Since the middle of last year, Elizabeth and I have been involved in a process that has led to the selection of a Community Independent to stand as a candidate for the seat we live in, Lyne, and then into the forming of a team to run the campaign for JeremyMiller4Lyne. It has been a most interesting experience! See
The federal electorate of Lyne is large. It is about 230km in length and over 100km in width. It takes about two and a half hours to drive it south to north, although there are very few roads that run east to west as there are wonderful areas of natural beauty in national parks, nature reserves, and state forests through much of the inland area. The electorate includes the magnificent rainforests of the Barrington Tops National Park, just north of where we live in Dungog.
The electorate stretches from the northern suburbs of Maitland on the banks of the Hunter River, across to Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest, and then north all the way to the southern suburbs of Port Macquarie near the Hastings River, and inland to the west to our old stomping ground of Wauchope. It includes significant urban areas on the coast—Taree, Forster, and Tuncurry—as well as a string of smaller coastal towns and villages.
There are some key rural hubs inland—Wauchope, Gloucester, and Dungog—as well many other smaller towns and villages in the hinterlands, and widely dispersed farmland areas through many river valleys. It is an area with wonderful scenery along the coastline as well in the mountain areas inland, and many natural features that attract visitors throughout the year.
To cover all of these diverse locations, the campaign team has sent up Hubs (see above). Each Hub is running its own events locally. Each Hub has a local leader—Elizabeth has taken on this role for the Dungog Hub, which includes the whole of Dungog Shire (Dungog, Clarence Town, Paterson, Vacy, and Gresford) as well as the northern suburbs of Maitland (Lorn, Largs, and Bolworra Heights).
Elizabeth has marshalled a team of volunteers, mostly living in Dungog itself. We have started a weekly street stall in the Main Street of Dungog, to let people know about Jeremy. Three of us set up a stall at Clarence Town Markets some weeks back, with the same purpose. Volunteers in other hubs have been at stalls for markets in Taree, Forster, Gloucester, and other places where monthly markets are held. We have started putting up Corflutes in our various hubs. Some hubs are now starting Corflutes Marches in the main towns. There’s lots of activity happening.
As a team, we decided not to have a “campaign launch”, but to have a series of “Meet the Candidate” events in key locations. The first one was held this week at Dungog, in the heart of the southern part of the electorate. A crowd of over 40 locals gathered at the Royal Hotel to hear Jeremy speak about his candidature. He spoke a little about his own life and outlined how he would serve as the member for Lyne. “As your Independent representative”, he declared, “my only loyalty is to our community. I’ll work with anyone who helps our region and stand up to anyone who doesn’t”.
The room was decked out with Corflutes and Banners in support of Jeremy’s visit. Local volunteer Janine Atkin served as the MC for the evening. Former Dungog Shire Mayor Tracey Norman spoke enthusiastically about what Jeremy would bring to federal parliament. The pub provided a fine spread of finger food for people to eat as they listened intently to what Jeremy had to say.
David Smith and Libby Doolan made sure that everyone who attended was invited to sign up as a supporter. In the audience were some Dungog Shire Councillors, including the current Mayor of Dungog, Digby Rayward. Jeremy had met with Cr Rayward some days earlier in order to gain a better understanding of the current priorities of the Dungog Shire Council.
The whole event ran smoothly, due largely to the careful planning of Elizabeth as the Dungog local leader and her persistence in inviting people from a wide range of local community groups in Dungog. We believe that offers a fine model for how other “Meet the Candidate” events in other parts of the electorate could run. There’s one scheduled for Tea Gardens today and Forster tomorrow.
Questions were asked about Jeremy’s environmental commitment and his stance on nuclear power and large-scale renewable energy installations. He said that community consultation was really important in setting up such things. He said that each project needs to be assessed on its own merits, and that there are too many unknown factors relating to nuclear power installations. “The Government shouldn’t be running large-scale risky businesses” such as nuclear power. Other questions asked related to tertiary education, tax reform, and truth-telling and treaty.
One good question was about what principles guided his ethics. Jeremy said he will always seek to do “what is right” for the people of the electorate. He noted that, according to the ABC’s votecompass, he was “socially left, economically a little right, overall pretty much in the centre”. What he would most like to achieve whilst in parliament would be “to change the mindset that things can’t change for the better”.
One person who attended commented that Jeremy “reeked of integrity”—an interesting turn of phrase! Another observed that he was up front and honest; perhaps a rare quality in public life? A number of people had come wondering “who is Jeremy Miller?” and “what does he stand for?” As they left, quite a number took Corflutes and signed up to volunteer to support Jeremy in his campaign in the coming days. It was a great evening!
Jeremy’s website is at https://www.jeremy4lyne.com.au
More details of what he stands for is at https://www.jeremy4lyne.com.au/what_i_stand_for
Much of Jeremy’s funding is from donations by individuals. He also has received funding from Climate 200 and the Community Independents Project; see https://www.communityindependentsproject.org
A list of the Community Independents who are standing in 35 electorates across the country is at https://www.communityindependentsproject.org/ci-mps-candidates
See also
An Informed Faith 
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