After a carefully considered and community-centred process, including an open advertisement for Expressions of Interest, conducting due diligence, and an online forum with prospective candidates, the selection panel is pleased to announce its decision.

We were very fortunate to have four talented and generous women from very different backgrounds, offering a range of skills and perspectives, who were each volunteering to represent our community. The community feedback was full of praise and support for all four women.

After considering all the feedback from those who participated in the process, we are delighted to confirm that Caz Heise is our community backed independent. Congratulations Caz!

It was clear from the feedback that our community felt that Caz had the strongest chance of winning the seat based on campaign readiness, including volunteer enthusiasm, and a broad network and profile across the electorate. Over three quarters of those who provided feedback nominated Caz as the best placed person to be the community backed independent candidate.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the process - your proposed questions and insightful feedback were great demonstrations of participatory democracy. Particular appreciation goes to Dr Lorraine Gordon, Dr Kelly Hamill, and Catherine Reynolds, who all put themselves forward for consideration, and who will, no doubt, continue to make substantial contributions to Cowper in their respective ways.

And thanks to the candidate selection committee - Bec Davis, Phil von Schoenberg and Maura Luxford - who rigorously and thoroughly evaluated all the candidates and feedback from the Cowper community.

While Voices4Cowper conducted a candidate search and selection process it is now up to the candidate to conduct her own election campaign. On hearing that V4C has chosen to endorse her, Caz has reached out to the community via email and social media.

“I’m excited to let you know that I have again been endorsed as the community independent candidate by Voices 4 Cowper - a community group dedicated to transforming politics in our region.” she said.

“We are an incredibly diverse community, and it is that diversity that I am seeking to represent. To do this, and win Cowper, we have to listen. We need to talk with as many people as possible and ensure that the conversations we have transform into a grassroots campaign that can genuinely speak on behalf of our community. 

We need to ensure that First Nations people, CALD communities, working families, farmers, fishers, surfers and everyone else that makes up our community are properly represented; that our voices, ignored for so long by a political class focused on the latest Canberra scandal, are truly heard. 

Thanks again for your support of local democracy - you can expect to hear more from me soon.”

As you will see in this recorded message from Caz, she will finish her role at the end of August, and then spend time preparing for the campaign, with a public launch in the later part of September.

If you want to hop over to Caz’s website, you can sign up there now in advance of the campaign, or follow her on Facebook or Instagram.