General News
28 February, 2022
Mallee movement looks for voices in elections
AN independent community movement is shooting roots in the Mallee with the intent of giving voters a voice ahead of the federal elections.
AN independent community movement is shooting roots in the Mallee with the intent of giving voters a voice ahead of the federal elections.
Voices for Mallee is a grassroots co-operative group with members throughout the Mallee electorate which has formed over the last two years.
It is one of several grassroots movements that has sprung up in disaffected parts of the country over the last decade, taking inspiration from the Voices for Indi movement which helped elect independent member Cathy McGowan in 2013.
They currently have active members and organisers across the Mallee including Horsham, Maryborough, Stawell and Mildura.
Wal Wal resident Unmani is one of the people from the Mallee to join the group’s board in the hopes of reengaging people into the democratic process.
“I personally got involved as a very non engaged voter traditionally and someone who would turn down the radio if a politician was interviewed,” she said.
“That was extremely cynical and non-engaged and then four years ago, my son put his hand up as an independent (for Mallee) and I was in the swirl of it all without being out the front and that woke me up to it .
“Then I got very interested in what was happening in Indi because my sister was doing leg work over there and I saw how amazingly democratic and grassroots politics can really be.”
The group has launched Kitchen Table Conversations, a community engagement process which is currently available online, as a way for people to express their ideas and views.
These views would then be recorded and delivered to candidates and elected representatives to help drive policy.
The conversations will revolve around three themes: living in the Mallee, political representation, and issues and concerns.
Unmani said the aim of the conversations was to take a ‘bottom up’ democratic approach to policy making.
“The origins of it go right back to something called the Purple Sage Project which I was involved in,” she said.
“It's a model of conversation where no one is interrupted, no arguing and no right or wrong (mentality) and no loud people overriding other people.
“People are asked questions one at a time and they answer for themselves and there is an appointed scribe and that's important. That person's only job is to scribe, write it all down and then it's fed back to the person who spoke and they get a chance to review it to make sure what they said is fairly represented in writing and that could go back and forth a couple of times.
“It’s also, importantly, de-identified so that people are protected and all of that then is sent in as a body of notes into a central collation point.
“It's all collected and then we'll go into one document which would be in the public domain and available for all to read to see what they want for themselves.”
The hope is that the conversations will engage voters who have traditionally been unengaged and will give both voters and candidates a clearer vision for pursuing policy outside of party politics.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, 11.16 percent of voters made an informal vote with 92.84 percent of voters turning out.
However, Unmani said she was “shocked” by those figures and said the group wanted to increase voter participation.
“We’re supposed to have a democracy and people are supposed to feel encouraged to have their say,” she said.
“I have learned that for our community leaders, they definitely need the de-identification because they're the ones we need and they need protecting in this process.
“Their position makes them vulnerable and often not speak and so this is a channel for anyone and also no matter what party affiliations or not people have, they can at least have a say.
“That's sort of part of the problem. Historically, the big noisy ones who have their political line and that's that so it's so well protected, there's not people afraid of being torn down.
“The quiet people, that's who I'm in it for.”
Voters can find out more about by visiting www.voicesformallee.net where they can also register for events.