“I’m a strong candidate and I can give people a choice,” she said after her candidature was announced in Wangaratta yesterday.

“For me that’s really important, that the people of Indi have a choice — that’s what they’ve been asking for.”

Ms McGowan said the obvious intention was to either take Indi from sitting Liberal member Sophie Mirabella or at least turn it into a marginal seat.

“I do watch with interest what goes on in the marginal seats of Bendigo and Ballarat,” she said.

“They get a lot more attention than we get.”

Almost 200 people were at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre yesterday for the announcement.

The group also launched its Voice for Indi Report that was prepared following its “kitchen table conversations” involving 425 people from across the electorate.

The aim of the process was to develop a platform for improved political representation in the electorate.

Group spokesman Tony Lane said people were keen to see the final report.

“It made a really strong emphasis on the sense of community and why people like living in Indi, which is for its natural beauty, townships and its communities,” he said.

Ms McGowan said young people who spoke as part of the process thought she could make “a big difference” as the member for Indi.

Mrs Mirabella welcomed Ms McGowan’s decision to contest Indi.

“I particularly look forward to the honesty of the preference intentions of all supposedly non-affiliated candidates,” she said.

Mrs Mirabella said it appeared the intention of Voice for Indi was to use it as a front for an anti-Liberal candidate.

“Cathy McGowan came to see me several months ago to brief me on a so-called community project where she wanted to involve locals in discussing local political priorities and that she would get back to me at the conclusion of the so-called ‘kitchen table discussions’ to inform me of the policy outcomes and to seek my support for such proposals,” she said.

“No such de-briefing has materialised.”

Ms McGowan insisted she was not aligned to any political party.

“I’m running as an independent — I’m not a Liberal, I’m not Labor, I’m not a Nat and I’m not a Green,” she said.

“The choice I’m going to offer people is a choice for Indi where all the other choices are for parties.”