CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
It appears that rise of the Independents will not be isolated to oceanside and harbourfront electorates in 2025, as the Coalition looks set to lose a number of once very safe regional seats to unaffiliated local candidates.
Coffs Harbour on the Mid North of NSW is definitely in play.
These poll numbers have disrupted the media’s narrative that Independent candidates are ‘inner city elites’ – now that it has become clear that even the rusted-on Nationals and rural Liberal seats are entertaining the idea of electing someone who doesn’t answer to Peter Dutton.
Right across the country, Coalition MPs – both Liberal and National – are being out-campaigned by highly motivated Independent candidates.
In fact, as of today, the betting market is shifting against a number of high-profile rural MPs.
This will cause a lot of finger-pointing between the Nats and Liberals in the weeks that follow the May 3 election, as it becomes clear that Peter Dutton might even be unpalatable to once safe regional voters.
However, it’s the Cowper Curveball known as Caz Heise that may just cause a full blown identity crisis for the Coalition, as the Mid North Coast of NSW looks set to elect an Independent and former midwife, in a historic first.
This means no factions, no party, no leaders. Just a fed up local midwife who has delivered tens of thousands of babies in the region.
And in her work as the Mid North Coast’s Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Caz Heise has dealt with plenty of unhelpful men that are spending too much time talking and getting in the way.
In her second tilt as the Member of Cowper, Caz Heise won 47.68 per cent of the vote in 2022. She’s back again in 2025 with an even bigger army of door knockers.
Her opponent, Nationals backbencher Pat Conaghan is starting to panic, as is his 100 year old political party scrambles at the existential threat to their grip on the seat.
He represents a 100 year old party that has held the Mid-North Coast for almost just as long as they’ve been around.
But in 2025- it seems that the major party is being challenged by a woman that’s made a career out of looking after her community.
In fact, many of the younger voters in Cowper will be able to claim that were literally delivered by the Caz Heise.
While the media and Peter Dutton dismiss the electability of a female health worker who hasn’t done her time in the boys club, they seem to underestimate how many times Caz Heise has already helped deliver (literally) for her local constituents, and how many blokes getting in the way she’s kicked out of the room to do so.
