Gabrielle Chan learns and writes about people being "Rusted Off"

Gabrielle Chan is a political reporter with The Guardian, an author and was in Shepparton today.

Author Gabrielle Chan.

She was in the city to talk about her new book: “Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up”.

Gabrielle who’s been a city girl all her life had no desire or intention of going to the country, but then she fell in love with a farmer and moved to the small southern New South Wales town of Harden.

She sensed there was something happend and wondered why country people were so fed up with politics, and why formerly rusted-on voters were fleeing major political parties in greater numbers than their city counterparts?

Puzzled by what she could see, Gabrielle talked with people on the street, researched this developing dynamic and wrote the book she discussed today.

Former Shepparton Mayor, Anne McCamish was the  MC, she had read the book, asked Gabrielle some wide-ranging questions and then offered the 40 or so people the chance to quiz the author.