Climate 200 has announced it will support nine new community campaigns in Coalition-held seats, with as many as 14 more independent candidates set to receive funding before the next federal election.

The political funding group also announced funding of up to $50,000 for campaigns in McPherson, Moncrieff, Fisher, Fairfax, Cowper, Bradfield, Casey, Monash and Wannon from the organisation.

Many of the seats that received funding are held by senior Liberal figures, such as Paul Fletcher, Dan Tehan and Ted O’Brien.

Byron Fay, director of Climate 200, told The New Daily that the group supported 23 campaigns in 2022 and is hoping to support “up to 30 this time, including the incumbent independents that are already in Parliament”.

“Today we’ve announced accelerator support for nine campaigns, but there are more to come,” he said.

“We know the Community Independents Project (CIP), which is another group that works in the community independents ecosystem, is having its annual online conference on Saturday and there are hundreds of people, representing over 100 electorates, signed up.”

He said there are groups and people interested in supporting community independents in almost every electorate in the country.

“There is a group in Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson. It’s not as advanced as some of the others,” Fay said.

“We’ll see what happens as time goes past and they keep improving.”

Climate 200 said it raised more than $1 million in two months for its Community Accelerator Fund from 1300 donors in 146 electorates.

It received a 20 times increase in donations after Dutton announced last week that the Coalition would not bring 2030 and 2035 emissions targets to the next election.

Conference

The CIP conference will be held online on June 21 and 22, featuring a host of conversations with community organisers, independent MPs, senators and candidates.

Speakers at the event include Allegra Spender, Kate Chaney, Zali Steggall, Alex Dyson, David Pocock and Monique Ryan, who will cover topics such as connecting with the community in regional and rural electorates, working with the Senate and organising a political campaign.

Denise Shrivell, a PR expert and member of the North Sydney independent campaign, said she will be giving a talk on the importance of PR and media channels in politics.

“The line-up for this year’s convention is frankly the best I’ve seen to date,” she said.

“The community independent movement is really about active hope. It’s about participating in your democracy for positive change on the issues of our time.”

Climate 200 is supporting new candidates, those taking a second tilt and incumbent MPs. Photo: AAP

Second chance

Fay said that it usually takes two attempts for a community-independent campaign to break through and win an election.

“Those seats where independents came close last time are really well primed now to be successful,” he said.

“Many of them haven’t stopped campaigning, particularly you can look at the example of Nicolette Boele in Bradfield where she kept her campaign office [from the 2022 election] going, fundraised for it and hasn’t stopped engaging with the community.”

He said national polling and Climate 200’s internal polling is showing that there is a declining trust in the Coalition and the Labor government.

“People aren’t impressed with the way politics is being conducted in Australia and are responding by seeking out alternatives,” Fay said.

“We’re going to see a lot more of them break through as a result of that dynamic. People want a different way of doing politics.”

Climate 200 was founded after Simon Holmes a Court was forced out of the former member for Kooyong and treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s Kooyong 200 fundraising group, following an article he wrote critical of the Coalition’s energy policy.

It raised more than $13 million to support 23 independent campaigns at the 2022 election, of which 11 were successful.

It does not choose or start campaigns, but provides funds to existing groups and candidates who align with its values.