Ex-Liberal launches movement to unite One Nation and Greens voters
Charlotte Mortlock, a former Liberal Party member, has launched a political movement she says can unite One Nation and Greens voters by abandoning Australia's left-right framing. The launch comes days after One Nation's shock by-election win in Farrer.
Speaking at a Sydney launch, Mortlock said Australian voters had broken away from the traditional party structure. "The far-right One Nation voter and the Greens voter share complaints: cost of living, housing, distrust in institutions. If we don't tap that common ground, our democracy will jam," she told reporters.
The launch coincided with the One Nation party's historic by-election victory in Farrer last weekend, the same contest in which the Liberal Party suffered an emphatic loss under Sussan Ley's "change or die" message. The share of votes going to independents has risen at each of the past three federal elections, lending weight to the critique.
Mortlock's movement, branded "Something Better", has not yet registered as a political party. The initial plan is to back independent candidates for the federal Senate, with a longer-term ambition of forming alliances inside state parliaments. Critics warn that a tent so wide will struggle to agree on concrete policy proposals.
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