Independent politicians in Australia

An Independent politician is an individual politician not affiliated to any political party. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.

Independents have rarely been elected to the federal Parliament of Australia, although they are more commonly elected to state parliaments. A large number of independents are former members of one of Australia's main parties, the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia. On 16 July 2013 a political party named the Australian Independents was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. It was deregistered on 4 February 2016.

Currently, two independents sit in the Australian House of Representatives, Andrew Wilkie from Denison in Tasmania (former Greens candidate) and Cathy McGowan from Indi in Victoria.

Independent Senators are quite rare. In modern politics, independent Brian Harradine served from 1975 to 2005 with considerable influence at times. Nick Xenophon was an elected independent Senator from his election to the Senate at the 2007 federal election. Xenophon was re-elected for another six-year term at the 2013 federal election. He was re-elected at the 2016 double dissolution election under the Nick Xenophon Team. DLP Senator John Madigan became an independent Senator in September 2014, but failed to be re-elected at the 2016 election. PUP Senators Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus became independent Senators in November 2014 and March 2015. At the 2016 election, Lazarus lost his seat and Lambie was re-elected under the Jacqui Lambie Network. There are currently no independent senators.

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