It might seem ambitious for an incoming House of Representatives crossbencher to be talking about changing the conversation about power in Australia, but Helen Haines is determined to try.

“We’ve had a conversation in Australia that is so fundamentally steeped in what power looks like, and I guess by reducing it in so many ways to numbers, we’ve eliminated I think what traditionally democracy is about, which is about representation,” the member for Indi tells the Guardian Australia politics podcast.

Haines succeeded fellow independent Cathy McGowan in Indi at the May federal election, and the context for the observation about reframing the conversation about power is triggered by an assertion from me that numbers ultimately determine status in Canberra. In the last period of McGowan’s parliamentary service, Scott Morrison governed in minority, which made the House of Representatives crossbenchers kingmakers, increasing their influence.

Haines acknowledges that period has passed, although she points out circumstances can change when prime ministers govern – as Morrison is about to when parliament resumes next week – with a one-seat majority if you exclude the Speaker.

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But she also wants to project her community focus back into the national conversation about politics rather than just accept the default Canberra determinism of arithmetic.

Her goal over the coming term is to make a worthwhile contribution “outside the numbers and power game of Australian politics” – and that means focusing on activity that’s rarely reported in today’s frenetic political media cycle. She’s focused on delivering community petitions to the parliament, asking questions of the government, pursuing committee work and working out if constituencies can be built for private member’s bills fostered in “good relationships across the floor”.

“While I accept, because it is so obvious that this crossbench at this particular point in time doesn’t have the power of numbers, we are still representatives of our communities and we still have at our disposal all the parliamentary tools.”

Haines, who has a midwifery and health research background, is a community organiser, not a political careerist, so her objectives in entering politics are different to some of her peers in the class of 2019.

One of her goals is to make a contribution on climate change, which was a top-of-mind issue for constituents in her regional electorate during the recent campaign. After completing her induction in parliament this week ahead of the opening of the new session next Tuesday, Haines took herself to the Australian National University to meet climate scientists and science educators to gather evidence about what ideas she should project into the political debate.

Having held Indi, previously a safe Liberal seat before McGowan took it in 2013, in large part because of her positive pitch on climate action, Haines rejects emphatically the notion that 2019 was a climate election and the climate lost.

She says people who think that concern about global warming is a niche issue, or an obsession of unrepresentative post-materialist progressives, need to visit her local community. “If you think that climate politics belongs outside of conservatism, I would say have a look at Indi.

“I don’t accept for one moment that the debate on climate is over, and I don’t accept for one moment this notion of a mandate on climate,” she says. “I work with the evidence I have in my electorate and people want to see good strong climate policy that actually reduces emissions.”

She points out there are 100 community energy groups operating across Australia and 11 of them are in her electorate. “If you want to see action on climate at a micro level then come to Indi.”

Haines is concerned about the lack of progress over the past 10 years, and is looking for ways to contribute to breaking the policy deadlock which has caused enormous frustration for her constituents. “We need to stop backing ourselves into corners about whose ideology is right on this.”

She says the view from the ground up is that renewable energy projects are positive for regional Australia, and are a huge opportunity for regional cities.

As well as shifting the dial on climate policy, the independent also wants to use the next three years to continue to innovate in the way she delivers political representation to her community.

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The process of getting McGowan elected, and getting herself elected in 2019, holding out competition from major party candidates, has yielded a substantial group of engaged citizens supporting grassroots politics in Indi, but Haines is conscious that she needs to engage beyond “the orange army”.

McGowan and Haines are products of Voices for Indi, a political movement created as a result of dissatisfaction with Australia’s political process and lack of engagement. The techniques used in Indi have been shared with other independents.

She says her recent objective has been to ask her activists to engage in conversations with another 20 people with a view to expanding her footprint in the electorate and widening the circles of engagement and deliberation.

Haines is particularly focused on getting people currently disengaged with politics to communicate with her – which is a significant preoccupation in Australian politics at the moment.

She says she intends to use the “power of the people” to extend the local conversation with a view to having that better reflected in Canberra, and “my methodology is to start with people on the ground”.