Federal Election 2025: Coalition defectors talk big but send confusing messages

By the time he quit the Liberal Party last New Year’s eve, backbench MP Ian Goodenough had become a personnel problem common in most organisations: too uninspiring to promote, and qualified for little else.

The party found a promising replacement. But Mr Goodenough was not ready to return to life as a second-tier Perth property developer, and is running again, as an independent.

Casual voters might be confused as to his political affiliation. Mr Goodenough has taken to promoting Labor promises in a way that sounds like he deserves credit. “I am pleased to announce,” he said two weeks ago, that Infrastructure Minister Catherine King had committed $5 million to rebuild a hall and change rooms in a park in his electorate, Moore.

When the Labor candidate pointed out it was a Labor promise, Mr Goodenough said the funding was “one of the conditions of my support for a party to form government”, even though he confirmed this week he would support the Coalition if he was re-elected and neither side won a majority.

“I don’t believe I did claim credit for it,” he said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mr Goodenough’s social media page features a photo-montage that includes an older image of Senator Michaelia Cash, the senior Liberal in his home state, holding up one of his campaign posters. Supporters wear t-shirts similar to the Liberal Party’s favoured white and royal blue.

“You’ve purposely used the closest shade of blue to the Liberal Party to deliberately mislead voters into thinking you’re still their candidate!” a person named Richard Klimek wrote on Facebook last week.

Taking away votes

Two other ex-Coalition MPs, Russell Broadbent and Andrew Gee, are also running as independents. In close contests, all three could drain votes from the Liberal and National parties, making it even harder for Liberal leader Peter Dutton to win.

While “teal” independents financed by Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 company have a clear environmental message, the former ex-Coalition MPs are struggling to adopt new political personas after years inside their parties.

A 74-year-old Victorian, Mr Broadbent was first elected 35 years ago in an electorate that no longer exists. His only other job was in his family’s business. Declaring his run for the 14th time, in the seat of Monash, he said in a video on X: “I’m not motivated by towing the party line or being a career politician.”

Asked this week if he still maintained this position, he said: “No, I don’t remember saying that.” He accused the Liberal Party of ageism. “They think when someone turns 70 they should be thrown out,” he said.

Released from party discipline, Mr Broadbent has not held back sharing personal views. They include a passionate distrust of COVID-19 vaccines and a belief the virus can be treated with the drug ivermectin, a position opposed by leading international medical authorities.

Blue and orange

National Andrew Gee was the minister for veterans affairs in Scott Morrison’s cabinet. Unlike Mr Goodenough and Mr Broadbent, who were disendorsed, he quit the party over policy. A former lawyer, Mr Gee supported the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a constitutional change opposed by the Nationals and 71 per cent of his electorate.

Mr Gee’s decision was celebrated by Anthony Albanese, who called it “a gracious offer” to Aborigines, a sentiment the Prime Minister did not repeat when Labor backbencher Fatima Payman quit the party last year over its policies towards Palestinians. He accused the senator of an “indulgence”. “No individual is bigger than the team,” he said.

Despite his left-leaning position on Indigenous recognition, Mr Gee appears to be campaigning as a populist right-winger in his New South Wales seat of Calare, which includes the country cities of Orange and Bathurst.

He often promotes causes with Queensland MP Bob Katter, and shares his hostility towards supermarket chains, turning farmland into housing, and restrictions on the use of cash, which are designed to fight organised crime. Mr Gee’s website features a combination of Liberal-like blue and One Nation orange.

Like many independents and minor-party politicians, Mr Gee acts like the election could put him in Government. On Monday, he wrote that he had “announced a major new policy commitment” to build a government-services centre in Bathurst and Orange for military veterans.

Given his conservative electorate, Mr Gee would seem unlikely to support a Labor government. The Labor Party is supporting him anyway, through preferences, hoping he will deny the Coalition another seat. Labor has even placed the local “teal” independent, Kate Hook, lower on its how-to-vote cards.

“Independents and defectors might make noise, but they never deliver,” a Coalition spokesman said.

That may or may not be true. A Labor government could give Mr Gee some of what he wants to bolster him against future National contenders. A spokesman for Mr Gee said: “No deals have been done with the ALP.”

The Coalition must regard him as a serious contender. Mr Dutton went to Orange on Tuesday to campaign, although his public appearances were cancelled after Pope Francis died.

Mr Gee, who attended an Anglican high school, was quick to offer condolences to Catholics across the electorate, suggesting he is in the right profession.