Voices of Hume candidate revealed in fight for Angus Taylors Hume seat

A veteran teacher of kids with a disability will take on cabinet minister Angus Taylor at the next federal election as the “Voices of Hume” candidate.

Sixty-four-year-old Penny Ackery first purchased a rural property near Goulburn 30 years ago, moved there full time 18 years ago and has worked and raised her family in the area ever since.

Penny Ackery addresses her supporters in Goulburn on Saturday.Credit:Alex Tewes

The incumbent holds the seat with a big majority. In 2019, he increased his two-party-preferred margin by 2.81 per cent to 62.99 per cent against Labor.

Ms Ackery, who was formally selected as the candidate on Saturday, has a mountain to climb. Mr Taylor said, following the announcement, that he respected his constituents and wouldn’t take the next election for granted.

But he also criticised Ms Ackery immediately as “just another front for green activists to play dress up as independents, as we are seeing around the country”.

Safe seat: Hume is held by the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“I have always fought in the Parliament to deliver for the people of Hume and will continue to do so in the lead up to this election,” he said.

Seats like Hume shape as a key test for this and other “Voices of” or “We are” candidates that are popping up all over the country.

Ms Ackery’s candidacy draws inspiration from Cathy McGowan and her successor Helen Haines in the Victorian rural seat of Indi, as well as Rebekha Sharkie in South Australia’s Mayo and Zali Steggall in the Sydney seat of Warringah â€" to say nothing of independents weighing a run in other Liberal-held seats such as Mackellar, North Sydney, Hughes, Flinders, Kooyong and more.

While the seats aren’t identical in that some are rural and some are inner-urban, there are obvious common themes: a desire for greater action on climate change; to restore people’s faith in democratic politics; and better community representation in fixing bread-and-butter issues like roads and internet connections.

In this respect, Ms Ackery, who has never been a member of a political party, is cut from the same cloth.

She told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age, before her formal confirmation on Saturday at an event at the Goulburn Showgrounds, that after 36 years as a teacher she wanted to reclaim the political centre ground and that “we need change. I want to make sure students have good opportunities into the future”.

“I want to make sure we have sustainable development, to keep our green spaces and constrain development. Hume has some of the worst roads in NSW,” she said.

“Internet and phone reception, even up near Sydney, is a big issue and we know how hard that was in the bushfires. We also want to make sure hospitals are adequate and well-staffed.”

Small business is a particular focus, she said, as it had borne the brunt of COVID-19 lockdowns but was the backbone of regional communities and “I want to make sure that they are there to provide services to local people”.

The political novice isn’t afraid to criticise Mr Taylor â€" “he doesn’t represent us” â€" and she’s in the contest to win it “as there is no alternative, there’s no point in being in the race if you don’t think you can win it”.

Matt Murfitt is targeting Angus Taylor, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction.

The Voices of Hume group has about 300 supporters on its list and a separate but related “Vote Angus Out” group, both of which have been co-organised by Matt Murfitt, has about 1800 people on its email list.

The independent candidate for the “We Are Hughes” movement, who will be targeting former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, is due to be announced on Sunday at 4pm.

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James Massola is political correspondent for the Sun-Herald & Sunday Age. He won the Kennedy award for Outstanding Foreign Correspondent while posted in Jakarta and wrote The Great Cave Rescue. He was previously chief political correspondent.Connect via Twitter, Facebook or email.

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