Community Strong Australia chose to announce its existence to the world with an image showing two women, teal MPs Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall, isolated on the vast expanse of the Parliament House forecourt, while something exciting seemed to be happening in the distance.
Was that crowd gathered for a school excursion or to watch Bob Katter wrestling a crocodile? We’ll probably never know, but perhaps a bit more thought could have gone into this picture to avoid unwanted symbolism.
The new party doesn’t have a leader, and hasn’t yet been officially registered, which hasn’t stopped commentators sniping at everything from the party’s name to its logo to the lack of support from other teals. Founders Steggall and Spender say Community Strong Australia will be accountable to the communities they serve, not lobbyists or vested interests, with elected representatives able to vote freely in parliament, rather than as a bloc.
Their website declares: ‘We’re about hope over hate, reason over rage, and solutions over slogans.’ Is that a slogan? Probably too many words.
In a development of the community independent model which elected Cathy McGowan and Helen Haines in the seat of Indi, candidates will be selected from and approved by the communities they serve, rather than remote party machines.
Following the teal template, CSA will be all about ‘sensible economic management, climate action, equality and integrity’, but Steggall and Spender say Climate 200 and its major donors are not involved at this stage.
Who’s in, out, and on the fence?
The list of teals and teal-adjacent politicians who aren’t involved with Community Strong Australia is already quite long; Monique Ryan, Rebekha Sharkie, David Pocock, Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie and Kate Chaney have all ruled themselves out.
The independent member for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, is still on the fence, as is Sophie Scamps.
Former teal independent and foreign correspondent Zoe Daniel is urging Australians to give Community Strong Australia a chance. ‘Starting something, then changing course, adapting, in the face of entrenched systems of power requires that,’ she wrote in the Guardian. ‘Not doing it would be far easier and I know this hasn’t been an easy decision – for those who are in or out.’
Having defeated Tony Abbott before most of the other teals even had their skates on, and holding Warringah ever since, no one could accuse the former Olympic skier Zali Steggall of lacking courage, or conviction.
Last week she further demonstrated this with the introduction of her latest bill to stop lying in political advertising, telling the House of Representatives, ‘This bill is about a simple principle: protecting voter rights from scams, the same way we protect consumer rights.
‘The major parties have refused to do this for too long… with the rise of the far-right movement and post-truth politics, supercharged by AI and social media platforms, this is only going to get worse and absolutely must be addressed without any further delay.
‘In 2022 and 2025, fake signage falsely depicted Independents as Greens candidates. This was not policy debate; this was an attempt to mislead voters about who candidates were and who they represented. The Voice referendum exposed how misinformation can overwhelm democratic debate, with false claims repeatedly circulated to sow confusion, undermine trust and influence voters on the question of national importance.
‘AI is already entering political campaigning,’ she said. ‘Labor used generative AI to mock Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy, while Queensland’s LNP used AI generated content against Steven Miles. The technology is moving faster than the rules.’
In Question Time on Friday, Ms Steggall attempted to put the prime minister on the spot about whether Labor would support truth-in-political-advertising laws, and failed to get a straight answer, although Mr Albanese said he shared her concerns and would be ‘happy to have a look’ at the bill.
Squashing independents
The looming problem for teals and other pesky independents is that the major parties would prefer they weren’t cluttering up the parliament at all, and have introduced spending and donation caps which favour themselves in future elections. Forming a new party is a risk, but so is continuing to go it alone.
With the Liberal Party disintegrating in plain view under the lacklustre leadership of Angus Taylor, there’s an argument that the protest vote currently being captured by One Nation could go elsewhere if there was a decent alternative, particularly as the Rinehart-shaped bones beneath Pauline Hanson’s populist slogans become more apparent.
This is supported by the latest polling from the Redbridge Group, showing a major slide in One Nation support since Hanson’s appearance at the National Press Club.
As the Liberals and Nationals became enmired in discussions about monoculture, and whether Karl Stefanovic should be excused for platforming racist extremists, the government successfully pushed ahead this week with their tax changes, thanks to support from the Greens.
At this point in time, can another ‘centrist’ party attract those wishing to rage against the machine while also contributing something meaningful to Australia? If it all comes down to community desires, how do you stop lies with big dollars behind them from influencing the community?
Unfortunately the problem goes way beyond political advertising, and politics as well.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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