25 June 2026
Warringah MP Zali Steggall and Wentworth MP Allegra Spender have launched a new political party designed to expand the community independent movement and field candidates for both houses of federal Parliament.
Community Strong Australia has applied to the Australian Electoral Commission for registration, which it expects to secure by October 2026. The party said registration would allow it to contest Senate elections while supporting community-backed candidates in the House of Representatives.
The move represents a significant shift for a movement that has built much of its appeal around candidates running independently of established political parties.
Steggall and Spender said Community Strong Australia would seek to combine the local accountability of independents with the organisational advantages of a registered party. Its representatives would retain a free vote and remain primarily accountable to their electorates, while collaborating on evidence-based and expert-informed policies.
“The community independent movement has shown what’s possible when people unite around shared values and practical solutions,” Steggall said. “Community Strong Australia is about extending that opportunity to more Australians.”
The party will support candidates and parliamentarians who share commitments to political integrity, climate action, economic prosperity, practical policy solutions and community engagement.
Steggall said the new organisation would provide voters with an alternative to increasingly divisive political forces.
“Australia is at a turning point and people are worried about what the future holds,” she said. “Community Strong Australia offers unity over division and reason over rage.”
Spender said many Australians believed conventional political parties were dominated by career politicians who were insufficiently responsive to their communities.
Spender is the daughter of the late John Spender, a Liberal MP who represented North Sydney in federal Parliament between 1980 and 1990.
“Australians deserve a positive, responsible alternative,” she said. “They deserve representatives who can bring real-world experience to Parliament.”
She said the organisation would give communities greater power to shape their political representation and policy priorities.
“Our country’s success wasn’t built on complaining or fighting each other,” Spender said. “It was built on the common good of hard work, tolerance, shared identity and purpose. It was built from communities up – and that is where politics needs to return.”
Steggall, who entered Parliament after defeating former prime minister Tony Abbott in Warringah in 2019, said the establishment of the party was the next stage of the movement her electorate had helped create.
“For years, Warringah has proven that politics works best when the community comes first,” she said.
Steggall said contesting the Senate could allow Warringah voters to “double” their influence by supporting an upper house candidate committed to community-focused policies.
She stressed that her first responsibility would remain to her electorate and said she would continue consulting residents as the new organisation developed.
“For me, Warringah has always and will always come first,” she said. “As a member of Community Strong Australia, I’ll continue to fight for Warringah and focus on the issues that matter most to locals.”