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.
This being said, a political party, the Australian Independents, composed of Independent politicians, is currently being registered with the Australian Electoral Commission.
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 move to the crossbenches as an independent after a scandal involving corruption by way of misuse 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 2013 federal election.
Read more about this topic: No Party Affiliation
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