Big spenders behind teal wave revealed
A teal-coloured wave swept to power during the May election, and now it can be revealed how much money the independent candidates had behind them.
The Australian Electoral Commission’s’ transparency register has published the financial disclosure returns for the 2022 federal election for non-party backed candidates.
The register has revealed that Allegra Spender, who won the once “blue-ribbon” seat of Wentworth, taking out Liberal MP Dave Sharma, received the most in donations out of any independent candidate.
A total of 661 donations, generating $1,927,906, funded the daughter of Carla Zampatti’s campaign, with her total electoral spend $2,124,058.
Among her donations were hundreds of thousands of dollars from Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 group.
The group donated money to Ms Spender’s campaign eight times, totalling $717,776 – including a donation of $1 on November 2 last year.
Climate 200 was the biggest donor of the campaign, spending $5.9m to back candidates, six of whom unseated Liberal MPs, while receiving $8.5 million in donations itself.
The largest donors to Climate 200 were billionaire Scott Farquhar ($1.5m), and Boundlass Earth ($1m) – chaired by Mr Farquhar’s Atlassian partner Mike Cannon Brookes.
Monique Ryan, who defeated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, received $1,841,237 in donations from 3762 donors.
Mr Holmes a Court made $20,232 in independent donations to Ms Ryan’s campaign in addition to Climate 200’s donations totalling $749,347.
Her total electoral expenditure was $2,122,231.
North Sydney independent Kylea Tink raised $1,825,072 from 945 donors – including $786,532 from Climate 200 – for her $1,379,196 election campaign.
Former ABC journalist turned Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel received $1,745,039 from 1999 donors – including $709,840 from Climate 200 – for her $1,594,345 campaign.
Sophie Scamps received donations from 828 donors totalling $1,558,960. She spent $1,216,746 on her campaign.
Kate Chaney, who won the WA seat of Curtin, received $1,333,093 in donations from 653 donors.
Crossbenchers Zali Steggall, Helen Haines and Andrew Wilkie all received donations from Climate 200.
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