Independent Australian MPs form new centrist political party

Two independent Australian MPs have banded together to launch a new centrist political party which they say is a response to an increasingly divisive landscape.

The Community Strong Australia party – launched in Canberra on Thursday – will offer “unity over division and reason over rage”, will have no leader and will allow members to vote freely, rather than along party lines.

Its two members – Sydney MPs Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender – are from a group of independent MPs known as “teals” who share socially liberal values and want greater climate action.

The party will offer an “alternate political force” to the current two-party system in Australia, the pair said.

Australia’s political landscape had traditionally been dominated by the two major parties – the centre-left Labor and the Liberal-Nationals Coalition, which leans conservative.

Labor won a landslide victory at last year’s federal election, securing a second term in power, while the Coalition suffered its worst defeat ever, followed by months of in-fighting.

In recent months, right-wing party One Nation – led by Pauline Hanson – has seen a surge in support, including one poll that found she was the preferred prime minister.

Asked if the recent rise in support for One Nation and its anti-immigration rhetoric had spurred their decision to form a new party, Steggall and Spender said they had been guided by what their voters were telling them.

“We absolutely hear those grievances,” Spender said. “People are frustrated and tired of the status quo,” she said, adding that “if I wasn’t in politics, I wouldn’t know who to vote for”.

Spender, who won her seat in 2022, said the party wants to “hear from communities beyond our own that want a voice that genuinely reflects them”.

Steggall, a former barrister and Winter Olympian, has been a federal MP since 2019, after she unseated the former prime minister Tony Abbott in an electorate that had been held by the Liberal Party for more than a century.

“We don’t want the in-fighting, we don’t want the blame game. We want solutions that will make a difference to us,” Steggall said.

The new party “offers unity over division and reason over rage,” she said, and was an “invitation” to voters “to come and build the kind of Australia we want”.

Key issues for the party will be housing affordability and cost of living pressures as well as climate change, childcare, education and healthcare.

The pair also told local media that Climate 200, a political organisation that has helped fund independents that have won several Liberal seats in recent elections, was not involved with the new party.

New electoral funding laws allow political parties a much bigger budget for campaigning, which some independents have said will disadvantage them.

Several other independents have ruled out joining, with another two “teal” independents considering their options.

The party has lodged an application with the Australian Electoral Commission with registration expected to be finalised in October.