Community Independents Project (CIP) Convention 2025

Theme: Communities in Action: Strengthening Democracies Together

Recordings can be found here

Relevance to GC Democracy Awareness Group:

• CIP movement wants ALL politicians to ‘do politics differently’ i.e. represent their community

Key to achieving this between elections:

• Refocus on community-building
• Encourage issues-based groups to engage with MPs
• Quote by Phil Scott (2025 candidate Solomon) :”If you’re not building community, you’re missing the point”

Hints for engaging with representatives

• Example of letter to MP via David Pocock website: Lobbyist pass register request
• Focus on the solution, not just defining the problem
• Group submission - make it easy for the office to deal with the request
• Invite MP to speak at a group event - be flexible - welcome any offer - do your homework!

Follow-up activity for GCV

Consider sending an email/letter to your Federal MP to support David Pocock’s call for a lobbyist pass register to be made public.

Background

>1500 people currently hold orange MP-sponsored passes that grant 24/7 all areas access to Parliament House. There is currently no register/disclosure and clearly provides privileged access to lobby politicians, while community groups and members of the public are forced to wait for meetings.

Other CIP sessions

Wed 8 Oct 2025 - Democracy Watch Australia: Empowering Citizens to Hold Power to Account

Free Resources via Sue Barrett substack : Democracy Watch Australia Resources Drive

Wed 15 Oct 2025 - Parliamentary Tools : Leveraging Parliamentary Processes and Powers

Wed 22 Oct 2025 - Zoom Book Club - Twitter and Teargas: the power and fragility of networked protest

Posted by Murray. Last modified: 17 Nov 2025.