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Candidate Search - ABC Gold Coast Radio

The Secretary of McPherson Independent, Malcolm Edgar, speaks with [ABC Gold Coast] Mark Rigby about how the search for an independent candidate is coming along…

Malcolm Edgar:  A whole bunch of nominations have come in on the website, which has been exciting. We're also looking in the community for like who we think could be someone great to represent us. So we're kind of in that process now and we're hoping to have someone that we could announce, probably middle of August is what we're hoping for.

 

Mark Rigby:  How many people do you expect to canvas or veto as a part of this process?

Malcolm Edgar:  We'd like a few [laughs].

That's a big ask. It's a big ask to have someone, ... give up a big part of their life to become a federal representative.

You know it's a lot of time in Canberra. So we're after somebody who kind of represents community, who's got runs on the board, is well recognised, has got kind of a set of values which kind of align with what we found in the McPherson Matters report. So yeah, we would like to get a number of great people, and from those people… we can select somebody who would be a great independent member.

 

Mark Rigby: This week it's been announced by Climate 200 that they have made some decisions on what they call their Community Accelerator Fund. McPherson is a recipient through that. What will that mean for the campaign?

Malcolm Edgar: At the moment we've received, I think it's roughly about $10,000 of funding.

That kind of money helps us do things like ads, like, … Gold Coast [Bulletin] and News Corp Media, … that's fairly expensive. It'll help us get out there and do community events. So we've run a bunch of events so far.

So we did one with David Pocock at our launch event. You know, we had a Solar Revolution event down at the Currumbin RSL. So also these things take …  a lot of time and money to put up.

So it'll be able to help us … engage the community at these kinds of events.

 

Mark Rigby: How much do you need in a campaign like this to go up against the major parties?

Malcolm Edgar: That's a great question [laughs].

I wish we knew the answer. It's a big ask. I mean, there's a, it's probably in the order of many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We believe that the Liberal National Party probably would have spent probably $300,000 in the last campaign. And I would guess that they'll probably be spending more the next time around. So for us, we have to go out and raise money at a community level and from a variety of places so that we can also get … our name out there.

So we'll need to, we'll need to really try and match what they're doing at least.

 

Mark Rigby:  And how far off that kind of figure are you of even $100,000?

Malcolm:  At the moment we've raised a reasonable amount of money. So I wouldn't say specifically now, but I think once we get the candidate going, we will find a candidate.

We'll be able to, with the candidate, we'll be able to go out and raise more money. So that are the kind of targets we have. I think … there's the marketing component where you spend a lot of money.

But I think where we really want to work hard is at a community level. So that's getting out there … meeting the people, … door knocking, really engaging the community, both at a listening level, but also …  getting volunteers who will help us in the campaign. And I think that will … probably be our superpower.

 

Mark Rigby:  What level of importance do you put on a face of a candidate as opposed to at the moment you have, I suppose you could say, the idea of an independent candidate?

Malcolm Edgar:  I think, I think having the candidate will be really important. And we're working really hard at the moment to kind of build a community group behind us that will be able to help support a great candidate to move forward. So it's very important what we're doing now, kind of building up that kind of awareness, engaging the community.

And we've found that it's just actually a massive appetite for change in our electorate. So, you know, a lot of people are hurting where we are at the moment. And they just don't feel like they can see any solutions with the current two-party system.

Kind of really, people feel like they're really getting a raw deal. You can see that things like inflation and the cost of living and everything, it's really tough at the moment for a lot of people.

 

Mark Rigby: Now, Malcolm Edgar, you obviously see an opportunity in McPherson in that it doesn't have an incumbent or it won't have an incumbent at the next federal election.

How ripe for the picking do you think this seat really is?

Malcolm Rigby: We believe we've got a really strong chance. The kind of the numbers, the LNP … their numbers, it's been an LNP seat for a long, long time. But their numbers have been … every year … going down and down and down.

So we're kind of at that threshold now where we've seen … community independences get elected in other seats at the kind of numbers they have currently.

 

Mark Rigby:  Do you think it will be a Teal candidate or are we looking at another form of independent?

Malcolm Edgar:  Well, we see ourselves as community independent. So I think the Teal concept … a bit of a, a little bit of a construct is like, ‘what do we call these community independents?’ So I think Teal is a bit of an idea.

So I think our colours, they're kind of orange at the moment [laughs]. But it's really representing the kind of the community values and the kind of things that are standing out at the moment: it's really the cost of living … housing affordability.

…  a lot of people that we survey, they're really worried about the youth at the moment, just them being able to afford to grow up in this beautiful place, which is the Gold Coast and having the same kinds of opportunities that we've had.

 

Mark Rigby: And you touched on it there a little bit, Malcolm, but how buoyed are you by polling that's showing people are increasingly frustrated with the major parties?

Malcolm Edgar: Yes, yes, we are. And we see that every day when we talk to people.

So we kind of see that reflected in the polling. People are really disengaging, and particularly the youth, they completely checked out when it comes to politics. And that's really sad because this stuff is super important for them.

So we really, want to see the youth get engaged in politics in the election, because it's, their future that they're going to be voting on.

 

Mark Rigby: And what do you think is the key to cracking that?

Malcolm Edgar:  To cracking that? I think having somebody who will listen to them and engage them on issues that are really impacting them, because I just don't think anybody's listening to the youth at the moment. I think they're incredibly frustrated and really disengaged because of that.

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