Deb is a professional working mum who cares about our kids’ future, understands the pressures our communities  are under, and knows how to get things done.

She lives in the electorate with her husband and two children. She has always been an active member of the community and has spent many years advocating for better facilities and services for people in our region. 

Come and meet Deb for yourself at one of our upcoming events - check out our events page here. 

The two party system is broken. Deb realised the major parties are not representing normal people like us, and our regional/rural electorate is vastly ignored by the parties when it comes to federal funding.

The opportunity came up to run as an independent and to represent the community – Deb decided that rather than keep yelling at  the politicians on TV, she should put her hand up to offer voters a better choice. 

Deb will act for us, she will look out for our community. She’s not from a party and won’t get tied up in party  politics. As an independent, she is only focused on what is best for our community. As we’ve seen other  independents in parliament do, Deb will be able to get things done. She is advocating to secure a fair share of  federal funding for roads, infrastructure, health services and regional investment that we have been missing out  on for too long.  

Deb will bring common sense, transparency and integrity to parliament. 

Party MPs just vote how their party tells them to vote - Deb will vote how our community wants her to vote. If you want a say in policies, vote for Deb. She will represent you. 

Deb can work with whoever is in Government to deliver more for Monash.

Party politics is not working for us. We have been ignored by the major parties for decades. As an independent, Deb is not held back by "party politics" or bound to tow the party line.

Deb is focused on our electorate and our electorate only. She is not told how to vote by party bosses - she will vote in line with our community. 

So much! Independents only focus on what their electorate needs, rather than playing party games.  They hold the major parties accountable, make improvements to legislation, and make sure issues of integrity and  transparency are brought to light. An independent MP is never in opposition – they can work with either side of  politics to make sure their community is represented. 

Here are just some examples:  

Helen Haines, Independent MP for Indi:  

• Secured tens of millions of dollars for road upgrades and pothole fixes 
• Millions of dollars invested in her regional economy 
• Investment in community batteries and microgrids to lower power bills and provide energy security
• Introduced Unlocking Regional Housing Bill to guarantee dedicated funding for enabling infrastructure in  rural, regional and remote Australia.  
• Introduced legislation for an Independent Commission Against Corruption which was ultimately adopted  (neither major party would have done this without pressure from independents) 

Andrew Wilkie, Independent MP for Clark 

• $340m for new hospital in his electorate 
• Poker Machine Reform: achieved significant changes in gambling laws to reduce harm caused by poker  machines. 
• Health and Infrastructure: Secured federal funding for health services and infrastructure in Hobart. 

Cathy McGowan, former Independent MP for Indi

• 50 new mobile phone towers in telecommunications blackspots 
• Advocated and secured state funding for the Wangaratta Hospital Upgrade  
• Established the Future Drought fund resulting in at least $20m a year for drought preparedness
• Secured funding for the North East Rail Line 

Zali Steggall, Independent MP for Warringah 

• Helped her community apply for and receive grants totalling over $133 million, including $7 million in  funding for the Manly Warringah Gymnastics  
• Introduced legislation to stop the lies in political advertising.  
• Secured amendments to the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Act to improve national environmental  standards and protections 

Monique Ryan, Independent MP for Kooyong 

• Succeeded in having $3 billion of student debt wiped and secured significant reforms to the HECS system  to make indexing fairer.  
• Introduced the “Clean Up Politics Act” to improve transparency around lobbying of members of parliament.  

David Pocock, Independent Senator for ACT 

• Introduced the “Duty of Care Bill” to require that politicians and policy makers have a duty of care to young  people and future generations. 
• Strengthened Aged Care Bill to provide better care for older Australians
• Secured important amendments to strengthen Climate Change legislation 
• Continues to advocate strongly for housing affordability and social equity issues.

Deb's policies are formed from feedback from you - the people of Monash.

Deb and her team of volunteers have been out surveying the community, hosting Kitchen Table Conversations and Politics in the Pub events, and door knocking around the electorate to ascertain what the key issues are for the people of Monash. 

Deb also knows that the best solutions come from the community themselves, so she is spending time listening to people on the ground how best to address these key issues such as costs of living, housing, climate and integrity in politics. 

You can see the results of the survey data on Deb's website here. 

All this feedback will shape Deb's policies and funding priorities. Please subscribe to our newsletter here or follow Deb on social media to receive updates of policy announcements.  

It is up to each individual voter to choose who they give their preferences to. We ask that you put a 1 next to  Deb’s name, and then number the rest of the candidates in accordance with how they align with your values. 

A hung Parliament puts us in the centre.  In the case it becomes relevant, Deb will negotiate with both sides and will support whichever parties best aligned with values of our community and whoever will deliver more for Monash! 

Deb will consider every piece of legislation on its merits. As an independent, she can work with all sides of politics to get the best outcome for our community. The only thing that will guide her vote are her conscience and what's in the best interests of Monash. She will always retain the right to vote independently and will always be open and transparent about how she votes and why. 

Deb doesn’t have the deep pockets of the major parties. Hundreds of individuals across the Monash community and beyond have donated to the campaign, because they want to see better representation, and better outcomes for our electorate.

We have also been running fundraising events, and we are selling t-shirts, tote bags and badges via our website shop here.

We’ve also received funding from Climate 200, which is a crowdfunding organisation with over 14,000 donors from every electorate in the country, including Monash.  We are really pleased to receive Climate 200 funding, because not only does it help us compete against the millions of dollars the major parties spend on campaigns, but it also shows that Climate 200 thinks Deb can win!  

We are completely transparent about our funding, all donations are published on our website here.

We encourage you to also ask the Liberal & Labor candidates how they are funded, as they are not nearly as transparent, and won't disclose the source of their funding until they are required to do so by law after the election.

If you are interested, you can see who funded the major parties and other candidates at the last election on the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website here.

No. Simon Holmes a Court is a wealthy person (but not a billionaire as some media would have you believe) who founded Climate 200. He was previously a member and major donor of the Liberal Party, however he became disillusioned with the party's refusal to accept and act on the science relation to climate change. After seeing the effectiveness of independents such as Cathy McGowan and Kerryn Phelps in federal parliament, he founded Climate 200 to support independents who aligned with values of the organisation, being evidence-based climate action, integrity in politics and equality. 

Simon Holmes a Court has not donated directly to Deb's campaign however we understand he had donated to Climate 200 and his contribution makes up about 2% of the organisations total funds raised. Over 14,000 other people have also donated to Climate 200.