Labor and GetUp-linked gurus guiding ‘independent’ candidates
Independents running against prominent Liberals in key NSW seats for this year’s federal election are using the services of a campaign house with deep links to the ALP and GetUp.
Independent candidates running against prominent Liberals in key NSW seats for this year’s federal election are using the services of a campaign house with deep links to the Labor Party and the GetUp activist group.
Up to four Sydney-based independent candidates, possibly more, are using the services of Populares Agency, a Sydney-based communications company formed by a trio of Labor and GetUp veterans – Anthony Reed, Mark Connelly and Ed Coper.
Independents receiving campaign help from Populares include Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Sophie Scamps in Mackellar and Kylea Tink in North Sydney. Zali Steggall, the independent MP who defeated Tony Abbott in Warringah at the 2019 election, recommended Populares to the others and is known to have used its services as well.
An investigation by The Weekend Australian into political connections at Populares raises questions about whether the campaigns of these and other independent candidates for the May election are – unwittingly or not – being co-ordinated centrally and by supporters of Labor and GetUp.
The Morrison government’s grip on power is so slim that any seat losses in NSW could tip an election victory Labor’s way.
Liberal MPs such as Dave Sharma in Wentworth complain that independents are running as a “pseudo party” to oust the government by winning seats that Labor and the Greens cannot – and are not just contesting seats as issues-based, stand-alone candidates. The three owners of Populares – Mr Reed, Mr Connelly and Mr Coper – formed the company as a communications consultancy in July 2020 and have since staffed it with former Labor and GetUp associates.
Their initial place of business was the Sydney CBD registered office of Olvera Advisors, run by Damien Hodgkinson, who has attracted controversy over his accounts management and donations work for independents’ campaigns.
Ms Steggall, a climate change advocate, last month blamed Mr Hodgkinson for a donations declarations breach after her campaign accepted a $100,000 cheque from coalmine owners the Kinghorn family which was then split into eight separate amounts – each below the minimum requiring disclosure. As a renewable energy and anti-coal campaigner, Ms Steggall also copped criticism over the source of the donation, which funded almost 10 per cent of her campaign.
Mr Reed refused to confirm to The Weekend Australian which independents standing for this year’s election were his clients, saying such arrangements were confidential. Many other Populares clients are nonetheless publicly named on the company’s website. But he said it should be no surprise that independents who campaigned on “climate change, integrity in politics and gender equality” would want to work with Populares.
He said the campaigns of Ms Steggall in Warringah and Kerryn Phelps in Wentworth, with which he was deeply involved, had succeeded in shaking up the duopoly of politics for the better. He said Populares was proud to support the independents’ “movement”.
Populares clients
Three independent candidates facing sitting Liberals at the federal election – Ms Spender in Wentworth against Mr Sharma, Dr Scamps in Mackellar against Jason Falinski, and Ms Tink in North Sydney against Trent Zimmerman – were candid about receiving support from Populares.
They told The Weekend Australian they had hired Populares for services including strategic advice and digital campaigning. All maintained their campaigns were run as genuine independents. Ms Steggall refused repeated requests to confirm whether or not she had hired Populares for her campaign. Several sources said they believed she almost certainly had help from Populares.
They noted Mr Reed was close to Ms Steggall after he served as her co-campaign manager when she won in 2019. She was also close to Mr Hodgkinson until his sudden departure as her campaign’s financial controller.
Other independent candidates told The Weekend Australian they hired Populares because the company came “highly recommended” by Ms Steggall, and also by Dr Phelps, who briefly held Wentworth after winning the seat at a by-election in 2018 following Malcolm Turnbull’s resignation. Mr Reed was also Dr Phelps’s campaign manager in that campaign.
The owners
The three principals of Populares have extensive histories with Labor and GetUp. Mr Reed was chief of staff to former NSW Labor minister Phil Costa and worked for Labor-aligned public relations companies CPR and Diplomacy before starting his own business, Watson Consultants, named after Australia’s first Labor prime minister Chris Watson, with friend Darrin Barnett, who also worked with Mr Reed on the Phelps campaign.
