Southern Metropolitan Region covers eleven lower house districts. Community independents are standing across them, and most of my campaign is spent helping them win.
That sounds generous. It isn't — it's arithmetic. Under the old group voting tickets, a candidate could be dealt into a seat by preference arrangements negotiated between parties. Those tickets are gone. Nobody can deal me into the upper house and nobody can deal me out of it.
What's left is primary votes and the preferences that voters choose for themselves. Eleven local campaigns knocking on doors across this region generate exactly that — and every voter one of those campaigns persuades is a voter who can be asked to number our group in their five above the line.
So when I spend a Saturday in Bentleigh or Oakleigh or Sandringham, I'm not doing someone else a favour. I'm doing the only thing that actually elects an independent to the Legislative Council.
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