What was the price six teals spent to win their seats during election blitz?
The six teal independents raised war chests worth $10.2m, with Climate 200 contributing half of their donations and triggering claims that Australia’s elections are ‘for sale’.
The six teal independents who ousted Liberal MPs at the May election raised war chests worth $10.2m, with Climate 200 contributing half of their donations and triggering claims that Australia’s elections are “for sale”.
Australian Electoral Commission data published on Monday reveals Climate 200 donated almost $6m to independent candidates at the May poll, of which $4.5m went to the six successful teals – Allegra Spender, Kylea Tink, Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney.
But it’s understood the not-for-profit’s donations were actually much higher than the numbers released by the AEC, after it raised $13m from 11,200 donors and the “vast majority” was spent on the election campaign.
Climate 200 was only required to disclose it received $8.3m in donations on Monday, with more to be published in February when independents who are members of registered parties lodge their returns, including ACT independent senator David Pocock and independent Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie.
Australian billionaire Scott Farquhar and Boundless Earth, which is chaired by Mr Farquhar’s Atlassian business partner Mike Cannon-Brookes, made the largest individual donations to Climate 200 for the 2022 election campaign at $1.5m and $1m, respectively.
Boundless Earth donated another $115,000 weeks out from the May 21 poll.
The record spend on so-called “community independents”, which saw the largest lower house crossbench elected in history, is set to continue at the next federal election as Climate 200 and other major donors vow to support the same candidates again.
Ms Spender, the member for Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, received the most donations among the Climate 200-backed candidates, raising over $1.9m from 661 donors.
The businesswoman, who spent over $2.1m on her campaign, declared donations from a number of high-profile people including $25,000 from Alex Turnbull, the son of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Former Nine chairman David Haslingden gave Ms Spender $50,000, while Sydney fund manager Daniel Droga and his wife Lyndell donated $100,000. The couple were co-leaders of Wentworth Independents, a group of successful eastern suburbs residents who recruited Ms Spender to run against incumbent Liberal Dave Sharma.
Dr Ryan, the member for Kooyong who unseated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, spent over $2.1m on her campaign to win the eastern Melbourne seat. Her donors included Jacqueline Yates, wife of former independent Kooyong candidate Oliver Yates, and Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court.
Mr Holmes a Court donated $200,000 to the organisation.
Rob Keldoulis, a Sydney-based chief executive of Vivienne Court Trading, gave $1.1m to Climate 200’s election coffers and $435,000 to several of the teal candidates, according to the AEC data.
Mr Keldoulis, a first-time political donor, said the actual amounts were $1.2m to Climate 200 and $659,000 to individual candidates who campaigned on climate change and integrity.
“I wanted to see a seismic shift away from the corruption and climate wars that have beset our country,” Mr Keldoulis said.
Therese Cochrane, who with her husband Fred Woollard through their company Keep Them Honest donated $170,000 to the six teals and the independent member for Warringah Zali Steggall, said they would likely support the MPs at the 2025 federal election. She nominated climate change, integrity, a lack of diversity and the treatment of women in Canberra as motivating factors behind their donations.
“Our donations for the May 2022 election were substantially larger than any previous donations,” Ms Cochrane said.
Mr Woollard is the founder and chief executive of Samuel Terry Asset Management, which made a $45m cash takeover bid for oil and gas explorer FAR, a former partner in Woodside Petroleum’s $6.6bn Senegal oil project.
Ms Tink raised $1.8m during the campaign, Ms Daniel $1.7m, Dr Scamps $1.6m and Ms Chaney $1.3m.
Jason Falinski, the former Liberal member for Mackellar who lost to Dr Scamps, declared it was a “very dark day for Australian democracy”. “This confirms former Liberal MPs who lost their seats to the teals once and for all that elections in this nation are for sale,” Mr Falinski said.
Former Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who lost his seat of Goldstein to Ms Daniel, said: “We can all now see the billionaires got what they wanted – their donations bought puppets in parliament to vote to prop up their failing investments with taxpayers dollars.”
The six teals spent a total of $9.4m on their election campaigns.
The returns published on Monday covered candidates, senate groups and election donors, with party disclosures not revealed until February 1.
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