INDEPENDENT candidates for the seat of Mallee have hit back at criticism from the federal government, saying the role of independents is to communicate with all sides of politics on an issue-by-issue basis.
The Coalition government has increased pressure on independents in recent days, calling for them to indicate which side of politics they supported.
Scott Morrison said on Monday that voting for independents was a “great risk” because they had not indicated “who they are going to support”.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg suggested that voting for his opponent for the seat of Kooyong was a “fake” independent vote that would go to Labor.
Nationals’ leader Barnaby Joyce also warned that Australia’s national security was at risk if the house of representatives were to be taken over by 151 independents.
He said other nations would be “laughing all the way to the battleships” and called on independents to pick a side of politics.
“You’ve got to be straight with us about which side you actually back,” Mr Joyce said. “You can either be playing for St Kilda or you can be playing for Collingwood, you can’t be playing for both in the same game.”
But Claudia Haenel, who is running as an independent candidate for the seat of Mallee, dismissed the government’s rhetoric, saying the “true” role of independents was to listen to all sides of politics.
“We could end up with Collingwood, or we could end up with St Kilda, but we could even end up with the Bulldogs,” Ms Haenel said. “And even then, we don’t know who’s even going to make up the team.
“At this point in the election, it just simply wouldn’t be prudent of a true independent to actually state what they’re going to do when there are too many unknowns.”
Ms Haenel said the role of independents was to negotiate on policies based on how they would “impact their communities”.
She said the federal government had demonstrated its own lack of clarity on different issues, including its stance on the integrity of government.
“Scott Morrison’s classic example of promising the electorate an ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) at last election and then reneging on the promise is a classic example of, ‘We don’t know what we’re going to get until we’re sitting down at the table’.”
Political commentators have raised the possibility of a hung parliament and a minority government following the May election.
There have been two hung parliaments at the federal level, with the last occurring in 2010. A hung parliament happens when no party holds a minimum 76 seats in the 151-seat house of representatives.
Despite pressure from the federal government, independent candidates in Sydney and Melbourne have already rejected calls to state party preferences.
Independent candidate for Mallee Sophie Baldwin said in Mr Joyce’s analogy, independents were comparable to umpires who helped focus debate on “individual policy and not on political parties”.
“You’ve also got to have an umpire for that game,” Ms Baldwin said. “And independents are that umpire – their vote does matter.
“You need to have somebody who doesn’t have that party alignment, who has the open thinking to look at (issues) from another perspective.”
Ms Baldwin also called Mr Joyce disrespectful for comments he made while visiting Mildura on Tuesday.
The deputy prime minister announced a pledge of $13.5 million to extend the planned Murray River Adventure Trail from Mildura to Yelta.
Mr Joyce referred to Member for Mallee Anne Webster as a “pest” for her advocacy for funds for the region, a comment Ms Baldwin said showed the Nationals were not able to “read the room”.
“The way Barnaby referred to Anne Webster as a pest was a disrespectful way to talk about a Member of Parliament,” Ms Baldwin said.
“You would like to think that the party didn’t think that people trying to represent their electorates were pests.”
