Written by Independents for Canberra leader Thomas Emerson.

We’re just days away from the 2024 ACT Election, where we’ll receive a verdict from our community about who is best placed to represent us for the next four years.

It’s tempting to use this column to tell you all the reasons I think you should vote independent. But I’ll resist that temptation and explain, instead, what Independents for Canberra – ‘a party of independents’ – actually is.

We haven’t elected an independent in 26 years. Being locked into three options to choose from hasn’t been great for our democracy, with lots of Canberrans complaining about complacency on the part of our local politicians.

Perhaps that’s why, in this year’s election, we’re witnessing the largest independent movement in the history of the territory.

Independents for Canberra is serving as a platform for a passionate group of locals eager to run as independents. The ACT’s Hare-Clark electoral system has proven to make it incredibly difficult for ‘ungrouped’ independents to succeed. That’s why we’ve registered as a political party. This gives us our own column on the ballot paper, which is strategically important because only one independent has ever been elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly without their own column – Paul Osborne, running on the back of an NRL Grand Final victory.

We’ve all signed up to a set of principles that give us a constructive way of working together – principles you’d hope any politician would agree to, like ensuring every voice is heard, acting in the best interests of our community, and following the evidence.

Through community consultation and internal conversations, we’ve worked up some shared policy positions. These are things we all agree on unanimously, like the need to attract more GPs to the ACT, get serious about tackling our housing crisis, and reinvest in our public education system.

In any areas of disagreement, each candidate pursues their own policy positions. If the people of Tuggeranong have different needs and aspirations than the people of Belconnen, their independent representatives should reflect those differences in their views and policies.

Importantly, there’s no mechanism within our organisation to force anyone to say or do anything. So, whenever you hear one of us speak, you know we’re actually telling you our honest opinions.

As well as working with each other, all Independents for Canberra candidates are committing to working collaboratively with other elected representatives. We want to move beyond party politics and implement the best ideas, no matter who comes up with them.

History shows that, in order to get independents over the line and break the ACT’s three-party stranglehold, using a party construct is a near necessity under the Hare-Clark system. Should our approach prove successful, a crossbench of sensible independents will be there to hold the next government to account and improve the integrity and transparency of our Assembly.

Okay, maybe I am telling you why I think you should vote independent…