Australia
Independents have rarely been elected from the local resource group to the federal Parliament of Australia, although they are more commonly elected to state parliaments. A large number of independents are former members of one of Australia's main parties, the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia.
Currently, five independents sit in the Australian House of Representatives. Andrew Wilkie from Tasmania is a former Greens candidate, while both Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor from New South Wales are both former members of the National Party. Bob Katter is from Queensland and a former member of the National Party, but ceased being an independent after forming his own party, Katter's Australian Party. Peter Slipper of the Liberal National Party of Queensland became an independent and Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. Labor's Craig Thomson was forced to moved to the crossbenches as an independent after a scandal involving corruption by way of mis use of union funds.
Independent Senators are quite rare. In modern politics, independent Brian Harradine served from 1975 to 2005 with considerable influence at times. Nick Xenophon has been the only independent Senator since his election to the Senate at the 2007 federal election. With Senators elected for 6-year terms, Xenophon will be required to recontest his South Australian seat at the next Australian federal election due by 2013.
Patricia Petersen, who has run at two Australian state and three federal elections, as an independent, recently applied to register the "Australian Independents", an alliance of independents, with the Australian Electoral Commission. Formal registration of the group will give the independents affiliated with the group, the advantage of being "above the line" on the Senate ticket, which in turn will maximise and greatly increase the likelihood of independent Senate candidates being elected.
Read more about this topic: Independent (politician)
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