Australian Idol star and Warringah candidate James Mathison makes $25k on Federal Election loss

Former Australian Idol star and Warringah candidate James Mathison made $25,000 off the Federal Election , despite losing — and he has big plans for what he will do with the money.

Independent Warringah candidate James Mathison took $25,000 from the election.

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JAMES Mathison has been the big winner among northern beaches independent candidates at the July 2 Federal Election, earning a $25,712.64 payment for his campaign.

Mr Mathison, who campaigned against Tony Abbott in Warringah, was paid by the Australian Electoral Commission on Wednesday. It was the seventh highest payout for an independent in Australia.

Mr Mathison said he would use the cash to challenge the former prime minister at the 2019 election.

“I had no idea that you even got that sort of funding,” he said.

Mr Mathison said his campaign costs came to $15,000 — which was funded by a Pozzible campaign. It was dwarfed by the major parties.

“It is part of the struggle for independents, competing against these cashed up major parties,” he said.

Mathison went head-to-head with Tony Abbott Picture Gary Ramage

Osher Gunsberg with James Mathison at Curl Curl North Public School on election day.

“We had Malcolm Turnbull and the robo-calls and text messages and individual letters to every house in individual electorates. Here we had the Tony Abbott motor scooters ... Just those little motorcycles alone would have cost more than our whole campaign.”

Two Mackellar candidates, Jim Ball and Julie Hegarty, also received windfalls.

Mr Ball, a former radio host, received the ninth highest return of $17,645.66.

Ms Hegarty, a former Pittwater councillor, was 16th on the list, earning $11,706.74.

Payment is made available by the commission to even out the playing field, allowing people other than the big parties to contest seats. Mr Ball came fourth behind the major parties, with more than 7 per cent of first preference votes.

However, he said the money he received from the AEC was about half his campaign costs.

“I wouldn’t want people to think that I am going to carve out a new career in political campaigning,” Mr Ball said.

“I am not quite like Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor.”

Calls were made to Ms Hegarty, but she is yet to respond.

Mr Mathison said he believed the funding was important for people wanting to compete with the major parties.

“I think a lot of people are saying it shouldn’t exist, but how are you going to get the opportunity break up that two-party system if you have no access to the funds?” he said.

“It means that the Clive Palmers of the world are the only ones who can challenge — it makes it completely unrealistic for anyone else.”

Independent candidate for Mackellar Julie Hegarty. Picture: Braden Fastier

However, he indicated there should be transparency around how the money is spent.

“Pauline Hanson made over $1 million on a pretty xenophobic message,” he said.

“If we are going to see that sort of taxpayer money spent on a pretty simplistic xenophobic message, we need to have a bit of accountability on where is that money going.”

The Liberal Party received the most money from the AEC, raking in about $23.5 million. Labor received about $22.4 million.

The Greens received more than $6 million.

Mackellar candidate Jim Ball.

Funding entitlements are calculated using an indexed sum per first preference vote.

At the 2016 Federal Election, each first preference vote was worth 262.784 cents.

An AEC spokesman said a “candidate or Senate group is eligible for election funding if they obtain at least 4 per cent of the first preference vote in the division or the state or territory they contested”.