The group organised a two-day forum on ethics and democracy to teach people in the electorate how to best engage in politics.

More than 100 people attended a meeting at Swanpool Memorial Hall on Saturday before 140 showed up at Yackandandah Public Hall yesterday.

Guest speakers included St James Ethics Centre executive director Simon Longstaff and former federal independent Tony Windsor.

Mr Windsor said it only took one individual to influence the outcome of politics.

“The catchphrase I always use is ‘the world is run by those who turn up’, so if you turn up and get involved and have logical arguments, eventually those issues will come to the top,” he said.

“There are ways and means for everybody to make a contribution and I sense in this area from the last year or so the people want to be part of what happens rather than wait to see what happens.”

Voices 4 Indi president Alana Johnson said the group started planning the forum last December when it asked people from the electorate what they wanted.

“Voices 4 Indi is here for the long term,” she said.

“It’s not about a campaign and it’s not about a particular person, it’s about building democracy in our electorate.”

Dr Longstaff said it was all about citizens reclaiming authority.

“What is happening at this event is quite remarkable when you think about it in a national context, because there are not too many places in Australia where a group of citizens will give up a perfectly sunny spring day to talk about the quality of democracy in their society,” he said.

“We’ve been focusing on going back to grassroots in terms of democracy being a system where the authority ultimately comes from citizens.”