"but I'd still rather the Indie had got up myself"
....is unambiguous. You'd have preferred the independent to win. Hence my enquiry. You either didn't look at him and 'wanted him to win' based solely on his independence, or you liked (among other things) his stance against vaccine mandates and unscrutinised indigenous funding. Take your pick, but at least own it.
Regarding the absence of those two minor parties, I'm not privy to the internal machinations of either, but there are three main reasons they didn't run and they're all kinda related. Firstly, the two major parties were going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at it, making it hard for minor parties to compete on a level playing field. Secondly, with the majors likely putting downward pressure on their vote, those two minors probably wouldn't have reached 4% and would have blown their expenditure only a year out from a general election.
Thirdly, with the general being only a year away, a poor performance from these two minors would stand a high chance of affecting their preference flows next year. Frankly, these three reasons are enough just by themselves to make it a good decision not to run a candidate.
By the by, your bloke Darren Bergwerf made 4.8% on primary so he gets a wad of cash from the AEC, as much as he spent at the least. A nice nestegg to kick off his funding round for election '25
