It is not a good time to be a politician.  Prices are rising with extortionate speed.  Foolish wars continue being waged.  The banksters are in clover.  Corporate oligarchies are humming along.  The thieves in artificial intelligence are gloating about an end of civilisation they are happy to exploit for commercial reasons.  But even in these situations there are certain figures who have distinguished themselves with quiet tenacity.  They should be bottled and perfumed for posterity.

Helen Haines, the federal Member for the rural Victorian seat of Indi, baffled psephologists with her electoral victory in 2019, becoming the first independent to succeed another in the country’s history.  The previous member, Cathy McGowan, had pioneered a form of grassroots political engagement that stressed the importance of representation and service over the hulking monster of party politics and vulgar self-interest.

Haines has shown herself to be a most unusual Australian politician.  Untied to the direction and directives of a party machine, unclouded by tribal judgments and collectivist buffoonery, she has, along with various other independents in the Parliament, returned politics to a mature Athenian state: a representative for her constituents.  Her platforms have been principled and studied, foremost among them the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission that was intended to, in her words, “restore the trust that so many Australians have lost”.  (Sadly, the body has yet to achieve its intended goals.)  Were it not for........

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