TV supremo, Atlassian CEO and Adore Beauty founder among Climate 200’s top donors

A top Aussie TV producer, software squillionaires and a beauty entrepreneur are among Climate 200’s top donors, new election disclosures reveal. See who powered the teal political wave here. 

The man behind TV hits A Country Practice, Blue Heelers and global phenomenon NCIS can be revealed as one of the key donors to the Climate 200 political movement.

Today, for the first time, The Daily Telegraph is able to name every person who donated $100,000 or more to the group that swept away inner-city Morrison government MPs and replaced them with teal independents.

Using new Australian Electoral Commission disclosure documents, The Telegraph has established that a major supporter of Climate 200 is writer and producer Shane Brennan, who was also involved in Flying Doctors, McLeod’s Daughters and CSI: Miami.

Mr Brennan is a noted philanthropist, but most of his prior giving is understood to have been to the arts.

That said, he decided to give a total of $325,000 to Climate 200 last financial year.

Mr Brennan did not respond to requests for comment.

Acclaimed TV writer and producer Shane Brennan. Picture: CBS Broadcasting

The top donor to Climate 200, according to the AEC records, was the less well-known Atlassian co-founder, Sydney-based Scott Farquhar, who injected $1.5m.

Sydney share trader and medical marijuana investor Rob Keldoulis pumped nearly $1.3m into Climate 200.

When Mr Keldoulis’s $600,000 or so in direct contributions to teal candidates is included, he gave more than Mr Farquhar to the climate independents’ collective cause.

The other Atlassian co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, put up more than $1.1m for Climate 200.

Sydney’s Nick Fairfax, whose family made its fortune in newspapers, contributed $100,000.

Another name not previously known to be connected to Climate 200 is Kate Morris, the Melbourne-based co-founder of the sharemarket-listed Adore Beauty. Ms Morris also donated $100,000.

Kate Morris gave generously to the teal cause. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Little-known retired engineer and IT specialist Rob Sloan, of Melbourne, gave $120,000.

“I’ve never donated to a political party before,” Mr Sloan told The Telegraph. “But I was so disgusted with the last ten years of government. I saw the teal independents as a very good way of getting some real change happening.”

Mr Sloan said it was “too early to tell” whether the teals would deliver real change.

“The new Labor government has taken some wind out of their sails,” he said, by adopting teal-like positions on issues such as carbon emissions reduction.

The AEC disclosures show Climate 200 gave new North Sydney MP Kylea Tink $722,000 while Mackellar victor Sophie Scamps was furnished with $690,000; Wentworth winner Allegra Spender received $702,000. All three ousted moderate Morrison government MPs. Climate 200 did not give one dollar to a candidate standing against a Labor member.

With Climate 200’s help, Kylea Tink beat Liberal Trent Zimmerman to win North Sydney. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

All up, Climate 200 brought in more than $8m from donors. A feature of its fundraising was a series of matching donation drives, where wealthy individuals agreed to fork over as much as $2 for every dollar in new gifts from smaller donors.

Ms Tink also received $99,000 directly from Mr Keldoulis’s private company, which gave $80,000 straight to the Spender campaign as well. Ms Spender’s bid was further boosted by a $100,000 direct donation from Bondi-based venture capitalist James Taylor, who separately poured $500,000 into Climate 200.

The AEC disclosures show Labor raised more in donations in 2021-22 than any other party – about $124m.

Mike Cannon-Brookes (left) and fellow Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar gave $2.6m. Picture: News Corp Australia

The Coalition also generated $117m, of which $106m was given to the Liberals.

Clive Palmer funnelled $117m into the United Australia Party, for no result.

Mr Palmer was by far the biggest donor, via his company Mineralogy.

Next was fellow billionaire Anthony Pratt, owner of Visy. He gave $3.9m, split evenly between Labor and the Coalition.

The largest total donation from the labour movement was that of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, which contributed over $1.4m. While most of that went to the ALP, hundreds of thousands of dollars of CEPU money was given to the Greens.