Community Independents Project
The Community Independents Project (CIP) is the coordinating body for Australia's community independent candidate movement — a network of locally organised, non-partisan groups that support community-driven independent candidates at federal, state, and local elections.
The movement originated with Voices for Indi, founded in 2012 in the regional Victorian electorate of Indi by Cathy McGowan following a community meeting. McGowan went on to win the seat as an independent in 2013. The model spread gradually and then rapidly: by the 2022 federal election there were roughly 30 groups; by the 2025 federal election there were community groups in over 50 electorates — more than one in three Australian electorates.
What the movement is
The groups are structurally independent of each other — deliberately so, to avoid the appearance of being a party. Each is locally run and locally funded. The CIP functions as a national network body providing resources, training, and community connection, and hosts an annual national convention.
The movement is non-partisan: it does not endorse candidates based on party or policy platform. Its concern is the process by which communities engage with representation — building denser local democratic infrastructure rather than advancing a specific policy agenda.
Relationship to teal independents
The "teal independents" label was applied by media to a subset of community-backed independents (primarily in inner-metropolitan seats held by the Liberal Party) who ran on climate and integrity platforms in 2022. Climate 200 is a separate crowdfunding entity that provided financial backing to many of these candidates. The two streams — Voices groups and Climate 200-backed candidates — overlapped but are distinct structures.