$9m coffer: Climate 200’s bold call ahead of first test
After Allegra Spender debated Dave Sharma, the head of Climate 200 has made a bold prediction about the success of the group’s candidates.
Federal Election
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Climate 200’s convener Simon Holmes a Court said at least seven candidates supported by the group were “on a trajectory to win” on May 21, but the funding has left the political hopefuls fighting accusations they are an organised party.
“We don’t start campaigns, we don’t choose candidates, we wait until good campaigns come to us and we evaluate them,” Mr Holmes a Court said.
Some 10,000 Australians have donated around $9 million to Climate 200 so far, with the organisation partly funding 22 candidates in both House and Senate races, at differing amounts. The campaigns are largely centred on NSW and Victoria, with very few in other states – and none at all in Queensland or the Northern Territory.
BATTLE FOR WENTWORTH
One of the key Climate 200 races is in the eastern Sydney seat of Wentworth, where Allegra Spender is taking on Liberal Dave Sharma.
The daughter of Australian fashion icon Carla Zampatti, who died in 2021, and the former Liberal MP John Spender, Allegra Spender grew up in Wentworth and has a background in business and renewable energy.
Mr Sharma is Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, and first contested the seat at the by-election in 2018, when sitting member and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull retired.
Mr Sharma lost that contest to independent candidate Dr Kerryn Phelps, who swept to victory on a climate-friendly platform and a wave of support from traditional Liberal supporters who were angered by the party’s treatment of Mr Turnbull.
Dr Phelps’ victory was historic: she was the first woman to win the seat since Federation, and the first candidate not to represent a conservative party. But her tenure in parliament would be brief, with Mr Sharma winning the seat back for the Liberals at the 2019 election.
Ms Spender is running on a policy platform that is shared by the Climate 200 candidates: more action on climate change; the establishment of a national integrity commission; and greater respect for women.
Wentworth is a unique electorate – one of Australia’s wealthiest, it is also home to large Jewish and LGBTI communities, and polling shows climate change is a key issue for voters.
It is one of several Sydney seats where a Climate 200-backed candidate is expected to be competitive, along with North Sydney and Mackellar.
KEY SEATS FOR CLIMATE CAMPAIGN
Kylea Tink said donations from Climate 200 were around 35 per cent of the $1.1 million she had raised for her quest to unseat Liberal Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.
Dr Monique Ryan, taking on Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong, said the group had provided “less than a third” of the $1.2 million raised for her campaign.
And Jo Dyer, contesting the marginal seat of Boothby vacated by Liberal Nicolle Flint, said she had received $20,000 from Climate 200.
Mr Holmes a Court said seven candidates supported by Climate 200 “are within spitting distance of a win,” including former Wallaby David Pocock in his campaign to win an ACT Senate seat, but other independent candidates would “take safe seats marginal”.
The blue ribbon seat of Kooyong was a case in point, Mr Holmes a Court said, with Mr Frydenberg experiencing a big swing against him in the 2019 election.
“An independent [Oliver Yates, former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation] played a very big role in that, taking the seat to preferences for the first time in a generation,” Mr Holmes a Court said. “The independent didn’t win, but he opened people’s minds to an independent in this seat.”
Ms Dyer said for independents and small parties alike, “the hardest thing in the world is to get elected in the first place”.
“You have to persuade an electorate that having an independent isn’t a waste of time, as they have been told for so long,” she said. “But what we see is that once an independent has been elected, the communities tend to embrace them and back them in for the duration.”
IF THEY WIN
Ms Dyer said the Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie, The Greens’ Adam Bandt, and existing independents would all retain their seats at the May 21 election, and the addition of just three more independents would be “transformational”.
The prospect that a newly-elected cohort of independents backed by Climate 200 could effectively decide who governs Australia has led to furious demands the candidates reveal whom they would back in such a circumstance.
Most of the Climate 200-backed candidates have refused to say whom they would support, although Ms Dyer was a notable exception.
“I’m not keeping my powder completely dry there because I believe this is one of the worst governments that we’ve ever had,” she said. “I think it’s disingenuous to run on a platform of urgent climate action and the absolute necessity of the immediate establishment of a robust national integrity commission and say both parties are potentially equal in that.”
Asked what relationship Climate 200 would have with the independent candidates if they were successful in their campaigns, Mr Holmes a Court was succinct in his reply.
“Simple answer: no relationship,” he said.
Even if a Climate-200 backed candidate compromised on core issues once getting to Canberra, the organisation would be powerless to stop them, he said.
Dr Ryan said if successful in Kooyong, and faced with the prospect of a hung parliament, she would negotiate with the major parties “as an individual, not as part of a group”.
“I think the other independents would do the same. Yeah we have a shared commitment to action on climate change and a strong federal ICAC, but I wouldn’t be negotiating as part of a cohort, I would be doing that on my own and on behalf of the people of Kooyong,” she said.
