Brett Wheaton remembers the exact moment he lost trust in the political process.
Over the past eight years, he and other members of the steering committee for Nhill and District Sporting Club put hundreds of hours of work into a federal grant application to try to get the town's main sports oval, Davis Park, a new grandstand.
"We were 82 points out of 100, so we were very high on the list, and when the minimum was 74 points, we more than qualified," Mr Wheaton says.
But when the project missed out on funding to others with less merit in the so-called sports rorts scandal of 2020, he says he and the community in the safe Nationals seat were "gutted".
A farmer by trade, Mr Wheaton says his club lost trust in the political process following the sports rorts saga.
"If you don't trust, you don't vote," he says.
Do we need to trust our politicians to vote for them?
At this election, several independent candidates for regional Victorian seats are running on platforms of greater transparency in government, turning trust into a key election issue.
However, it's not as simple as blindly trusting a politician, says Alana Johnson, one of the founding members of the Voices for Indi movement.
The group is best known for supporting the election of independents Cathy McGowan and Helen Haines at the past three federal elections.
Ms Johnson believes being informed about how politics works is key to people having confidence in democracy.
"I think trust is one of those things that comes from a position of being disempowered," she says.
"If you put your trust in something, it's like saying, 'I don't know what's going on, and I don't have enough resources or knowledge to know about this, and therefore I'm going to trust that you are going to look after me'.
Ms Johnson says there has been a "transformation" in people's faith in the system in Indi since the Voices campaign began, and in how they view their relationship with politics and democracy.
She believes this can be replicated regardless of whether a seat's MP belongs to a major party or a minor party or is independent.
"Instead of going to the MP to say, 'What are you going to do about this?', the local people came together and said, 'This isn't going to work for our community, we know what we need here, let's get the people in the know together'.
Since Indi, 'Voices' movements have also been initiated in Mallee, Nicholls, Wannon, Monash and Corangamite in regional Victoria, but not all have officially endorsed candidates at this election.
Are independents the answer?
Australian National University marketing lecturer Andrew Hughes, whose research includes political and non-profit marketing, says trust arguably matters more in regional areas when it comes to politics.
"When candidates run, particularly if they run on a 'I'm one of you' or 'Voices of…' campaign, there is an added sense of betrayal because you're meant to be one of us: 'I know you, I know your family', or 'You've been in parliament for 10 years, why haven't you done anything?'
"We've noticed that recently in the seat of Hinkler in Queensland, where an independent Jack Dempsey is running against [cabinet minister] Keith Pitt, who holds that seat, and one of the reasons Dempsey gave [for running] is people said to him they felt neglected."
But Dr Hughes says restoring trust is not as simple as removing major parties.
"We see people getting elected on platforms saying, 'I'm going to keep everyone honest and stand up for what's right', [but] it's very rare you see an independent getting outcomes for themselves or their electorate," he says.
"There are some exceptions: Helen Haines and Cathy McGowan tend to say they will stand up for what they believe in … but at the same time it doesn't mean every single issue you go to [independents] with that they will think, 'OK, that's something I should be worried about'."
Not everyone wants to reinvent the wheel
In the northern Victorian town of Lockington, in the Nicholls electorate, dairy farmer Ron Reed has been an almost lifelong Nationals supporter.
He says his trust for the party stems from the fact its candidates are often farmers or from farming backgrounds.
"The only members of parliament that really understand country areas and farming are people who are brought up in those areas, like a lot of the National party members, and a few of the Liberals," he says.
At least two regional independent candidates, Nicholls' Rob Priestly and Mallee's Sophie Baldwin, are from farming backgrounds.
But Mr Reed says this alone is not enough for him to trust them as his MP.
"The problem is they dilute the vote for conservatives, and they haven't got the same clout or party structure to try and get some things done," he says.
"They are very decent people, a lot of them, but they would be better off being the local National Party candidate."
