Penny Ackery

Penny Ackery is an independent running in the seat Australian House of Representatives Division of Hume aiming to replace the incumbent, Angus Taylor, the Minister for Emissions Reductions, who has repeatedly voted against action on climate change and been involved in multiple scandals. Ackery's campaign was launched by actress, television presenter, and comedian Julia Zemiro, as well as the independent former member for Indi, Cathy McGowan. Ackerly was formally selected as the Independent for Hume on Saturday 12 November 2021.
Values
Ackery is running to help ensure people within Hume can communicate with their representative.
"No matter where we were, almost everyone wanted to communicate with their political representatives about the needs of society and they didn't feel it was happening," said Ms Ackery. Based on the ABC article, Ackery commented that "many in the community believed Mr Taylor had stopped listening to them".
Ackery will provide an independent voice in contrast to the incumbent, Angus Taylor. With respect to the Australian Emissions Reduction 'Plan', TV journalist Leigh Sales questioned Mr Taylor, "How is this an ambitious plan when none of the policies in it are new, when it's not legislated and when there are no short-term benchmarks against which to measure progress?"
Career and community contributions
Ackery is a school teacher, in her 60s, with decades of experience in teaching students with disability. She bought a property in Goulburn, and moved there with her family two decades ago. She has lived and worked in the Goulburn area for many years.
Ackery is also a member the Goulburn Mulwaree Council's sustainability working party. Ackery is a Goulburn resident, said she was "asked to join the Voices of Hume project", which is a grassroots organisation aimed at "reclaiming the relationship between politicians and the people and to create a new standard for politics in Australia". which led to Zali Stegall replacing Tony Abbott in the seat of Warringah in 2019.
Hume is a large seat, spreading from Bowral and Mittagong, near the edges of Sydney, to Goulburn, directly north of Canberra, and south-west of Sydney. It contains 'tree-changers' as well as National voters. and Community Voice for Hume. Grassroots organisation Vote Angus Out was searching for an independent, due to Taylor's continued record of voting against climate change, supporting the fossil fuel industry. fracking, corruption scandals involving a letter to the Sydney Lord Mayor with inaccuracies, as well as voting against increasing the aged pension. similar to the values of Climate 200. Voices of Hume kitchen table discussions reported that constituents wanted more protection for the environment and fewer years of inaction.<ref name=":2" />

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