Oxley shire hall, 10 minutes out of Wangaratta, Victoria, is like many country town halls. Thousands of scones, slices and first kisses would have been served up here, with its small stage, simple kitchen and dunnies in the back shed.

In spite of having larger towns close by, this is the place Voices for Indi (V4I) has chosen to lay bare their reinvention of the grassroots political campaign. The hall sends the first message: we are of the people. I enter to find 10 tables of about 10 people each, hosted by a member of the political organisation that brought Cathy McGowan to power in the seat of Indi.



The V4I are delivering a political 'minorclass' – a lesson on how they engaged with voters and ended up winning an election against a major party. Beyond the I-can’t-quite-believe-we-are-here excitement, I don’t see much ego in the room.



Voices for Indi: Beyond the I-can’t-quite-believe-we-are-here excitement, I don’t see much ego in the room. Photograph: Gabrielle Chan Photograph: Gabrielle Chan

Just as their win broke political rules, the IndiShares event is very different. I am used to reporting a political class that holds their cards close to their chest. The language of war is engaged for the conventional political battle. Foot soldiers are loyal or traitorous. At election time, we talk about war rooms, staffed by political strategists, carrying playbooks straight out of Machiavelli or House of Cards. Share their evil genius? Not likely.



Here, all political parties have been invited. The National party had planned to come but as I drove down the Hume highway on the morning of the event, I learned via Twitter that the party had pulled out. Half an hour later, over a coffee in the little town of Chiltern, I read in the bakery’s crumb-filled Border-Mail that the Liberal party of Victoria declared: “McGowan’s clan won’t teach us much”.



The ones who do show up are a crew of independent candidates, activists, unions and interested parties with pockets full of hopes and dreams. A fair proportion are interested in addressing climate change and an equal proportion are tired of the standard of political debate. There are a few from coal seam gas sites such as Bentley. There are former members of the major parties who have become disillusioned and despondent. A few want to smash the two-party system.



McGowan and Cam Klose: there were independent candidates, activists, unions and interested parties with pockets full of hopes and dreams. Photograph: Gabrielle Chan Photograph: Gabrielle Chan

I listened in on three discussions; on being an independent candidate, on involving young people and on creative campaigning. Anyone could ask members about their topics. Interviews occurred on stage with a range of campaign volunteers to tease out why they joined V4I and their experience of it. McGowan addressed the crowd but she was just one of 10 volunteers sharing their lessons.



These were the standout issues for me:

Smash the machine

Many people were frustrated with the two-party system, and at a conversation at McGowan’s table a man said he had come to find out how to hasten its demise. McGowan was quite brutal.



“I had no sense of all getting rid of the party system; in fact I think it’s important, that’s how it’s structured,” she said. “It just wasn’t working in this election. If I could have found a party that represented to me what I wanted in rural and regional Australia I would have joined it. I just could not find it here.”



He implored, “But what if the two-party demise doesn’t happen?”



“If you don't do it (in your area), it doesn’t matter to us,” McGowan said, turning to the rest of the table.

“Do you hear this? This is the tension between Australia and us. Our interest is Indi. We are only sharing this information because we have been asked.”



Attendees hear a lot about respecting everyone’s opinions and talents, whatever they may be. Photograph: Gabrielle Chan Photograph: Gabrielle Chan

Power is relinquished

The confounding part about this political organisation is that they resist power and hierarchy – at least for now. V4I have been approached by other parties assuming they can deliver power in Indi. The committee insists they have refused such overtures.



“We tell them they can invite our members and [the] members choose whether or not to come,” says a committee member. “It is not our power to give.”



Attendees hear a lot about respecting everyone’s opinions and talents, whatever they may be. For example, 70-something sheep farmer Jenny is interviewed about her involvement. She was inspired by her friendship with McGowan and says she knows little about politics but a lot about sheep. So she took a few hand-raised sheep in branded V4I orange T-shirts to shopping centres to attract attention and press the flesh during the campaign. It drew the kids in and made the local and national media.



“My hope was that this would create a political debate that was kinder, more honest and more gentle,” she said. This sentiment is heard a lot throughout the day.



Participatory democracy

The basis for V4I is what they call participatory democracy. For example, after the Coalition’s first budget, McGowan was asked the next day for a statement on what she thought.



