Allegra Spender: Why the daughter of Liberal royalty is challenging the Morrison government

The bluest of blue blood runs through Allegra Spender’s veins. So what prompted her to run as an independent against Dave Sharma?

‘I want my children to be able to look at parliament and what goes on there with pride,’ says independent candidate Allegra Spender. Picture: Jane Dempster

The bluest of blue blood runs through Allegra Spender’s veins. So why is the daughter of Liberal Party royalty running as an independent against party favourite Dave Sharma in Wentworth, the country’s richest electorate?

In the little more than two weeks since she announced her first plunge into politics, Spender has learnt to rattle off the reasons for wanting Sharma’s political scalp in rapid-fire bursts: integrity, women, climate.

“I want my children to be able to look at parliament and what goes on there with pride and as a great example of how to debate the most important issues in the country, and I don’t think it does that at the moment,” she says.

In any other year, it’s a platform Sharma could confidently have claimed as his own: he’s a political cleanskin, a moderate on social ­issues who pushed successfully for a 2050 net-zero emissions target.

But not in this election cycle, where old certainties are being cast aside.

Allegra Spender and her late mother Carla Zampatti.

Spender is one of more than a dozen independent female candidates set to challenge incumbent Liberals in the federal election with well-organised, well-funded campaigns and very real chances of success. All are backed by the nation’s new king/queen maker, rich-lister Simon Holmes a Court and his Climate 200 war chest.

Spender’s campaign will benefit more than most from Holmes a Court’s largesse, probably to the tune of more than $400,000.

And that’s on top of the $300,000 the campaign had in the bank even before Spender was announced as the candidate.

For many, there was always an assumption Spender, the 43-year-old daughter of former Liberal MP John Spender and fashion designer Carla Zampatti, would go into politics but few predicted it would be to defeat the Liberals.

She is a formidable candidate: an economics degree from Cambridge University, CEO of the Australian Business Community Network, and chair of the Sydney Renewable Power Company.

Anyone doubting hers is a serious challenge need only observe Scott Morrison’s visit to the seat on Monday to push his eco-­credentials on waste recycling.

Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, holds the seat on a margin of 1.3 per cent … although as Liberals point out, that was the margin won against the highly popular Kerryn Phelps; there is no guarantee her votes will follow the less well known Spender. Nor will Spender necessarily have the same level of support Phelps enjoyed from the large Jewish and LGBTI communities in the seat.

Early this year, the Wentworth Independents were already hunting for a candidate who could beat the well-liked Sharma. Among its core members: Woollahra lawyer Michael Joseph, renewable energy advocate Blair Palese and wealthy philanthropist Lyndell Droga.

Spender had been close to the top of the list from the beginning.

By mid-year, the group had raised $300,000 for the anticipated campaign against Sharma. They were in discussion with Holmes a Court for more.

Carla Zampatti and John Spender.

The Climate 200 convenor and clean energy investor had done his own polling in the electorate in August, asking voters how they would vote if an independent candidate of the calibre of Warringah MP Zali Steggall was to run. “That showed an easy win for the independent,” he says.

Spender says her lightbulb ­moment (“probably more the nail in the coffin than the catalyst”) was the government’s chaotic performance on climate policy, days away from going into the COP26 summit in Glasgow with an emissions target still undecided. “It was really like: Wow, we are not moving forward at the moment in the way that we need to.”

Spender spoke to her father; he gave her total support.

So too have many of the country’s respected female business leaders, among them former ­Reserve Bank board member Jil­lian Broadbent, businesswoman and activist Wendy McCarthy, Uni­Super director Nicolette Rubins­ztein and Toll Global ­Express boss Christine Holgate.

Spender says she is seeing a lot of support from people who had previously voted for Sharma.

“I think you are seeing a lot off dis­affected Liberals, and it is ­because they feel the government is out of step with Wentworth, which is a very progressive and very business-focused electorate,” Spender says.