Janet Holmes a Court relishes teal result, says Liberals need to rethink

Janet Holmes a Court says while her son Simon would be thrilled by the election result, he would have no influence over the teals.

Teal independent Kate Chaney arrives at her post-election party at the University of Western Australia. Picture: Paul Garvey

Prominent philanthropist Janet Holmes a Court – the mother of Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court – says the Liberal Party needs to rethink its values in the wake of Saturday’s emphatic election defeat.

Ms Holmes a Court, one of Australia’s wealthiest women, has long been a supporter of teal independent Kate Chaney and was at Ms Chaney’s election night party in the Perth suburb of Nedlands on Saturday night. Ms Chaney’s re-election as the member for Curtin was confirmed on Sunday morning after Liberal challenger Tom White conceded.

Speaking to The Australian on Saturday night, Ms Holmes a Court said the Liberal Party needed to reassess what it stood for in the wake of the defeat.

She called on the party to reconnect with the likes of former Liberal deputy leader Fred Chaney – Ms Chaney’s uncle – and others who have grown disgruntled with the party to learn what it needed to do differently.

. Janet Holmes A Court at Homes A Court Gallery in Perth, 14 September, 2022. Photo: TWAM/Stef King

“If I were the Liberal Party I would go and lock myself in a room and have a good hard think,” she said. “They need to talk to people like Fred Chaney who know how they need to behave, how they used to behave, how they used to think, and how they used to serve the Australian people. They’ve forgotten how to do that.”

Ms Holmes a Court said that, while her son Simon would be pleased by the performance of the Climate 200 candidates, the ­organisation would not have any influence over how their candidates performed in parliament.

“Simon and the people involved in Climate 200 will be thrilled to bits, that so many of the independents have been successful, but they really have nothing to do with them other than giving them money,” she said.

“It’s true, there’s absolutely no communication or telling them what to do. And when you think about it, it’s very insulting to those women to spread this idea that they are only women so they must have someone behind them telling them what to do.

“Kate Chaney is not going to be told by anyone, she will make up her own mind. And they are all the same, they’re a fantastic bunch of women and now there’s more of them.”

3/05/2025: Liberal candidate for Curtin Tom White. Picture: Paul Garvey

She said she believed the resonance of the so-called teals stemmed from the fact they were “intelligent, well-educated, experienced young women chosen by their community”.

“They don’t get told how to vote, they find out the facts, they find out what their communities are interested in,” she said.

Ms Chaney said the Liberals had not learned their lessons from the election that first saw her and other teal candidates elected.

“The 2022 election sent a message to the Liberal Party that they were moving too far to the right and away from moderate voters in places like Curtin,” she said.

“That message has been reinforced last night, and I really hope that the Liberal Party spends less time thinking about attacking and point scoring and more time thinking about what the country actually needs.”