Climate 200 is putting their money where their independents are and last Friday their latest ‘kitchen table’ event included hundreds of supporters at the A&I Hall in Bangalow.
Climate 200 provides political funding for community-backed independents to stand for election to advance climate policy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the country and limit climate change in Australia.
Climate 200’s MC for the event was Kate Hook.
Hook went from climate activist in Orange to independent candidate for Calare in 2022 and 2025. She was driven by water shortages, bushfire smoke that ruined the wine grapes, and flooding that left homes uninsurable.
‘The experts assumed that I’d get about 8 per cent of the vote, but I won 20 per cent of the primary vote.’
‘This shows what community listening and Climate 200 support can do.’
The three pillars
Founded by Simon Holmes à Court, Climate 200 stands on three pillars: climate, integrity and safety for women, and has grown from 34 donors to 34,800.
Holmes à Court and his team were on a mission in Bangalow: find a candidate who can win in the Tweed.
Former Paris Agreement negotiator Byron Fay set out a four-part strategy: re-elect sitting independents, back proven challengers, help new community groups grow.
Four-part strategy
‘Firstly, we want to help the incumbent independents who are in parliament get re-elected; we need to help proven independent challengers break through; then we need to help new communities to scale their efforts.
‘We believe strong community groups lead to very strong candidates and campaigns – the stronger the community movement around an electorate, the better the community campaign is going to be; and we want to learn by competing in politics. It is a competition, and you need to learn by actually competing. If you don’t compete, you get stale, and you don’t understand how the dynamics are shifting.’
‘That’s why we are very clear-minded about wanting to support as many independent races as we can.’
The Climate 200 team were joined by independent MP Nicolette Boele and local filmmaker, author and activist, Damon Gameau.
A success story
Climate 200 success story Nicolette Boele (Bradfield) says she was an unlikely candidate. ‘Voices of Bradfield began with 12 people in a Turramurra bar. They were angry about their MP’s weak answer on climate. Their ‘audacity’ pulled her into running in one of Australia’s safest Liberal seats. She credits her 26 vote win to 1,500 volunteers, many of whom joined through the Voice referendum campaign.
Community support also helped her get through attacks funded by fossil fuel groups.
Her advice: ‘run a candidate so people who feel shut out have somewhere to put their vote.’
Progressives lack a shared story
Damon Gameau said progressives lack a shared story. ‘In a political context, I think the populist movement has worked around the world because it says “we see you and these group of elites don’t see you”.’
‘What’s our collective story? We spend a lot of our resources, time, and energy counteracting and fact-checking the misinformation.
‘We haven’t spent the energy saying “here’s this brilliant vision of a better future where your community benefits”.’
The ‘trim tab’ theory
Simon Holmes à Court likened supporting independents to Buckminster Fuller’s theory about a trim tab on an ocean liner. ‘The Queen Mary was the biggest passenger liner at the time at 400 yards. At the very end of the boat, there’s this 14 foot rudder, and when the boat and the ship is going full steam ahead, the wall of water on either side of that rudder is immense, moving at speed, and it is almost impossible to move that rudder to steer the ship, but at the very end of the rudder, there is a four-inch strip of metal called a trim tab, and you put a tiny bit of force on, it doesn’t take much at all, and it kinks the rudder around. It might take 15 or 20 minutes, but the whole ship can do a full, complete turn, thanks to the trim tab.
‘We need to put the right pressure in the right place at the right time, and we can turn the ship around.’
The message of the forum was that if you want an independent to win in the elections, you need to have a candidate, and if you have a candidate, Climate 200 is willing to support them.
To find out more, visit: www.climate200.com.au.
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