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A TASTE FOR INDEPENDENTS
North Sydney is a pioneer in independent federal representation.Ted Mack, known as a champion of integrity in politics and participatory democracy was the independent federal representative for North Sydney from 1990 to 1996
Known as the ‘Father of Independents’, he is sadly no longer with us, but you can read about how Ted Mack represented us for over 20 years at local, state and federal levels:
“Mr Mack is credited as a trailblazer in the grassroots sphere of independent politics, and whose career helped carve a path for the next generation of independents, including the likes of Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan.”
In 2013, giving the Sir Henry Parkes oration, Ted said
“I didn’t have any burning desire to change the world – just a few simple principles like the workings of government should be open to public scrutiny. That elected representatives should enable people to not only participate in all decisions that affect them but ultimately find ways to have people make decisions for themselves. That the very basis of democracy is that a decision taken by the public as a whole will be right more often than decisions taken by an elite group no matter how wise that group. That people entrusted with the public purse should honour that trust and treat public money as they would want other people to treat their money.”
We believe that these values are still important to the voters of North Sydney.
North Sydney’s Independent Ted Mack addresses the state of Democracy in 2013: