On 25 June 2026, two Community Independent members of the House of Representatives, Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender, announced the formation of new political party, Community Strong Australia. This development has been speculated for months. As a centrist party sharing similar postmaterialist tendencies, comparisons have been made between the Australian Democrats and the Community-focused political movements.
It is possible to argue that the demise of the Australian Democrats and replacement by the Australian Greens as the major custodian of the Senate balance of power early in this century created a vacuum in the middle of Australia’s political spectrum. Decline and eventual disappearance of the Democrats coincided with the Liberal Party’s rightward lurch under John Howard and then Tony Abbott. Malcolm Turnbull’s attempt to reverse the trend turned out to be futile. The Liberal Party now appears to bank its survival on appeasing a party led by a seasoned racist. As Neville Chamberlain would testify, appeasement rarely works. It is possible that after the next federal election due in 2028, the main non-Labor party may no longer be the Liberal Party. Even if it survives as one of the major parties, the Liberal Party will heavily rely upon electoral and parliamentary collaboration with One Nation.
In order to fill the political space vacated by the Democrats, several attempts have been made. Malcolm Fraser tried to establish a new centrist party, Renew Australia, before he passed away. Since the election of Cathy McGowan in 2013 and subsequent success (and near success) of the various Voices candidates, the Community Independent Project has been working to fill the void. The Community Strong Australia is a part of the project. It is obviously premature to judge if the Steggall-Spender experiment will succeed.
This paper compares the Democrats with the Renew Australia, the Community Independent Project and the Community Strong Australia. The paper argues that the Democrats eventually failed because of the way of organising the party. Thus, the success or otherwise of the Community Strong Australia may depend on the party structure, especially relationship between the party room and the organisation.
