Election 2022: Independent challengers given accidental opportunity by major parties

The major parties have provided few ag policy details this campaign. Has it provided independents with another window of opportunity?

An agricultural policy vacuum presented by the major parties has given an election week window of opportunity to independents, political experts say.

Both Labor and the Coalition presented most of their agricultural policies late in the campaign, despite some of their former stronghold electorates under challenge for the first time in living memory.

For instance, Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud and Shadow Agriculture Minister Julie Collins issued few pledges for the dairy sector despite seismic shifts in the industry in the past three years.

Too small a target? The lack of ag policy from the Coalition could provide an opening for independents. Picture: Brad Hunter

With only a week to go before May 21, both have committed to a dairy symposium and the Coalition have offered a tad over $1 million for dairy research — about the cost of an average suburban house in Melbourne. Labor did not offer any other dairy cash.

Monash University politics expert Zareh Ghazarian said both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese had adopted a “small target strategy” for the 2022 campaign for similar reasons.

“It dates back to the 2019 campaign. Being a small target and focusing on the leader’s personality was a winning strategy for Scott Morrison,” Dr Ghazarian said.

“Labor has adopted a similar strategy, learning the electoral lessons of 2019.

“It has meant we’ve seen policy put out later and in less detail than previous campaigns — whether that is on housing, or aged care, or regional and agricultural policy.”

Pledges have also been rehashed.

Mr Littleproud announced a $75 million for young farmers to buy their first property.

However, the Coalition first floated the concept in May 2019 ahead of the previous federal election.

Sensing a voter backlash over the major parties this week, Gippsland MP Darren Chester took to social media to distance himself from Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce.

This was despite Mr Chester being the only Coalition MP in regional Victoria not to face a challenge from a high-profile independent.

“As much as I respect people’s views: it’s not logical to say to me ‘a vote for Darren is a vote for Barnaby’ given I have publicly disagreed with him on several issues,” Mr Chester wrote on Facebook. “And I didn’t vote for him to return as leader.”