Carla Zampatti’s daughter Allegra Spender takes on Wentworth seat

Fashion giant Carla Zampatti passed away before her daughter announced her tilt at parliament. But she says she knows her mum would’ve approved – although there’s one thing she’d have tried to change....

Late fashion designer Carla Zampatti was gone before her daughter made the surprising decision to run for politics.

But there’s a very special reason why Allegra Spender knows she has her mum’s blessing.

She said: “If any woman ever said, ‘should I do this?’ Mum would say, ‘yes, go on – do it!’ She loved to see women taking leadership opportunities and putting their hands up so I know she would have been 100 per cent behind me.”

Just like her mother, a fashion powerhouse who established one of Australia’s best loved labels, Ms Spender has always been a woman of great accomplishment.

Allegra Spender and her mum Carla Zampatti.

She served as managing director of the family business followed by a stint as chairwoman of the Sydney Renewable Power Company and her current job is CEO of ABCN which creates educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.

With so many strong women in their family, Ms Spender’s two little girls were gobsmacked when they learned how few females were leading our country.

“I was talking to my own daughters, they’re nine and seven, about politics and they said, ‘what, only one prime minister has been a woman?’ It was really shocking to them,” Ms Spender said.

Allegra Spender’s daughters were shocked by the lack of female politicians.

The Darling Point independent candidate for Wentworth said while her family were all surprised she ended up following in her father and grandfather’s political footsteps, she has no doubt her mum would have approved.

While climate change is Ms Spender’s primary driver, as a lifelong resident of the electorate she said she is also well versed and passionate about many local issues.

This includes the ongoing bid to secure a second public high school for the electorate, which she told the Wentworth Courier she passionately supports.

“While it’s a state issue, it’s an important opportunity to work together across government to understand what are the barriers and how do we make this happen,” Ms Spender said.

“I’ve followed this issue very closely myself and I think it’s really important.

“In my role as CEO of an organisation that works with low socio economic high schools I know how important public education is to the community.”

Ms Spender said with Wentworth leading the way in the uptake of electric vehicles she was passionate about building on that momentum.

The Spender/Zampatti women are an unstoppable force.

“People are frustrated by a lack of choice and that is driven by a bunch of issues wrapped up in federal policy,” Ms Spender said.

“My policy would be, how do we get the best range of electric vehicles in Wentworth and around the country and how do we get infrastructure to support that.”

Ms Spender also decried the opportunities being denied to the entrepreneurs of Wentworth in the green economy.

“I am really interested in Australia taking advantage of the economic opportunities of decarbonisation,” Ms Spender said.

“ I feel very frustrated at the moment there is not that federal oversight that’s ambitious enough or will allow us to access the opportunities of decarbonisation.”

Although she knows her mother would have backed her campaign, Ms Spender said there is one aspect she would have frowned upon.

“She would be telling me, ‘Allegra your hair looks terrible’. She was always having a go at me about my hair, she wasn’t superficial but she felt that it was important,” Ms Spender laughed.