Wentworth independent candidate Allegra Spender’s close links to GetUp revealed
A Wentworth candidate has denied links to GetUp despite revelations her key backers are also major donors of the progressive group.
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Wentworth MP Dave Sharma has said that independent challenger Allegra Spender should be more transparent about where her funding and support comes from amid revelations her biggest backer and at least one campaign worker are connected to the progressive activist group GetUp.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Ms Spender’s key backers are also major donors to GetUp, and that at least one of her campaign’s workers also has close ties to the group.
According to Australian Electoral Commission records the co-leaders of Wentworth Independents, Woollahra couple Daniel and Lyndell Droga, gave $20,000 to GetUp in the 2018-19 election cycle.
Last November the Drogas, who are also understood to be major backers of Ms Spender’s campaign, officially launched her effort to evict Liberal MP Dave Sharma from the House of Representatives.
Additionally, at least one worker on the Climate 200-backed Spender campaign is closely tied to GetUp, with community liaison worker Tracey Hamilton also describing herself in correspondence seen by this newspaper as part of “GetUp’s Sydney East Climate Justice Group”.
Photos have also emerged of a woman who appears to be Ms Hamilton campaigning against the Adani coal mine in 2019, and more recently on Instagram with Ms Spender handing out flyers to locals in Edgecliff.
In 2019, the activist group campaigned against a “hit list” of conservative MPs, echoing concerns that this year’s crop of independent candidates are simply Trojan horses for Labor.
Additionally, while the treatment of women in politics is a key issue for independent candidates this year, GetUp has attracted controversy for some of its members’ alleged treatment of female conservatives including outgoing South Australian MP Nicolle Flint.
“The fact that Climate 200 is only supporting candidates in coalition-held seats, and now the involvement of GetUp in the campaign, shows pretty clearly that this is not an independent candidate, but an anti-coalition candidate,” said Mr Sharma.
“The main financial backer of Spender is a substantial GetUp donor, while her community co-ordinator is a GetUp office bearer.”
“Surely integrity, one of the claims of these independents, requires you to tell the public who your backers are, and which party you would support in parliament?”
“But these independents go to great lengths to obscure these links and hide their true nature from the public. Now we know why,” he said.
When asked about the connections between her supporters and GetUp, Allegra Spender told The Daily Telegraph that she is “running a community-based campaign staffed by volunteers drawn from across the Wentworth community.”
“Some of are volunteers are former Liberal Party members while others have previously volunteered with community advocacy organisations such as GetUp.”
“I’ve had no interaction with GetUp and it is my understanding they are not campaigning in the seat,” she said.
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