Climate 200 pumps in another $50,000 to Zoe Daniel’s campaign

With just 10 days of campaigning left, the Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel is cashed-up and ready for a final advertising blitz after Simon Holmes a Court donated another $50,000 to her campaign.

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel at a pre-polling centre in Hampton after receiving a $50,000 donation from Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court, right. Picture: Nadir Kinani

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Simon Holmes a Court’s political action group has pumped another $50,000 into Zoe Daniel’s campaign in a late cash splash that points to the battle for Goldstein going down to the wire on May 3.

With under two weeks left in the election campaign, Mr Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 donated another six-figure sum on Tuesday taking its total donations to the teal MP to $520,000 over the past year.

This week’s $50,000 donation suggests the contest between the teal-coloured Tesla-driving independent MP and Goldstein’s former Liberal MP Tim Wilson is balanced on a knife-edge, with both sides preparing to throw themselves into a frantic final campaign push. “This is tight, really tight. It’ll go down to the wire,” a Liberal figure said.

While Allegra Spender and David Pocock have moved to distance themselves from Climate 200 and Mr Holmes a Court’s funding, Ms Daniel did not rule out ­Climate 200 making more 11th-hour donations.

Ms Daniel was campaigning outside a pre-polling booth in Hampton on Wednesday, kitted out in merchandise and a bedazzled cap with ZOE written in rhinestones and accompanied by her golden retriever Tully. She played down linking Climate 200’s latest $50,000 donation to how close the election was, but did say her campaign was planning a late advertising blitz.

“We’ve got money in the bank but obviously, just like everyone, we would expect to do additional advertising in the last fortnight,” she told The Australian. “So, no, there’s absolutely no desperation from my point of view. There is simply wanting to make sure that we’ve left everything on the field and fought as hard as we can to get our message across to everyone who needs to hear it.”

In the 2022 federal election, Ms Daniel was part of the teal wave that took a handful of Liberal seats across the nation as she was swept into federal parliament on a 52.9 to 47.1 per cent majority.

Asked if she anticipated more climate cash, she said “no idea”, before turning the heat on the Liberal Party about its donations. “I’d really encourage you to go and ask the Liberal Party and my opponent where they’re getting their money from,” the Goldstein MP said. “I don’t see any transparency whatsoever in who’s funding the national or local campaign. And certainly we know that some of the proxies are funded by big coal, for example, so it would be, I think, appropriate that the media could increase focus on that rather than this obsession with where independent candidates are getting there funding from.

“As I understand (it, in) the last election Climate 200 spent $25m across multiple campaigns and (the) two major parties spent half a billion. So it would be great if those questions were asked.”

Early in the 2025 campaign, polling pointed to Mr Wilson holding a strong 54-46 per cent lead on a two-party-preferred basis in the once Liberal heartland seat in Melbourne’s wealthy bayside area. But in recent weeks the Goldstein race has tightened significantly and it now appears the Liberals and teals are locked in a race that could be decided by a few hundred votes.

Both Liberals and teals have accused each other of desperation by erecting new billboard advertising on the Nepean Highway, the seat’s main road link, late in the campaign. Liberal figures estimate Ms Daniel is outspending the party five to one on traditional billboard advertising and also putting massive amounts of money into social media advertising. “They are trying to drown us with cash,” one Liberal said.

Ms Daniel said the Liberals were getting desperate.

“If you see the multiple new billboards that the Liberal Party and its proxies have up on the Nepean Highway, then you might think they’re getting a little bit desperate,” she said.

“And also they have multiple proxies operating on their behalf at the polling booths, which is worth looking into.”

Daniel with her dog Tully. Picture: Nadir Kinani

Asked if she thought Goldstein would go down to the wire on May 3, Ms Daniel said: “Gosh, I actually can’t really pick it right now because the polling has been sort of swinging so wildly and has sort of changed quite quickly, it would appear. Whether that’s … accurately reflecting public sentiment, I’m not quite sure. I mean, we’ve had a lot of positive energy building over time and particularly in the last few weeks, but during that time we’ve been blanketing the electorate with doorknocking.

“We’ve doorknocked 40,000 houses in Goldstein. So we’re just focused on our campaign, and talking to people about independent politics and why it works and I tend to not worry too much what everyone else is doing.”

Ms Daniel is one of the few MPs in the country who publishes a daily list of donations, which has revealed Mr Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 has made about a dozen donations totalling more than half a million dollars.

Climate 200 is by far the biggest of the 3600 political donors listed on Ms Daniel’s website. Other significant contributions come from other climate and integrity activists. Mr Holmes a Court is listed as convener of Climate 200 and is described on the group’s website as an “an energy analyst and climate philanthropist”. The Australian approached Climate 200 for comment.

The Victorian Liberal Party has not matched Ms Daniel’s daily donations disclosure but has committed to complying with guidelines and disclosing the donations at the end of the year.

“Just like her voting record of supporting the Greens the majority of the time, Zoe Daniel has proven without a doubt that she is not doing politics differently,” a Liberal spokesperson said.

A senior Liberal said if one teal seat fell in Melbourne, the second was likely to topple.

“If there is a shift on against independents then I’d expect both Kooyong and Goldstein to change hands,’’ the Liberal said.

However, the Liberal said the reverse could also apply if voters decided in the seats they had had enough of the main parties and were extending their hostility to the Liberal Party.

Another Liberal said there was strong support for Amelia Hamer at the Kooyong pre-polling. The teals are hopeful they can hold onto Kooyong, in part on the back of the so-called sophomore surge.