Independent MP Helen Haines on using 'soft power'
- Written by Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Helen Haines, MP for the Victorian regional seat Indi, made history at the election as the first federal independent to succeed another independent.
She was backed by grassroots campaigners, Voices for Indi, who had earlier helped her predecessor, Cathy McGowan, into parliament. But while McGowan towards the end of her time in the House of...