Election 2022: Climate of hostility laid bare in North Sydney

A Sydney barrister claims Simon Holmes a Court tried to ‘bully’ him into dropping out as a federal election candidate in the seat of North Sydney.

TNL candidate Victor Kline campaigns in North Sydney. Picture: Jane Dempster

A Sydney barrister claims Simon Holmes a Court tried to “bully” him into dropping out as a federal election candidate in the seat of North Sydney so an independent supported by the businessman’s Climate 200 campaign group could have a clearer path to defeating Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman.

Victor Kline, who leads TNL, a party formerly known as the New Liberals, told The Australian he was contacted by Mr Holmes a Court and asked to step aside shortly before Kylea Tink was confirmed as the Climate 200-backed independent for North Sydney in September.

Mr Kline said he knew Mr Holmes a Court well – before the businessman asked him to quit North Sydney – because his Climate 200 group had backed a New Liberals candidate for the Eden-Monaro federal by-election in July 2020.

He said he continued contact with Mr Holmes a Court after Eden-Monaro but their relations had cooled, and he no longer wanted Climate 200’s campaign help. “Simon wanted to call the tune on everything in Eden-Monaro and we didn’t want him to,” Mr Kline said.

The Sydney barrister’s alleged experience in North Sydney and Eden-Monaro challenges repeated assertions by Mr Holmes a Court that Climate 200 is not, or does not act like, a party, and does not select candidates, direct the campaigns of candidates or expect anything in return for its ­financial support. Climate 200 is supporting 20 candidates in this month’s election, including Ms Tink, all in Liberal-held seats.

Mr Kline said the approach from Mr Holmes a Court as Climate 200’s leader for him to quit the North Sydney contest came during a September text exchange on the private Signal message system, which they had used previously.

He said Mr Holmes a Court was at first “softly softy” and “low key about how you should get out”. But when Mr Kline refused to withdraw from North Sydney, he said the Climate 200 leader came “straight back” and it was “pretty heavy”.

“He started bullying me, and saying, look, you’ve got to get out, mate, because you haven’t got a chance, we’ve got $500,000 for this (Climate 200) person, and you haven’t got a chance, do us all a favour’,” Mr Kline said.

“And I called him out on the bullying. I said, ‘you probably don’t realise you’re doing it, but you’re bullying me, I think’.

I said, ‘you don’t realise you’re doing it because you’re the sort of person, with your power and money, you tell people to do something, and they do it, and so you don’t like it when they don’t’. To his credit, he apologised for that.”

Signal text exchanges over a fortnight show Mr Holmes a Court approached Mr Kline on September 12, which was 11 days before Ms Tink’s September 23 campaign launch.

Mr Kline was already confirmed for North Sydney.

Simon Holmes a Court. Picture: Aaron Francis

Climate 200 Independent Kylea Tink. Picture: Richard Dobson

Mr Holmes a Court asked: “Are you sure you want to run in North Sydney, not the Senate. There’s a well organised group in NS with strong financial backing. will be a shame to have two “big” campaigns in the same seat against Trent.”

Three days after Ms Tink’s campaign launch, Mr Holmes a Court acknowledged to Mr Kline in a September 26 message that he was aware the barrister felt bullied.

He said: “I’m truly sorry you saw my approach as bullying. I too am very sensitive to bullying and my natural reaction (honed at boarding school) is to double down … so I’m very sorry that you felt that way. we should have talked, not texted.”

A spokesman for Mr Holmes a Court said on Tuesday that a hardcopy of the text exchange showed Mr Kline was at no point “pressured or bullied”.

According to his spokesman, the Climate 200 leader and renewable energy investor had a “short exchange” of text messages on the day Mr Kline announced his candidacy in September “as a courtesy to let him know there was already a strong local campaign with an excellent candidate”.

The Holmes a Court spokesman said Mr Kline had approached Climate 200 seeking support for New Liberals candidate Karen Porter in Eden-Monaro in 2020, and it donated $5000. He said Mr Kline’s further claims that Mr Kline and Ms Porter cooled on Climate 200 because Mr Holmes a Court wanted to “call the tune” was “utterly false”.

Ms Porter, whose preference votes helped Labor win Eden-Monaro, told The Australian she supported Mr Kline’s recollection of Mr Holmes a Court’s involvement. “He certainly did call the tune,” Ms Porter said. “I felt that for his (group’s) money, he was buying me.”

Ms Porter said she was “turned off” when the Climate 200 leader and his group wanted her to run as a New Liberals “party candidate” when it was not yet registered as a party. She claimed Climate 200 interfered with her messaging and relations became tense. “There were certain things I had to do to receive their money,” she said.

Mr Kline said Mr Holmes a Court was downplaying Climate 200’s past involvement. As well as $5000 for Eden-Monaro, he said Mr Holmes a Court offered an unpaid campaign director, former Labor operative, Zali Steggall adviser and now Populares director Anthony Reed.

He said he and Mr Holmes a Court dined at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra, where both stayed, and met in Sydney and Melbourne. He said he was first approached by Mr Holmes a Court as his “second Twitter follower” when he set up a New Liberals account about six months before the Eden-­Monaro by-election.

Mr Kline said he was also unhappy about a recent North Sydney poll commissioned by Climate 200 which left him as an “unnamed” candidate.

He claimed his non-identification was “dirty tricks” because it explained why he barely rated.

Mr Holmes a Court’s spokesman disagreed, saying no respectable polling in North Sydney had indicated any level of support for Mr Kline to warrant his inclusion in a polling candidate list.

Mr Holmes a Court lashed out at Mr Kline. He said: “These unprompted and disingenuous accusations feel like a malicious attempt to draw me into a conflict that serves only to raise Mr Kline’s limited profile.”

Mr Zimmerman holds North Sydney with a 9.3 per cent margin and is thought to be vulnerable.