Local Network shuts down operations in Tasmania after three years

A homegrown political party will shut down its Tasmanian operations after three years, co-founder Leanne Minshull announced. The reason behind the decision >>

Local Party independent Senate candidate Leanne Minshull and Local Party independent candidate for Franklin Anna Bateman at Lutana. Picture: Chris Kidd

Homegrown political party The Local Network will shut down its Tasmanian operations after three years, co-founder Leanne Minshull announced.

Billed as a political party for independents, the Local Party, which later morphed into the Local Network, ran 11 candidates at state and federal elections including five at the recent state election.

Despite a trend to independents in recent years, the Local Network struggled to make headway despite some initial success.

Candidate Anna Bateman received just under five per cent of the vote in Franklin at the 2022 federal election and Ms Minshull lead a team which won 1.44 per cent per cent in the Senate at the same election.

But the party’s four candidates in Clark managed to secure just 0.75 per cent of formal votes at the recent state election and the lone candidate in Franklin managed 0.77 per cent.

The party’s website contains a note saying “we’re taking a break to regroup, we’ll be back soon”.

Ms Minshull, a former Greens staffer and Australia Institute Tasmania chief, said the foundation of the party was “charged with more bravado and beer than good sense and analysis”.

She said despite not being met with electoral success, the party has played an role in empowering people to take part in politics during a time when voters became more enamoured of independents.

“Over the past three years an amorphous group of volunteers talked to hundreds of Tasmanians, wrote articles on collaborative democracy, debated the utility of citizen juries, held too many community events to remember and supported candidates in the federal and state elections,” she said.

The Local Party, Leanne Minshull and Anna Bateman. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“Many more Tasmanians now know how to organise a town-hall meeting or lobby their MP than when we started.

“We were a part of the movement for more independents in parliament – state and federal.

But everything has it’s time.

“This week, having not been able to exploit the unique political opportunities in Tasmania we closed the network down before the water’s edge.

“For everyone that helped along the way with time, money, ideas, solidarity, and laughter, thank you!”

The Local Party received a donation of $100,166 from the Construction Forestry Mining Maritime and Energy Union’s Victoria branch in the lead-up to the May 2022 poll, according to Australian Electoral Commission disclosures.

It also received $50,000 from Climate 200, $20,000 from Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood and $50,000 from a NSW-based entity called Keep Them Honest.

Ms Minshull said the party’s small reserve of remaining funds would be donated to a climate group.