What’s next for the teals, back to basics or politics as usual?

Questions are being asked about campaign secrecy within independent movements as the Australian Electoral Commission reports on election spending next week. Andrew Gardiner with story.

In the May 2025 Federal Elections, independent candidates received more votes than ever before among all voters. Independents from Society Project (CIPpopularly known as Teals) has backed 37 independent candidates, many of whom received funding from climate activists and crowdfunders. Climate 200.

Claims of candidates being “paid to run,” the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and some odd campaign spending habits at crowdfunder Climate 200 (C200) have distinct appeals to the community independents movement calling for wholesale change.

Many of the complaints center around ‘top-down’ involvement in campaigns, city-centric messaging in regional seats and the corporate culture at C200 and campaign consultants Watershed; This, they say, turns the community-based turquoises of 2022 into enforcers of politics as usual.

Sources close to C200, Watershed and some candidates dispute these claims. Bean (ACT) candidate Jessie Price said: ‘C200 has had no impact on decision-making and policy’ MWM, “We have our own policy committee.”

Many candidates and campaign officials were asked to sign confidentiality agreements, often before the campaign’s debts were settled. MWM Forrest (WA) understands independent Sue Chapman has signed NDAs with C200’s allied consultants Watershed, and Claire Ferres-Miles (Casey, Vic.) is one of several people who have signed NDAs.

MWM There has been a case where a candidate was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement with the candidate selection committee before being interviewed, agreeing not to disclose any information about the process, committee members, or other candidates.

A spokesperson from Climate 200 confirmed that they did not sign a confidentiality agreement with anyone and did not pay any candidates.

Many campaign participants were uncomfortable signing confidentiality agreements; one agent stated: MWM, “If you don’t want your dirty little secrets to be revealed, you can just get someone to sign a confidentiality agreement.”

crisis meeting

The revelations come as leading teal figures held a crisis meeting this week with C200 chief executive Byron Fay and new campaign manager Kate Hook promising fireworks over teal campaign donation figures. Rumors about campaign spending waste and nepotism will be either confirmed or denied when these figures are released on Monday under new AEC rules.

MWM understands that he is struggling to manage the fallout, Guard He was approached to do a story on the huge sums of money thrown at marginal voters by Conservative political lobby groups. At the time of this writing, this story was scheduled to be published this week.

According to Monday’s meeting, investment from Advance alone in Groom (Qld) was almost $100,000, with the bulk of that investment spent attacking independent Suzie Holt.

A second wave of advanced promotion I was going to see you this weekend SMH, Guard, and other outlets are running “proactive stories” around C200’s long list of small-dollar, suburban customers.

Bigger players less likely to be mentioned – C200 chief executive Byron Fay, stock trader Rob Keldoulis and investor Marcus Catsaras (approximately $1 million to C$200 per person in the last two years) AFR) and technology bro Mike Cannon-Brookes ($500,000 directly to this year’s ‘orange’ campaigns alone, according to Monday’s C200 meeting).

Simon Holmes à Court, Climate 200 Editor, told MWM“Climate 200 regularly engages with journalists on media matters, including when donor disclosures are published. Climate 200 has raised significant donations, but the total is much smaller than the huge amounts of money raised and spent by the major parties.”

According to the 2019-2022 AEC transparency disclosures (the latest election year data available – parties are not required to disclose the 2024/25 amount until early next year), major parties have spent almost half a billion dollars in the three years leading up to the 2022 Federal election; This includes nearly $250 million during the 2022 election.

Too much money?

Sue Chapman sees money itself as the problem. “The entire ecosystem around those who are independent from society has become a parody of (‘independence’) through the use of money as leverage,” Chapman said.

Clive Palmer is definitive proof that over-reliance on money doesn’t work.

Dark Money: Labor and Liberal join forces in attacks on Teals and Greens