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Now That Kerryn Phelps Is Heading For Parliament, Here Are Some More Australian Women We'd Like To See Run As Nation-Changing Independents

If an independent can win Wentworth, that changes everything - and could make for a far more interesting parliament…

The seismic changes in Wentworth over the weekend where independent Kerryn Phelps successfully wrested the seat from the Liberal Party (yes, it looked a bit more questionable over the weekend, but now it appears mathematically impossible for her to lose).

And this puts the government in minority status – which, as we pointed out last week, isn’t really that big a deal – but the biggest change might have come in that it proved that independents could absolutely win, even in safe metropolitan seats.

And the message was heard too. Barely had polls closed than the author, educators commentator and outspoken feminist Jane Caro announced that she was considering running in the hitherto-safe safe Liberal seat of Warringah, adding to the pressure on current MP Tony Abbott.

Now, a successful independent: you need profile and you need money (or the ability to raise it). In practice this almost exclusively means you need to be a media personality because you lack the infrastructure and implied authority that comes when running as part of a political party and need name recognition to do all the heavy lifting.

We saw that in Wentworth where the well-respected and high profile education activist Licia Heath garnered a mere 2.8 per cent of the primary vote. Being merely a very worthy candidate, in other words, is necessary but insufficient.

Ironically, this doesn’t often work for Michelle Williams.

Also, while the ABC contains an absolute brainucopia of brilliant political women – my own fantasy government would feature Emma Alberici, Leigh Sales and Fran Kelly flanking PM Laura Tingle – you can imagine what the rest of the media, and every right wing pollie, would have to say about it right now.

So what other high profile women should be considering a run? Here are some options to consider, nation.

https://twitter.com/SusanCarland/status/1053726120732839936

Susan Carland

Like her husband Waleed Aly she gets frequently called upon to be The Voice Of Muslim Australia See They’re not All Terrorists Please Can We All Calm Down, and Carland has seemingly superhuman levels of patience and goodwill which the febrile state of politics would admittedly almost certainly drain in about a week.

Also, given that Australia’s managed a total of two female Muslim MPs – one in the House of Reps (Labor’s Anne Aly) and one in the senate (Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi) – it’s not like there’s an oversupply of smart, articulate Muslim women in our parliament.

Magda Szubanski

She’d be another potential Section 44 problem, thanks to that annoying being-born-in-England thing, but the legitimate national treasure is the human embodiment of goodwill. Even your homophobic gran has a Magda exception.

And like Phelps, it was the poisonous public debate over marriage equality which drove her into the public sphere where she was quickly recognised as a compassionate and sane counter to the hatred being directed at LGBTIQ+ people. Then again, she might not want to do that every day of her working life.

Also, I for one would be constantly emailing demands that she exclusively speak in her Chenille voice in parliament, which would probably get annoying after a while.

Nakkiah Lui

The comedian, actor and podcaster can’t make eyewateringly funny shows about sentient vaginas forever, and while it would be undeniably worthy to get more Aboriginal voices into parliament there’s also the equally-undeniable fact that her campaign would be amazing.

Look, it’s been a long, long time since the Doug Anthony Allstars’ Tim Ferguson ran a comedy political campaign; Australia needs more people wrapping their satirical chops around genuine political issues. And yeah, the fact that she’d also increase the number of Indigenous women in the parliament by half would also be good. But mainly, we just want some more entertaining slogans.

https://twitter.com/mirandadevine/status/1054127203573612546

Miranda Devine

The News Corp commentator is an outspoken conservative, but one who has been equally explicit in her criticism of the government’s shambolic performance and the influence of the “delusional conservatives” in the Coalition.

For rusted on Liberal voters who’d still rather like to slap Eric Abetz, she’d be a perfect low-risk protest vote: someone who was never, ever, ever going to come close to supporting a left-leaning party, but still say reliably reactionary things they could get mad about on the regular.

Lisa Wilkinson

The journalist and current Sunday Project host has that all-important Oh Look It’s That Lady From Off The TV familiarity – the same thing that made people emotionally invested in Phelps – and, for that matter, Pauline Hanson.

She’s smart, she’s articulate and doesn’t have any obviously hard-left or ultra-conservative views which would make her hard to vote for. And having a popular-with-the-sport-n-war-dudes cheerleader like husband Peter FitzSimons wouldn’t exactly hurt either.

Lee Lin Chin
Yes, plenty of people would vote for her comedic Twitter persona (which is the work of comedy writer Chris Leben). But Chin is a career journalist with a high national profile, and can evoke a baleful air of genuine disappointment in you which would give even Penny Wong a run for her money.

Can you imagine her in Senate Estimates? Oh god, it’d be amazing. How do we contribute to a senate campaign?

 

Julia Zemiro

If Annabel Crabb would be considered too ABC-lefty, Zemiro has many of the same positive attributes – quick wit, deep intelligence wedded to a disarming gee-shucks charm, strong frock game – while also being a much-needed advocate for Australia’s multicultural success story.

It’d be nice for us to have someone dropping some non-English in the chamber every so often. Also, she’d be FULL of Eurovision anecdotes!  Can an independent be Foreign Minister?

Clementine Ford

The writer and commentator is whip-smart and unflappable, and if running in an inner-city Melbourne Greens-vs-Labor battle she’d be the obvious place to park a so-what-the-hell-are-you-doing-about-women’s-issues protest vote.

Also, it would be incredible to watch some of the older gentlemen of the parliament, on both sides of the chamber, red with apoplexy at having to listen to this upstart dame refusing to let them get away with vague lip service over domestic violence. Clearing out the backbench in a flurry of heart attacks would be worth it in itself.

Ruby Rose

C’mon, she’s Batwoman! BATWOMAN!