Mr Reed is the brother of retiring federal Labor MP Sharon Bird and his mother worked for many years in the office of former NSW Labor minister Michael Knight. He has previously worked as the media officer for two Labor-affiliated unions. He says he is no longer a member of the ALP.
Until recently, Mr Reed was on the advisory council of Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 group, which has listed Mr Hodgkinson’s company Olvera Advisors as its principal place of business.
Mr Reed appears to have been replaced on the Climate 200 council by Mr Hodgkinson recently. Mr Hodgkinson’s company was the Sydney CBD registered office and principal place of business of Populares before this was changed in July last year to another office a few streets away.
GetUp operative
Mr Coper has a strong Labor and GetUp pedigree. Besides serving as GetUp’s director of campaigns from 2006 to 2010, and working over the next decade for US-based activist organisations, Mr Coper has claimed credit for his role in federal Labor’s “Mediscare” disinformation campaign at the 2016 election when it was falsely alleged that the Coalition under Mr Turnbull wanted to privatise Medicare.
Interviewed this month by Nine newspapers for his new book Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age, Mr Coper described the “Mediscare” campaign as “a competition for the dominant narrative” in which he helped customise online messages sent to older and younger generations, warning them of threats to their Medicare coverage. Last month Populares colleague Mr Connelly quipped on Facebook that Mr Coper headed the company’s “Disinformation practice”.
Mr Connelly has a strong background in GetUp as head of the group’s brand and communications section for six years, and as a former GetUp campaigns director. In the US, he was strategy director of Purpose, GetUp’s New York-based affiliate, and director of online campaigns for MoveOn.org, which was the model for GetUp. Mr Connelly was involved in GetUp’s campaign to oust Mr Abbott in Warringah in 2019, as photos show.
Staffers’ links
Other Populares staffers have Labor and GetUp backgrounds as well. Ruby-Rose O’Halloran, described by Populares as its “movement builder”, is still listed on GetUp’s website as a “campaigns director”.
Patrick Leyland, described by Populares as its “digital guru”, led Labor’s digital campaign at the 2019 federal election, and worked for Labor’s software provider, Magenta Linas, before he started with Populares in November.
Kate Walsh, described by Populares as a senior communications and community engagement strategist, is a former GetUp national campaign director and has worked for the Labor/union-aligned company Essential Media.
Jess Fisher, who recently left Populares to produce a film, is a former Labor digital organiser for the party in Queensland and a former staffer in Kevin Rudd’s electorate office.
The last of Populares’ “associates” as described on its website is Heath Aston, the company’s media spokesman. As a former journalist and NSW Transport media manager, Mr Aston appears the only one without a Labor or GetUp pedigree.
Jumping on board
Ms Spender, running as an independent despite her “Liberal royalty” family history, told The Weekend Australian that Populares was working on her campaign in Wentworth and came highly recommended to her from Ms Steggall and Dr Phelps.
Dr Scamps, running in Mackellar, said Populares was providing her “overarching campaign strategy and digital advertising advice”. She said she approached Populares because she needed professional support to “help compete with the huge party machine of the Liberal Party”.
Dr Scamps said Populares was “the natural choice” for her because it had experience in campaign strategy, and Mr Reed was instrumental in the victories of Ms Steggall and Dr Phelps.
A spokeswoman for Ms Tink, running for North Sydney, said Populares was “consistently recommended” after speaking to campaign teams which had worked for independents.
In Bradfield, another Sydney northside seat held by Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher, a spokeswoman for independent candidate Nicolette Boelle said Populares was not working for her campaign.
But Janine Kitson, another independent contesting Bradfield, said she was contacted by Populares asking if she wanted campaign help. “It was beyond my budget,” Ms Kitson said. “I am a stand-alone independent, not with the ‘Voices’ group.”
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