Independent candidate for the seat of Cowper on the NSW mid-north coast, Caz Heise, could make history this election.
If she wins in Cowper, she would become the first woman to ever hold the seat and the first person from outside of a political party to do so. The latest polls indicate she’s more likely than not to take the seat from the Nationals’ Patrick Conaghan in what is her second tilt as an independent.
Heise has spent over 20 years at the forefront of the mid-north coast community (from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour), working as a nurse, midwife, healthcare leader and disaster coordinator. She says her campaign this time around has built on the momentum she had first established in 2022 and the appetite for change in the community is strong.
“People are seeing things that other independents have done that we want here,” Heise tells Women’s Agenda.
“So for example, Jacqui Lambie successfully pushed for the establishment of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. Now, without what she did, we wouldn’t have the very real 122 recommendations saying successive parties have let veterans down.”
“We have one of the largest veteran populations in Australia in Cowper, and so the work that Jacqui’s done, I would like to continue with her for the veterans in this region.”
On top of veteran’s affairs, Heise is campaigning on better regional healthcare and infrastructure, mobile phone coverage, affordable housing solutions, action on climate and integrity in politics (among a host of other issues).
“The status quo in Australian politics is broken. I think the patriarchal approach to leadership isn’t serving us well,” she says.
“We have never had a woman represent the seat of Cowper since federation, and in regional communities, female representation remains especially low.”
As we talk, she frequently mentions long-term policy making and safeguarding future generations.
“What we’re seeing is leadership at the moment that’s very short sighted, three-year cycles of power and control. When you look at the federal parliament, what we’re seeing is just mudslinging and schoolyard bullying kind of carrying on.”
“People are absolutely sick of it. We’ve got real issues that are not being addressed.”
As a regional focused candidate, Heise looks to the achievements of independent Helen Haines in the Victorian seat of Indi to explain what’s possible.
“Helen Haines — she’s championed anti-corruption reforms, but she’s also almost eliminated mobile phone black spots in her region by actually just rolling her sleeves up and working to get grant funding for additional towers,” Heise says.
“In the last six years [throughout Haines’ time in parliament| they’ve got 50 new mobile phone towers in the seat of Indi and Cowper’s got three, and we still have black spots everywhere and in the middle of our towns.”
“People are seeing this, and they want it.”
Heise is part of a new wave of female community independent candidates that are contesting this election, hoping to join the likes of Zali Steggall, Zoe Daniel and Allegra Spender in the new parliament.
This election, 28 of the 35 community independents being backed by fundraising vehicle Climate 200 are women.
Up the eastern Australian coast, in the electorate of McPherson on the Gold Coast, is Erchana Murray-Bartlett. Like Heise, she’s tired of the major political parties.
In McPherson, former Coalition minister Karen Andrews is resigning and last year revealed that she could not convince any women from her party to nominate themselves for the Liberal National Party preselection in what has always been considered a safe seat.
As a result, Murray-Bartlett faces off against the LNP’s Leon Rebello.
“The Gold Coast has been taken for granted because we’ve been a safe seat for 40 years. That means the needs of the region are falling by the wayside,” Murray-Bartlett tells Women’s Agenda.
“A lot of women are stepping up as community independents because they are tired of the spin, the party games and vested interests that dominate when it comes to the major parties.
“Women want to see community-focused solutions to the big issues like housing, healthcare, addressing the climate crisis and they want to see integrity in politics.”
Murray-Bartlett, a small business owner and world record holding marathon runner, says there’s a “significant level of discontent” in the Gold Coast community.
“People feel they haven’t been heard and they don’t trust that they are being represented by the two major parties anymore,” she says.
“The benefit of being a community independent is that you are answerable to the community you represent, which is how it should be.”
She rates cost-of-living, housing affordability, stronger support for small business and climate action as some of her community’s central issues.
“As part of a powerful crossbench, I can fight for what our community needs. And I can make sure we get our fair share of federal funding for critical infrastructure to support our growing city.”
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