Cathy McGowan

In 2013 Cathy McGowan became the first female independent to sit on the cross bench, where she represented the Victorian rural electorate of Indi for 6 years. Winning the set of Indi, after the Coalition had held the seat for 82 years was a water-shed moment. Indi became Exhibit A for future political campaigns by community independents across the country and what can to be know as the 'teal' wave at the 2022 election. Cathy Goes to Canberra tells both the story of the campaign to win Indi around the community's kitchen tables and the subsequent realities of negotiating good policy with the major parties. This is a handbook of 'how to be electd' and 'how to survive Canberra'. it is a manifesto for alternative communist-based politics told through the prism of the story we know as Cathy McGowan Goes to Canberra.