“I don’t know,” she said. “I have to ask my electorate”. So V4I went out and set up “listening posts” to collate feedback, and 726 responses were collated into a report. She read a statement into the Hansard on Indi’s response and gave the report to the offices of the treasurer and other key ministers.



Of course, every issue cannot be researched like that and “when push comes to shove, I vote on intuition”.



This is also confusing. Many times I have heard voter disappointment about the lack of leadership as reflected by constant polling. That is, the practice of checking on how voters will react before taking a leadership stand. An example is asylum seeker policy, where both parties have taken a tough stand lest they be whacked in the polls. Or the example of capital punishment, not so many years back. At one time these issues had majority voter support. Isn’t this also participatory democracy?



Stick to your knitting

When people ask her about the big issues, McGowan replies “stick to your knitting”. Where does she stand on climate change, asylum seekers, the economy? Her advice is work within your “circle of control”.



“I have made statements on those issues but my centre of control is Indi,” she said.



McGowan gives the example of climate change. While the prime minister did his first world tour and political debate centred on the differences between Abbott and Barack Obama on climate change, the US consul general, Mary Burce Warlick, was invited down to Indi. By McGowan’s account, Warlick visited Brown Brothers winery and asked its principal, John Brown, about business and climate change. Brown told her it was a big issue and he had bought a winery in Tasmania to mitigate his risk of global warming. Warlick also met with Jody Goldsworthy of Beechworth Honey who talked about issues faced by apiarists due to the effect of seasonal changes on bees as a result of climate change.



“I know [Warlick] will report back to her government on what she found in Indi and that was in my circle of control,” she said. “Changing Tony Abbott’s opinion is not in my circle of control.”



Likewise, in parliament, while McGowan has only one vote, she says she can open her office up to people from Indi to lobby on the issues they care about.



In the end

What became clear at the end of the day was that V4I was a well-oiled machine, not just a bunch of country people who had fallen over the line, as portrayed in parts of the media. Some had experience in other political organisations. A fair swag were women. A number were alumni of the well regarded Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, which really tests people’s self-awareness and belief system. They were evolved, organised and above all, strategic. Which is not to say they did not make big campaigning mistakes. McGowan told the crowd about her badly misjudged campaign quote: “I have no policies”. And their basic lack of understanding around scrutineering and the rules of the Australian Electoral Commission.



While it broke all the political conventions, the success of IndiShares, though, was a little like their electorate win. They approached it with the attitude that they had nothing to lose. Therefore, they have everything to gain.



The Commonsense Guide to Independent Cookery

or The Indi Recipe for Change

Ingredients



1 urge to change the political debate

1 electorate with poor representation

12 people well connected into their communities

1 educated diaspora of young tech-savvy people

A good pinch of chutzpah

Method



1. Draw together a small group of people you trust with a range of skills and determine your “values statement”. Each will sign it. This is your committee.

2. Embark on a series of “kitchen table” conversations hosted by committee members and volunteers. Ask people how they feel about the political debate, what they like about politics, what they dislike and their priorities for the region. Record it faithfully.

3. Draw up a report and present it to the local sitting member.

4. Decide whether your local MP is serious about addressing the issues.

5. If you are dissatisfied with the MP’s response, run a competitive preselection process to fairly deliver a candidate.

6. Call for volunteers, give them full training in the political process, door knocking and scrutineering.

7. Using your electorate report, develop an achievable series of policies that can be delivered by an independent candidate. For example, Indi voters were concerned about the efficiency of the train line, mobile phone coverage, broadband, mental health support and education.

8. Enlist the support of young people and develop policies for them. They will bring dynamism to the campaign. Allow them to take control of sections of the campaign which suit their skills, to give them ownership. (In Indi, they ran the social media campaign and campaigned strongly to get young people on the voting roll.)

9. Get creative with campaigning. Through social media, organise “flash mobs”, memes and other quirky ideas to gain attention and support.

10. Keep it clean and positive. Independents gain support because they are perceived as different from the major parties.

11. Once your volunteers commit, trust your own instincts, and theirs, and learn from your mistakes.

12. Bake in a hot election environment. Turn out in as many polling booths as your volunteers allow and swallow your fears.

