The need for good government is stoking a quiet revolution

"Voices for" groups are springing up in Liberal and National Party-held electorates all over Australia. The groups' drive to return integrity to our politics may turn out to be a critical salve to our democracy at an important historical juncture.

The movement is inspired by the "Voices for Indi'" group, which unseated Liberal ideological warrior Sophie Mirabella for taking the electorate for granted and not representing the local people. The mantle was taken up by "Voices of Warringah", which unseated Tony Abbott. Groups have since sprung up in nearly 30 electorates across the country, many of them rural and regional, seeking to force our politicians to re-engage with their communities.

It's a development that couldn't come at a more critical time.

Historically, the strength of democracy has been that it enables those who seek power to compete for it on the basis of their ability to deliver good government. It doesn't matter if the leaders' own motives are selfish narcissism, if the criteria for success is solving the problems the community faces.

However, in the past 15 years we have seen this link between the struggle for power and the need to deliver good government being severed. Our politicians, particularly at the federal level, appear to no longer believe they need to deliver good policy for the majority of people in order to secure power.

One only needs to look at our government's vacuous climate change announcement as a case in point. It adds to the litany of recent examples of big policy announcements that were empty shells, weren't implemented, or were disastrous in their implementation. Actually fixing problems has slipped down the priority list.

Dr Stephen Mills of the University of Sydney has documented how the political class has fine-tuned gaming the intricacies of the political system so that good government is an optional extra. Politicians are now seeing the pathway to power in terms of branch stacking for preselection, securing large donations to fund campaigning, and finding the right media messaging to target the tiny proportion of swing voters in the small number of swing seats that will allow them to win the election.

The parties' research tells them most voters won't shift their vote from right to left or vice versa. People might vote for minority parties, but that doesn't matter to the major parties because preferences will eventually flow back to them.

To make matters worse, the parties' research tells them that swing voters are the least engaged, least informed and least community-minded people in the electorate. Political campaigns are targeted at those who are the most vulnerable and ill equipped to be deciding government.

The consequences of our political elites considering they are above any accountability are painfully on display in the Big Deal documentary that screened on the ABC recently (and can still be seen on iview). The campaign funders are calling the shots, not the communities that are impacted by the policies.

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Community groups, campaigning for reform in areas such as health, gambling, water, the environment and guns, are all sounding the alarm.

During the course of my own research, I saw everyone from victims of banking misconduct to small businesspeople fighting major corporations' abuse of power turn to the government for protection, only to find the government backing in the big end of town.

The great hope that emerged from my research was the independents and crossbenchers - and it drove home to me just how important they were. It didn't matter whether they were left or right wing. On so many issues, right and wrong was not ideological. It was a human question. Having people in the Parliament that are not locked in by the major-party machines is critical.

Creating an environment where the major parties don't feel they can take the ordinary people in their electorates for granted is even better.

If the "Voices for" movement can build enough momentum that it forces the political elite to rethink what they have to do to secure power, we might rebuild the link between the struggle for power and the need to deliver good government.

It's a lot to place on the shoulders of a burgeoning social movement. But it's the moment to remember Margaret Mead's famous quote: "Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."