Groom candidate Suzie Holt reveals who is backing her campaign, calls on her opponents to do the same

Groom hopeful Suzie Holt has stepped out from behind Australia’s murky campaign finance laws to reveal who is backing her.

Independent candidate for Groom Suzie Holt is calling on her opponents to come clean about who is funding them. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Independent Groom candidate Suzie Holt has called on her opponents to come clean and reveal who is funding their campaigns.

The Groom hopeful issued the challenge while revealing she has received $50,000 from Climate 200, a crowdsourced political funding initiative, however she insists she is not a Teal.

Ms Holt said that while at the last election she was not connected with Climate 200, she approached the organisation this time around to elevate her campaign.

“Campaigns have become these machines that require funding,” she said.

“We realised early on that we needed to run a professional campaign and to do that we needed some investment to kick it off.”

The Holt camp applied for funding with a submission that assessed her level of support in the community, her donations on hand and whether she stood a realistic prospect of getting elected.

Ms Holt insisted she remains staunchly independent and said she was not beholden to the Climate 200 policy platform and only received funding because her record in advocating to protect prime agricultural land from mining and gas interests, and for supporting stronger domestic violence legislation.

“Up until recently, we were self-funded,” she said.

“Everything we have done over the past four years, including multiple trips to Canberra to advocate for our region, my husband Miles and I have self-funded.

“That shows my level of integrity and my level of commitment to the community.”

A spokesman for Climate 200 said Ms Holt also had to demonstrate that she met benchmarks around supporting women in leadership, action on climate change and organisational integrity.

Ms Holt claimed Climate 200 recognised the Groom seat as winnable.

“We received an Accelerator Fund as well as funding from the Regional Voices Fund.”

The money amounts to about 10 per cent of Ms Holt’s war chest, or $50,000.

“We have close to 500 local donations which range from small to quite significant, 90 per cent of our donations are from local donors,” she said.

Climate 200 was started by Simon Holmes a Court, a former Liberal Party backer who had a spectacular falling out with the former treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The organisation has crowdsourced millions of dollars in small donations that it gives to candidates that match its values.

They include Independents Andew Wilkie, Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender and Helen Haines.

While the Australian Electoral Commission keeps a public record of political donations, delays in publishing that material mean the voters are kept in the dark about who is funding political campaigns until after the election.

The most recent disclosures are from June 30, 2024.

Ms Holt said she would put campaign finance reform at the centre of her term in office, if elected.

“I am prepared to be quite open about my funding and donations, “ she said.

I make a commitment to see national records on donations released in real time and I put out a call out for all candidates to do the same.”

As Ms Holt has moved closer to the Climate 200, in the same breath she distanced herself from the ‘Teal’ movement as indicated by her orange and navy branding.

“I am not a ‘Teal’, I think ‘Teals’ represent inner city candidates.

Groom MP Garth Hamilton said voting for an Independent would lead to a hung parliament. Picture David Martinelli

When asked about Ms Holt’s Climate 200 funding, Groom MP Garth Hamilton was more interested in her policies than her support.

“I haven’t changed, I continue to be a member of the Liberal National Party, proudly sitting in the Liberal Party room, proudly supporting Peter Dutton,” he said.

“For all Teal candidates, the risk they present is three more years of an Albanese Government, which is not an option I am putting on the table.

“Climate 200 has made it clear that it opposes multiple policies of the Liberal Party and I think that is important if you are going to talk about integrity to be honest with the people about who your supporters are and what your policies are and who you would support in the event of a hung parliament.

“The only people who want a hung parliament are the Greens and the Teals.”