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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Indi, Victoria
Named for: Indigenous word for the upper Murray River
Northern Victoria: Alexandra, Benalla, Mansfield, Wangaratta, Wodonga
Enrolment at 2019 election: 112,775
Enrolment at 2022 election: 117,447 (+04.3)
1999 republic referendum: No 63.1
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 63.1
2023 Voice referendum: No 66.9
2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 9.2%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 9.9%
2013 Independent majority over Liberal: 0.3%
2016 Independent majority over Liberal: 4.5%
2019 Independent majority over Liberal: 1.4%
2022 Independent majority over Liberal: 8.9%
2025 notional Independent majority over Liberal: 8.9%
Status: Fairly safe Independent
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Announced candidates:
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Dr Helen Haines
Independent |
James Trenery
Liberal Party |
Division of Indi
Indi has existed since Federation, and has always occupied the north-eastern corner of Victoria. Like all rural seats,
it has a lower than average level of median family income and a very low proportion of non English speaking households. Its
proportion of people in professional and managerial occupations is higher than in most rural seats, while it also has a
high proportion engaged in agriculture.
Labor has not won Indi since 1929, and although there are pockets of Labor support, the main
centres, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla, usually vote heavily Liberal. The National Party used to win the seat on
occasions, and was a threat until the 1980s, but since then it has faded away in this region.
Sophie Panopoulos (now Sophie Mirabella) won Indi for the Liberals in 2001.
Panopoulos, a Melbourne lawyer and the daughter of Greek immigrants, was an outsider when she ran for Liberal selection, and although
she held Indi easily at four elections, she never really succeeded in gaining acceptance in the area, a problem compounded by her aggressive
political style and regular brushes with controversy. She was on the opposition frontbench from 2007 onwards, and would
have been a Cabinet minister in the Abbott Government.
Instead in 2013 she was unexpectedly defeated by
Cathy McGowan, an independent candidate. In 2016 Mirabella failed
in a bid to regain the seat. McGowan decided not to stand again in 2019, instead endorsing another independent candidate,
Dr Helen Haines, who was elected. This is the first time an independent federal MP (of which there have been very few) has
succeeded in handing on their seat to a chosen successor.
Dr Helen Haines, Independent MP for Indi since 2019, was Director of Nursing at the Chiltern Bush Nursing Hospital before entering politics. She has a master's degree in epidemiology and public health from the University of NSW and a PhD in medical science from Uppsala University in Sweden. Although her majority over the Liberals in 2022 was modest, she will be
favoured to retain this seat if she stands again. Indi has not been changed by the 2024 redistribution. The Liberal candidate is James
Trenery, the former Mayor of Indigo Shire.
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