ACT independent senator David Pocock has left the door open to forming a political party with fellow independents, confirming talks within the movement to join forces.
Senator Pocock also did not rule out running for a lower-house seat, when asked about the possibility by ABC Insiders host David Speers on Sunday morning.
"There's so many people in politics for the right reasons, and when you're in there, you want to say, 'well, how do we actually ensure that people can elect people that are going to come here and really deal with the root causes of the problems that we're facing?'" Senator Pocock said.
The self-described "community independents" in the Parliament, elected in several waves of Climate 200-backed campaigns on similar platforms of stronger climate action, environmental protection and political integrity, have long insisted they are not a party.
But, like the major parties, the like-minded MPs and senators meet on Tuesday mornings of parliamentary sitting weeks.
It's understood that discussions about the possibility of forming a party began after the Albanese government last year passed laws to cap political donations and expenditure at levels crossbenchers fear will lock new independent candidates out of the Parliament, from the next federal election due by 2028.
"I'm always happy to chat about the future of our country ... There's plenty of conversations going on all the time," Senator Pocock told the ABC when asked if talks were under way in response to the rise of One Nation, which plans to run a candidate in every lower house seat.
Individual candidates' campaign spending is now capped at $800,000 per lower house seat, or $600,000 for an ACT Senate seat, while political parties are allowed to spend up to $90 million nationally.
Because the major parties don't need to spend much on safe seats, the updated laws lock in their ability to focus campaign spending to swing results in key marginal seats.
Political parties can also get around the individual donor cap, which has doubled to $50,000, by receiving gifts just short of this through branches across Australia.
Senator Pocock, whose campaign to blast former Liberal senator Zed Seselja out of the Senate in 2022 cost $1.7 million, last year spent just over $550,000 to retain his seat.
He said strong independents were needed in the parliament to "deal with the root causes of the problems we're facing" and that the major parties were not pursuing bold reform.
"You only end up in a crisis because you don't see a challenge and say, 'OK, how do we genuinely deal with this?'" Senator Pocock said.
"You just say, 'well, let's put it off, let's try and sell some other little things', and then all of a sudden you're in a housing crisis, you're in a biodiversity crisis, you're in an energy crisis.
"Australians are sick of it, they can see that short-term decision-making is not working for us."
Senator Pocock said his vision for the 2028 election was to have "every electorate actually having a viable independent, someone from the community".
"We saw that here in the ... safe Labor seat [of Bean]," he said.
"Jessie Price, a midwife, well respected in the community, not that well known, but got around and people said, 'Hey, this is someone who'll put us first.'"
Ms Price, who spent $230,000 on her 2025 campaign - a quarter of this donated by Climate 200 - will run for Bean again at the next election.
Voices of Canberra, whose members include former volunteers from Senator Pocock and Ms Price's campaigns, this month launched its search for a 2028 candidate.
Senator Pocock, who along with fellow crossbenchers is calling for a 25 per cent tax on Australia's gas exports, said the independent movement faced "a big question in the current political climate" about the best way to "be part of changing our country for the better".
Asked if forming a party was the way forward, he said "at the moment" he was focused on "serving people in the ACT, engaging on each issue, bringing solutions, using whatever power I have in the Senate to actually work on behalf of the people that have sent me there".
"As to what that looks like in the future, who knows? I think we're in a real time of flux politically, and there's people actually looking for candidates who are going to come to Canberra and actually put them first, put them ahead of vested interests."
Asked if he would run for a lower house seat, Senator Pocock said there was currently "plenty to do" in the Senate and "that's my focus".
"I don't know why you'd rule something out, but certainly at the moment I'm committed to doing what I'm doing," he said.
"My hope is that it'll be really great candidates [for ACT lower house seats] ... It's just really about having people who are willing to engage in good faith and put their community first.
"It doesn't have to be about personality and being able to make great speeches, et cetera. It's actually about getting in there and doing the hard work, and what I've seen is community independents being able to do that."
Senator Pocock technically sits in the Senate with the David Pocock Party, registered with the Australian Electoral Commission so that he could appear above the line on the Senate ballot paper, but operates as an independent.
