'My ambition is much bigger': David Pocock unveils his new political vision

ACT independent senator David Pocock wants a coalition of community independents to form a minority government in what he argues would deliver "a more representative democracy."

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"I want to be part of building a political system that actually delivers for Australians," Senator Pocock told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

"I see an opportunity at the next election for a new kind of community political collective."

He was not suggesting he wanted to be prime minister, Senator Pocock said, adding to laughter and applause from supporters in the room: "My ambition is much bigger."

It was "time for the Australian people to take their power back," the high-profile senator said.

David Pocock doesn't want to be PM, really. Picture by Keegan Carroll

He pointed to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden which currently have minority governments "cobbled together, and it seems like on almost every metric they do pretty well up there."

"It could provide a bit more stability if it was slightly more complicated and harder for governments to negotiate," Senator Pocock said.

Asked how such an approach would unite the personalities and priorities across the independents movement, the former Wallabies captain - who has opted not to join the Community Strong Australia party founded by Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender - said there was a common direction.

"There's always going to be differences, and I think that's really healthy ... It's finding those common things that everyone can get behind," he said.

"On things like integrity, lobbying, longer term decision making, independents are really working together."

Senator Pocock acknowledged that, "as some of my colleagues like to point out - I've never been in the executive and don't know what it is like to be in government."

Did this mean he was prepared to disappoint constituents if, in a hypothetical minority government, he was unable to deliver Canberrans' pleas for infrastructure funding - such as for a much-needed new stadium or faster train journeys?

"Governing is obviously hard. I acknowledge that there's always going to be trade-offs," he said.

But, he argued, better decisions would be made if government was free of influence from vested interests.

"The number-one priority for people in Canberra is going to be different to people in a regional city or elsewhere," Senator Pocock said.

"I don't [know] exactly what it would look like, but I think there's some very solid asks that people would all get behind."

Asked if he was considering a move to the lower house, he said the Senate remained "where I'm focused at the moment."

While Greens leader David Shoebridge has said the minor party wants to displace Labor, Senator Pocock said: "I don't want to replace a political party. I want to be help build a system that actually works for us .... Where, regardless of who's in there, we have the structures in place where Parliament is forced to make better long-term decisions."

He said voters - including those who handed a seat to One Nation's David Farley at the Farrer byelection - were fed up with the status quo.

Instead of parking a protest vote with the populist far-right party, Senator Pocock said, the 2028 federal election would be an opportunity to send a signal to the major parties while backing a local candidate who "is going to to work for them."

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