Accidental advocate: beyond the classroom walls to a bid for parliament halls for Farrer's independent candidate

Michelle Milthorpe doesn’t want to be the prime minister of Australia.

In fact, in many ways, the independent candidate for the seat of Farrer wants to stay as far away from, well … politics as a potential politician could get.

“I just want to be a strong woman who stands up for her electorate,” declares the 46-year-old teacher, wife and mum of three daughters from Jindera.

But as the momentum builds ahead of the expected announcement of a date for the federal election, it’s politics we’re talking.

Campaign trails filled with promises and pledges.

And an electorate that’s fed up with them, Michelle reckons.

It’s a familiar cry among the slew of new independents making their march on parliament this time around.

A “breakthrough” in the 2022 election saw nearly one in three Australians vote for an independent candidate or the minor parties, according to a major study led by ANU that year.

It was, in fact, a “large-scale abandonment” of major political parties, said study co-author Professor Ian McAllister.

Voters are now less “rusted on” to the major political parties and becoming more independently minded in their political choices, he reported.

“People keep asking me what I can do as an independent,” Michelle says.

“I see my role as a voice for regional equity without having to bow down to party politics.”

But she concedes there is still a “general apathy” towards politics among Aussies.

“I get it,” she states bluntly.

“It all feels so far away from us; so much of the politics is city-centric.

“We need someone who has no ambition to be PM. I just want to be a representative, I don’t necessarily want to be a politician!”

Michelle’s journey beyond the classroom walls to a bid for the halls of parliament is paved in anguish no family should ever experience.

Anguish that turned to anger that transformed into ground-breaking action.

In 2013, Michelle and her husband Brent’s lives imploded when they learned two of their daughters had been the victims of child sexual abuse by a trusted family friend.

Their youngest, Rose, was just five years old at the time.

Michelle’s “naive sense of justice” was shattered as the family floundered through a flawed legal system that relegated vulnerable victims to “pawns in a game”, terrorised all over again.

It would prove the catalyst for the #JusticeShouldn’tHurt campaign, demanding the expansion of a program designed to make court less traumatic for children involved in sexual abuse matters.

In 2023, that campaign would see the NSW Government commit $64.3 million over four years to expand the Child Sexual Offence Evidence program to every District Court in the state.

And there you have it.

A strong woman who stood up for her family, and now wanting to stand up for her electorate.

“I became an accidental advocate … turning lemons into lemonade,” Michelle says.

On Friday, 7 March, a campaign fundraiser to celebrate International Women’s Day was held at Albury along that very theme, including a moving address from Michelle and prominent Border mental health and suicide prevention campaigner Annette Baker.

Strong women standing together to support women.

But it was to be a tweet posted by another formidable female in February 2024 – incumbent and Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley – that would prompt the Jindera special needs teacher to take the plunge into politics.

In her controversial tweet, the Farrer MP wrote: “If you do not want to see Australian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor.”

The comment did not sit well with sexual abuse advocate Michelle: “I just thought to myself, ‘This does not represent anyone I know’.”

So she told her husband she was going to look into it and the next day emailed Indi MP Helen Haines to ask, “How do you become an independent?”

Now she has two phones and two computers (to keep her work/home life separate), a new car that’s really fuel efficient and “a bit fancy”, and Brent waking her with a coffee at 6 am so she can catch the early news before she gets to work on the campaign.

Michelle was endorsed as a candidate by Voices for Farrer, the community-based movement inspired by Voices for Indi, which first helped independent Cathy McGowan to represent the neighbouring Victorian seat in 2013.

She describes that energetic group of volunteers as “mostly silver-haired goddesses”, all politically engaged (and a little bit enraged) who “come from every shade” of politics.

Voices of Farrer has helped provide the scaffolding for the steep learning curve that comes with a mission such as this – together with her close-knit team of campaign manager Malina Matsinos-Ellis and policy adviser Beth Sainty-Gale.

And make no mistake, this is a mission of David-versus-Goliath proportions.

Ms Ley has won the seat of Farrer eight times in a row since 2001, making it one of the most secure in the country.

Michelle insists the seat has been considered safe for far too long.

She shrugs off criticism directed at her for accepting funding from climate-focused community crowd-funding group Climate200, saying, “All they’ve asked of me is to be someone who acts with integrity”.

Indeed, she says, looking out for women, children, farmers and the food bowl of Australia intrinsically “all goes together”.

“I’ve got ladies who put $10 a week into my fundraising account – that is so meaningful,” she adds.

As for the claims she’s a relative greenhorn to the cut and thrust of policymaking and wrangling … “People have been a bit judgy,” she admits.

“They’ve asked, ‘What do you know about tariffs and taxation law and biosecurity?’ But I can guarantee you not everyone in parliament knows everything about everything. I won’t be too proud to say I don’t know.

“What I do know is people recognise injustice, they recognise when people can’t participate in decisions that impact on their lives.

“And I know that I won’t forget it’s people this is about.”

If you need help or someone you know does, contact:

• National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800RESPECT, 1800 737 732
• Blue Knot Helpline: 1300 657 380
• Lifeline: 13 11 14
• headspace: 1800 650 890.