Rita Panahi: Climate ’independents’ are Leftists who fall somewhere between Labor and the Greens on the political spectrum

The homogenous group of women that make up the fake independents are privileged pretenders bereft of any real diversity.

It’s time the fake independents came clean and stopped treating the electorate like low-information simpletons.

Far from being genuine independents the homogenous group of women who compromise Simon Holmes a Court’s main Climate 200 candidates could fit comfortably in the Greens.

These climate “independents’’ are Leftists who fall somewhere between Labor and the Greens on the political spectrum. Arguably two or three are even to the Left of the Greens.

Looking at the 11 main candidates is to see a group bereft of any real diversity.

Candidates running as ‘independents’ in the federal election. Picture: Supplied

The far Left love preaching about diversity but they are not very good at practising it. Climate 200 is a party of privileged pretenders appealing to similarly privileged voters in the most affluent seats in the inner city or by the water.

Their voters are from areas least impacted by surging energy bills and cost of living concerns that their policies would undoubtedly cause.

Climate 200 candidates have no interest in the outer suburbs where people lose sleep over how to make ends meet and where working people and pensioners opt to go without heating in winter or cooling in summer for fear of being saddled with a bill they cannot afford.

The wealthy voters backing these single-issue impostors will still take their overseas holidays and maintain a lifestyle that belies their supposed concern for catastrophic global warming no matter how much energy costs increase.

Dr Monique Ryan is one of the Climate 200 privileged pretenders. Picture: Ian Currie

Much can be said about Simon Holmes a Court’s minions but one thing is clear they are not independent nor Liberal/Conservative alternatives.

If you want to support vapid candidates spewing motherhood statements with no policy detail then go right ahead but do not fool yourself into thinking that you’re voting for a genuine independent.

This lot are about as independent as I am blonde. If they were genuinely independent and without a bias towards one major party they would be challenging Labor MPs. But every single Climate 200 candidate, funded largely by Holmes a Court, is challenging in Liberal-held seats. Surely, if the goal was to elect as many climate-focused MPs as possible they would be running in marginal seats held by Labor.

If Holmes a Court succeeds he’ll purge the Liberals of its most prominent wets such as Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma in seats that are lurching further left at each election.