn't be able to afford on their own."
Mark Riboldi's research has found "teal" independents engage in "party-like" behaviour. (Supplied: Jamie James)
While so-called "teal" independents share information and resources, he said they were not bound by the strict structures of a party in the way Labor, Liberal, Greens or National MPs were.
"They're not parties, but they definitely have party-like behaviour,"
he said.
Voter reward and risk
YouGov polling predicts the independent share of the Australian vote would increase from 5.3 per cent at the last federal election to 8.3 per cent in 2025.
It could give the crossbench substantial power if there was a minority government.
"Minority governments have got a long history of stable governments around the world; plenty of Australian states have minority governments," Dr Riboldi said.
Jacqui Lambie joined Monique Ryan for a town hall forum in Melbourne. (Supplied: Monique Ryan)
He said the increase in the independent vote was reflective of voter dissatisfaction.
"Deliberation and negotiation are important democratic principles and that realignment of voters away from major parties potentially indicates voters want more voices in decision making," he said.
He said the selection of independent candidates backed by Climate 200 varied widely between electorates.
Independent hopeful for Southern Victorian seat of Wannon, Alex Dyson attracted the star power of independent MP Helen Haines to a campaign event. (Supplied)
"In Cowper, I know that Caz Heise was selected as the candidate following quite a deeply, community-engaged process, but there are other independent candidates who are hand-picked by small groups of local, rich people.
"When it comes to decision making, the people that politicians are accountable to immediately are the ones that they are going to make decisions to benefit.
"So is that going to be a political party, is it going to be a bunch of rich people, is it going to be a group of engaged citizens?"
Director of the Australian Studies Institute at the Australian National University, Mark Kenny said there can be both reward and risk with high profile politicians such as David Pocock and Zali Steggall visiting outside their own electorates.
Mark Kenny says acting as a party can be a risk for independents. (Supplied: Mark Kenny)
"It is a good way of drawing people in and it's a good way of then enjoying fruits of that, in terms of meeting lots of voters."
However Professor Kenny said there were risks to connecting with other independents.
"They always want to be careful about it, because the thing they bring which is different is they want to be seen as independents and to be seen as acting as a party is a danger to them,"
he said.
Professor Kenny points to recent polling showing growing support for the Coalition as a potential threat to both sitting and aspiring independents.
"If there is a genuine distaste for the Labor government, some of those people who were lifelong, habitual Liberal Party supporters, but who voted for community independents last time, may be so annoyed with the government that they want to toss it out.
"In which case, they may stop voting for the independent and vote Liberal."
Star power, or politics?
Senator Pocock describes an on-field moment to rugby union fan Greg Wall and his teenage son, Archie Wall. (ABC Coffs Coast: Claire Simmonds)
While the star power of a former Australian rugby captain attracted a strong crowd for Caz Heise in Coffs Harbour, not everyone attended to hear about politics.
Wallabies fan Greg Wall brought his junior rugby union playing son to see "one of the all-time greats in the flesh".
"I thought he had some interesting and insightful views on various things, such as the [tradie] security of payments, which I had a personal interest in, and donations to political parties," he said.
However, the former construction manager said he did not see his vote changing.
"I really like to challenge myself to be able to listen to what people are saying and keep an open mind,"
he said.
