Revealed: Teal independent MPs funded by oil and gas millionaires

Environmentally-conscious independent MPs are facing hypocrisy claims after revelations their election cash from the Climate 200 war chest originally came via donors with ties to the oil and gas industries.

The Climate 200 federal election-funding juggernaut is facing allegations of hypocrisy for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors who made their wealth off the oil and gas industries.

The donations which gave the Climate 200-aligned ‘Teal’ MPs a $6 million war chest have come to light following the Australian Electoral Commission’s disclosures being published this week.

Among them is private company Keep Them Honest – which donated $100,000 to Climate 200 and a further $170,000 to Teal candidates for the 2022 election – helmed by Darling Point couple Fred Woollard and Therese Cochrane.

But the pair also hold senior roles with Samuel Terry Asset Management, which Mr Woollard co-founded and directs, while Ms Cochrane is listed as general manager.

Last month the investment firm’s yearly report boasted its oil holdings were the “largest positive contributors to our returns”, highlighting the performance of multinational oil producer Horizon Oil.

Keep Them Honest’s Fred Woollard and

Therese Cochrane donated $270K towards Climate 200 and the Teals.

The report also backed a heavy investment in the sector in recent years by the company, stating “the one sector of the market we continue to regard as generally attractive is the oil industry”.

“We aggressively allocated to this sector in 2020 and have been rewarded to date,” it said.

The pair’s Keep Them Honest company is registered to their ritzy Darling Point home, which was purchased for $13.2 million in 2020.

Mr Woollard declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.

The details surrounding donations from individuals who forged their wealth by investing in the oil and gas industries despite Climate 200’s heavily-promoted renewable energy platform have drawn fierce criticism from both sitting and former federal members.

Dave Sharma, the previous Wentworth MP ousted in the Teal wave by Allegra Spender earlier this year off the back of her $1.9m in donations, accused the funding group of “greenwashing” the election.

Former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma.

“Multi-millionaires and harbourside mansion residents played an outsized role in this last election, as revealed by AEC records,” Mr Sharma said.

“When money is buying political influence and seeking to influence political outcomes, ordinary voters are right to be concerned about what it means for our democracy, and the principle of ‘one person, one vote’.”

“The hypocrisy of people who have made their wealth from investing in fossil fuels, and whose carbon emissions are many times larger than the national average, spending money to support climate change candidates is plain for all to see. It’s a form of greenwashing.”

Coalition MPs Hollie Hughes and Matt Canavan also lashed the wave of donations.

Senator for New South Wales Hollie Hughes.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan.

“It’s become increasingly apparent that if the Teals didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all,” Ms Hughes said, while Mr Canavan also lashed the revelations.

“If only we could bottle the hypocrisy from the Teals and turn into electricity, climate change would be solved overnight. There seems to be an infinite and renewable supply of hypocrisy,” he said.

Other major donors included William Taylor Nominees, helmed by Bondi-based venture capital investor James Taylor, which splashed out $500,000 in donations to Climate 200, as well as another $170,000 to Teal candidates Allegra Spender and Sophie Scamps.

The company was a top 20 shareholder in ASX-listed oil and gas company Otto Energy until at least 2011, as well as oil producer Winchester Energy until at least 2017.

The company also has a long background in investment in other mining and resources companies, including being a top 20 shareholder in Indophil Resources – an Asian copper and gold explorer – in 2011, while it has also previously held shares in oil and gas company Sundance Energy (2018) and AusTex Oil (2016).

William Taylor Nominees has previously held shares in oil and gas including with Sundance Energy.

Requests for comment to James Taylor were directed to Climate 200.

Simon Holmes à Court, the convener of Climate 200 who personally splashed hundreds of thousands on the federal election campaign, backed the donors who helped elect the largest crossbench in federal government history.

“Our 11,200 donors enabled us to support community independents committed to real action on climate change, restoring integrity to politics and advancing respect and safety for women,” he said.

Teal MPs Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender and Kylea Tink didn’t respond to requests for comment before deadline.

Originally published as Revealed: Teal independent MPs funded by oil and gas millionaires