Here’s what’s on the agenda for Independent MP Allegra Spender

By JOHN MOYLE

With a very healthy 54 per cent of the two party preferred vote Allegra Spender achieved the seemingly impossible when at the May 2022 federal election she took the seat from Liberal incumbent Dave Sharma. 

Running as part of the loosely knit “teals” campaign, Spender and five other independent women across Australia changed the federal political landscape as votes fell away from the two main political parties, creating, with the Greens, a strong and viable cross bench. This could keep Labor and the Liberals from forming a majority in their own rights for at least two elections. 

“The truth is that the landscape has changed so much and has really shifted under their feet,” Allegra Spender, Member for Wentworth said. 

“People are still getting their heads around this, the coalition members so not quite know what to make of us, and I would say that is true of Labor as well, and I say that there is something different here now.” 

Despite scare-mongering from both main parties that the rise fo the independents would be the end of democracy as we know it, parliament currently seems to have a renewed energy and is more orderly that what we have seen in years. 

“There is a bit of surprise that myself and the others do not always vote wth the government as I have voted with the coalition and vice versa,” Spender said. 

“What I think is doing really well is that we are working in collaboration with the other independents where it makes sense. 

“We are still getting to know each other.” 

While the teals ran their own campaigns centred around local issues, there were also common causes such as action on climate change and the call for an anti-corruption bill. 

“We worked very collaboratively and constructively on the Climate Change Bill and the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and I think that all members of the cross bench are feeling the process very positively,” Spender said. 

“I am very confident that we can take the lead on many issues such as Sophie Scamps on junk food advertising and Zoe Daniels on media diversity.” 

Tax reform on the horizon

Another of Spender’s key issues regards tax reform at both federal and state level, citing that in its current form tax complexity acts as a brake on productivity. 

“The Research and Development tax incentive is so complicated that people are spending up to 30 per cent to get professional help to apply for it,” Spender said. 

“There is a debate going on at the moment about Stage 3 tax cuts and what the income structure shoulder like, and we need to face up to the fact that we need a tax system that drives an efficient, transparent and productive economy that raises enough money for the services that we want.” 

Stage 3 tax cuts refer to creating a flat tax of 30 cents in the dollar for anyone earning between $40,000 and $200,000 per annum. 

The reforms are expected to cost an extra $243bn in the budget over the next 10 years, supported by both major political parties, but has also created opposition from senators such as Jacqui Lambie. 

“This is a difficult but grown up conversation that we need to have,” Spender said. 

Spender is also calling for an increase to the national housing stock as we have one of the lowest number of dwellings per thousand people in the OECD. 

 Home ownership in 2021 was down to 67 per cent from 70 per cent in 2006, and the latest census shows that 1 million homes were unoccupied, representing 10 per cent of all housing stock.  

With some 27 thermal coal projects being considered across federal and state jurisdictions at the moment Spender has made it clear from her earliest campaigning that she is firmly against any new coal projects. 

 “When you look overseas there are increasingly a number of countries trying to get out of coal and country like China are trying to get out of Australian coal,” Spender said. 

“The last thing I want is for companies to open new mines and go broke and have the Australian tax payer to foot the bill and clean up these places.” 

Environmental summit coming to eastern suburbs

November will see Spender and others host an environmental summit in Wentworth that will connect the community with the latest progress in the environmental movement. 

“We will take a national policy around climate and ask how can we drive local actions, and how does Wentworth businesses, families and households take local action on climate change?” Spender said. 

“There are so many volunteer organisations in Wentworth who are supporting a better environment and I want to make sure that everybody in Wentworth knows what they can do.” 

One of Spender’s most vocal campaign pledges was to lobby for a new public high school for the Wentworth electorate, an electorate crowded with expensive private schools but lacking in affordable public education options. 

“I have been working with Alex Greenwich and we have put to the state minister of education that this is one of the biggest local issues,” Spender said. 

“Wentworth needs to have great educational choices.” 

In a few short months Spender has taken her place alongside a formative cross bench that is poised to reshape federal politics into a more progressive landscape that is also promising to pay dividends for the seat of Wentworth.