Teal MP Allegra Spender distances herself from ‘covertly powerful’ Simon Holmes a Court

Allegra Spender’s swipe is likely to ignite speculation over whether she might join forces with a future Liberal minority government in the event of a hung federal parliament.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender has sensationally distanced herself from teal powerbroker Simon Holmes a Court, confirming that she asked a major newspaper to drop him from a list of “covertly powerful” Australians.

“I had heard that Simon Holmes a Court was on the ‘covert power’ list and I have a problem with this idea that women like myself get here and there is someone covertly hiding behind us pulling all the strings,” Spender told the National Press Club Wednesday, in response to a question from Sky News journalist Tom Connell.

“I am a woman in my middle age, I have spent 10 or 15 years running companies, I have three kids.”

Allegra Spender, independent member for Wentworth, addressed the National Press Club in Canberra today. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“This continual insinuation that somebody out there is pulling the strings I think is insulting to me and it is insulting to women around Australia who are saying we make up our own minds.”

The exchange took place in a question and answer session after Spender’s address in which she made a strong plea for economic reform.

“We need to simplify doing business, we need to ramp up innovation, we need to make our tax dollars deliver and we need to reform our tax system,” she said.

“None of this is easy but it is all necessary.”

Spender was one of a number of so-called teal independents who came to power in the 2022 election with the backing of Holmes a Court and his startup Climate 200 campaign organisation, taking the blue ribbon seat off Liberal MP Dave Sharma.

Ms Spender was troubled by Mr Simon Holmes àCourt’s appearance on a ‘covert power’ list.

However the swipe is also likely to ignite speculation over whether Spender might join forces with a future Liberal minority government.

Asked repeatedly after her speech about her plans in the event of a hung parliament at the next election, Spender would not be drawn but said “there could be a scenario where there is (between) 65 and 75 (seats) ... that would be a different scenario to where the major parties are within a seat or two. Then it is a negotiation and that matters.”

Despite confirming her push to have her former backer axed from the list, the AFR still included Holmes a Court on the list, posing with his beagle and wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the slogan, “Elect More Women”.

The paper justified his inclusion “given the success of his Climate 200 initiative, which collected $13 million for community-backed teal candidates at the last federal election,” as well as “the campaign infrastructure he’s setting up for the next one.”

Mr Holmes a Court has been approached for comment.

Originally published as Teal MP Allegra Spender distances herself from ‘covertly powerful’ Simon Holmes a Court