KYLEA TINK: NORTH SYDNEY
“I’m not a Climate 200 candidate, I’m an independent,” a polite but direct Kylea Tink emphasised. The communications expert and mum of three said she immediately agreed to run for the seat of North Sydney when asked by a local community group because of longstanding frustration with the federal parliaments’ inability to deliver action on climate change.
“Our voice has been completely suppressed or ignored at the federal level. We’ve been very much taken for granted,” she said.
Ms Tink said if elected she would push for Australia to adopt more ambitious 2030 targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. While the Liberals have stuck with 26-28 per cent and Labor have opted for 40-45 per cent, Ms Tink said Australia should aim for a 60 per cent target.
Action on fuel emissions standards would be another priority, she said.
“Australians are driving some the least efficient cars running on some of the dirtiest petrol in the world and we’re the only country outside Saudi Arabia in the OECD that does not have vehicle emissions standards. As a consequence we are becoming a dumping ground for highly inefficient vehicles,” Ms Tink said.
Australia could not afford another parliamentary term ignoring the realities of climate change, she added.
“You only have to see the first four months of year to know climate change isn’t coming, it’s here,” she said. “There’s no more time to kick this down the road.”
DR MONIQUE RYAN: KOOYONG
The seat of Kooyong has been earmarked as one of the seats most likely to fall to an independent at this federal election, but Dr Monique Ryan knows the task of defeating Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in the blue ribbon seat will not be easy.
“It’s going to be very close,” she said. “Clearly it will be a two horse race between Mr Frydenberg and me. I don’t know how it’s going to go but it’s going to be extremely close. We have a saying on this campaign: we chop wood and we carry water and we try and get 500 votes every day, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court – himself a voter in Kooyong – said Dr Ryan was running an “amazing” campaign.
“Monique had 500 volunteers before she even announced her campaign. Last week her team had 200 doorknockers out. They’ve passed 10,000 doors knocked, and her polling is really good,” he said.
Dr Ryan said she was “very grateful to Mr Morrison for this prolonged election campaign”.
“It’s giving me more and more days to meet with people from the electorate and hear what they care about,” she said. “We’re the David, versus the behemoth of the Liberal Party, and an incumbent who is throwing every single penny he can at the seat of Kooyong. It’s a study in contrasts.”
JO DYER: BOOTHBY
Accusations that Climate 200 independents are a political party in their own right are part of a “concerted campaign” by a government on the run, said the independent candidate for Boothby, Jo Dyer.
“It’s a line being pushed by the government because they are absolutely terrified that they are going to lose some seats in their heartland – and they will lose their seats, because they have failed to take action on some of the issues that are most critical to the people in those electorates,” she said. “They’ve moved further to the right, and they have disenfranchised a whole swath of people who previously were supporters of theirs.”
The articulate former director of Adelaide Writers’ Week said running as an independent was “no longer one of those slightly quixotic if not eccentric solo journeys on which people embark”.
“There is a sense that there is a movement emerging, and that is a movement that has been born out of the deficiencies of the major parties,” Ms Dyer said.
While Boothby is the most marginal of the South Australian electorates, Ms Dyer said winning was “still a mountain to climb”.
“But we are out there every day and there is enthusiasm both for my candidacy, and the idea of a different way of doing politics,” she said. “A long campaign is a friend in that regard, and we expect to be competitive on election day.”
CAMPAIGNS THAT CLIMATE 200 IS BACKING
NEW SOUTH WALES
Bradfield (held by Paul Fletcher for the Liberals) – Nicolette Boele
Calare (held by Andrew Gee for the Nationals) – Kate Hook
Cowper (held by Pat Conaghan for the Nationals) – Caz Heise
Hughes (held by Craig Kelly for the United Australia Party) – Georgia Steele
Mackellar (held by Jason Falinski for the Liberals) – Dr Sophie Scamps
North Sydney (held by Trent Zimmerman for the Liberals) – Kylea Tink
Page (held by Kevin Hogan for the Nationals) – Hanabeth Luke
Warringah (held by independent Zali Steggall) – Zali Steggall
Wentworth (held by Dave Sharma for the Liberals) – Allegra Spender
VICTORIA
Casey (held by the Liberals, but with sitting member Tony Smith retiring) – Claire Ferres Miles
Flinders (held by the Liberals, but with sitting member Greg Hunt retiring) – Despi O’Connor
Goldstein (held by Tim Wilson for the Liberals) – Zoe Daniel
Indi (held by independent Helen Haines since 2019) – Helen Haines
Kooyong (held by Josh Frydenberg for the Liberals) – Dr Monique Ryan
Wannon (held by Dan Tehan for the Liberals) – Alex Dyson
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Boothby (held by the Liberals, but with sitting member Nicolle Flint retiring) – Jo Dyer
Mayo (held by Rebekha Sharkie of the Centre Alliance since 2016) – Rebekha Sharkie
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Curtin (held by Celia Hammond for the Liberals) – Kate Chaney
TASMANIA
Clark (held – with redistributions and renamings by independent Andrew Wilkie since 2010) – Andrew Wilkie
Senate seat – Leanne Minshull
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Senate seat – David Pocock and Kim Rubenstein
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