If youre a socially progressive, fiscally conservative voter in Kooyong where do you park your vote? It was not a pleasant time at all. It was the cross-bench that gave Gillard the backbone to take action on climate change. We thought, Shit, weve really tapped a nerve here., Indi MP Helen Haines (left) is congratulated by her predecessor, Cathy McGowan.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen. It underlines just how organic these groups are. Independent MP Zali Steggall speaking on the Climate Change Bill last November. craig apple sheriff married 0 Vous etes ici: . Every time, one of the major parties has [eventually] either collapsed, fused with another party, or split. Not that the number is determinative. To drink, he asks for green tea and I join him. This time around Holmes Court has gone much earlier, looking to support the climate-and-integrity-focused campaigns that have sprung up around the country in recent years, inspired by McGowan and Hainess success in Indi and Zali Steggalls 2019 unseating of former prime minister Tony Abbott in the northern Sydney seat of Warringah. Simon owns a farm half way between Daylesford and Leonards Hill, the location of the two turbines erected in . The son of Australias first billionaire, the man who might help decide the next federal election, says having independents control power in the next Parliament is within reach. My parents never saw themselves as partisan. Meanwhile, a fortnight ago, The Australia Institute released its annual Climate of the Nation survey of 2626 voters, which found that a record 75 per cent were concerned about climate change, with almost 70 per cent looking to the government for a path to net zero. And then Ive watched our government stall for three years and not get anything really truly significant for future generations done. Which is what she sees as energising the network of independents, of which she is now the exemplar. He took me aside at the end and said, Country folk dont like you city people coming in and talking down their leaders and I should show more respect.. You dont send John Howard somewhere you dont need him. I believed we could move forward. As does the evolution of the Community Independents Project itself. Also pictured, clockwise from centre: Rebekha Sharkie, Helen Haines and Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen. Matt Murfitt is targeting Angus Taylor, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction. I joined the Liberal Party because I was interested in reform. The government lost a vote on their own bill for the first time in 90 years. And as the family goes about lockdown, Holmes Court wide-eyed and fresh-faced, more like a grey-haired schoolkid than a 49-year-old tech entrepreneur explains how, and why, he has fashioned a whole new key to stick into the biggest power socket in Australia, federal politics. Its my responsibility to do something., Simon Holmes Court; But if it does work, the payoff for Australia will be enormous. On 18 May Holmes Court launched a defamation action against The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail news outlets and is also considering suing Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who accused Holmes Court of a Holocaust slur. 2019 was basically me hitting the phones 10 weeks before the election saying, Heres my strategy. The turbines, cheesily called Gusto and Gale, constitute the very first community-owned windfarm in Australia. The trajectory twists through a series of how-to, technology-led apprenticeships, each leading logically to the next. Sign up here. Several projects around the country have received advice and support from Embark, including Pingala, which gathered locals in Sydneys Newtown to build a solar array on the top of a brewery, and the Sydney Renewable Power Company, which recently built Australias largest CBD solar farm. I want it to be six to 10 times bigger and more effective, he says of C200s campaign for the next federal election, due by the end of May. One of the things that made him confident that the project was a good investment, he says, was the level of community support it received, and the passion of the people running it. There are people on some of the campaigns who have previously worked for GetUp, big deal. Their model this way of owning your own energy generator locally emerged in the late 70s, so they have been doing it for decades. . The hostess said, You have to leave now. I said, Can I finish my drink? She said, No, the Treasurer says you have to leave now.[4], Frydenberg criticised Holmes Court for spending much of the COVID-19 Melbourne lockdowns at his farm in Daylesford with his family. He is an energy analyst, clean tech investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network, senior advisor to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University and writes regularly about the transformation of Australias energy sector. He also insists that there is no connection between us or Labor and the Greens or GetUp. I thought wed have about 50 people, because Id had about 50 phone calls from all over Australia and it was a short time-frame, she says. Holmes Court argues that rather than targeting small l Liberal seats in inner-city suburbs, that is where the community has risen up because of the shifting of the Liberal base. "[citation needed], He was accused by various members of the Liberal party of comparing John Howard to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, although the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said that they accepted that there were many uses for the term and were satisfied that Holmes Court was not referencing the Nazis.[9]. The competition is just too strong. Because while Holmes Court is a quintessential brahmin, his motivations dont differ fundamentally from a cross-section of activists Good Weekend speaks to for this piece. Someone from the movement called me up and said, This is a moment., He started a fundraiser on Chuffed and it raised $117,000 in 48 hours. It was the cross-bench in NSW when ICAC was introduced. The last time he willingly broke cover for a profile was a decade ago, announcing Australias first community-owned wind farm on Victorias Central Highlands, a project that arose from building the off-the-grid farm. Introducing Simon Holmes a Court. Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. He is an energy . As with most investors in community-owned renewable energy, his motivations were a mix of hard-nosed financial ones, and the desire to do a bit of good. What is the first thing he thinks about in the morning and the last thing at night? Im not feeling a mood for change. (As she speaks, though, at least one potentially noteworthy Liberal-aligned candidate is being sounded out to run against her. Whats been missed is why people are rising up in these locations? Holmes Court insists his journey into political activism makes sense when you map out the dot points. Their focus? He began an arts/law degree at the University of Western Australia, where he was involved in student politics, but withdrew after a few years. At Mall of Georgia, we know what our shoppers want. A digital marketer with his own company, hed done pro bono work for the Australian Conservation Foundation and others, but never been particularly political. These are incredibly powerful organisms and if you do something to threaten them you can expect a swift immune system response, he says. The Holmes a Court family name is well known in Australian business circles but Simon's involvement in Hepburn Wind is that of a local and his focus is community-owned enterprise. I should be a member of that party, shouldnt I?. Holmes Court is outlining the steps that have led him to where he now sits, in a polo shirt (Liberal-blue) and baseball cap, in a makeshift study in the off-the-grid farm where he and his wife of 24 years, Katrina, and their four children, aged 15 to 21, have spent much of Melbournes world-beating lockdown. Photo by Kristoffer Paulsen, signed contributor The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Photos - Simon Holmes Court on his 40-hecatre farm in Daylesford, Victoria, 2021 The thing about the independents is that the timing is right and the zeitgeist is ready for somebody, given that long-term disillusionment with mainstream politics, he says. Simon is also a cleantech investor, climate philanthropist and a director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grant-makers Network. - FXB1285472 Simon Holmes Court photographed for Good Weekend around his his 40-hectare farm in Daylesford, Victoria, October 2021. Simon is the founder of Climate 200, a group of more than 7,300 Australians working to help community-backed independent candidates contest the next federal election. Simon was a driving force behind the countrys first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Everyone knows hes a management consultant who not long before he was parachuted into his seat was living in his $6 million mansion in Woollahra. [2], Holmes Court was a driving force behind Australia's first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. [7], In 2022 Holmes Court released 'The Big Teal' as part of Monash University Publishing's 'In The National Interest' series. That was very significant for me. They were quite disappointed that that was our local areas first response to large-scale renewables development in the area, Lane says. But I think COVID makes it a little bit different. Hes ambitious. While his hometown of Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands is in the federal seat of Whitlam, he was, he says, much more motivated to move on Taylor, because of his proximity to, and record on, the climate issue. They tell us weve reduced emissions by 20 per cent. Three days later, she rang to discuss running. This has included a failed attempt to woo moderate former NSW premier Mike Baird, followed by overtures to his successor Gladys Berejiklian, to run against Steggall. That all changed two months ago, when he relaunched Climate 200 (C200), the fundraising group he founded just before the May 2019 federal election with support from 35 investors, including tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. bud factor x vs; Patrick Durkin is Melbourne bureau chief and BOSS deputy editor. Holmes Courts relaunch of C200 has been followed by serial announcements of an advisory board that looks increasingly like a posy of thorns in the Coalitions side, including former Liberals John Hewson and Julia Banks and former crossbenchers Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. "[13], In May 2022 Leader of TNL Party, Victor Kline, accused Holmes Court of bullying him into dropping out as a federal candidate for the seat of North Sydney. The Morrison government has come under a lot of criticism because of its failure to have regard to the respect that is due to womenand obviously on climate, many believe their performance is very inadequate., Holmes Court is a case in point. A few heads turn when a photographer arrives to take some photos as we eat. Its his advancement to the top job. fremont high school yearbook 2020; dave willis pastor quotes; rochester gymnastics academy. So far, C200 has matched $100,000 in local donations in North Sydney, where former charities CEO Kylea Tink last month announced she will take on Liberal moderate incumbent Trent Zimmerman; $60,000 in Wentworth (Sharma) and $51,000 in Mackellar (held by Liberal Jason Falinski), both Sydney seats for which candidates are expected to be announced soon. You have to have a really good reason because its a default. In the lead up to the 2019 Australian Federal Election, Climate200 raised nearly half a million dollars for the campaign. I found myself standing on the footpath with a glass of wine, Simon Holmes Court says. Meanwhile, in September, North Sydneys Tink was announced as the first of the upcoming elections independent candidates, followed by reports that Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, a Liberal, will likely face a well-funded independent in the neighbouring blue-ribbon seat of Bradfield. I had murals painted in Melbourne, funded a census on refugees funded media monitoring for a bunch of NGOs, a focus group., Holmes a Court with Mary Dougherty in 2012 at the countrys first community owned wind farm. It was a simple reform, it didnt come from Labor, it came from the cross-bench, and it was put to me that the cross-bench is often the conscience of parliament and too often the backbone. Im Catholic. And the group had overwhelming local support. Why arent you running for politics? I ask. Louis Trerise, He also says the movement would not have existed without the pandemic, lockdowns, and Zoom. Holmes Court addressing the National Press Club earlier this year. how much sperm does a 15 year old produce. Even as a really young child, he was constantly tying things together, like a cord from his bed down the stairs and onto the front door so that he could open it, says Janet. He also believes the opportunity for the independents to control the balance of power is within reach. Credit:Louise Kennerley, What turned disaffection into active resistance was Abbotts 2017 vote against marriage equality, despite Warringah having one of the countrys highest votes in favour, at 75 per cent. I was swamped by people ringing me and saying, I liked your book, but how do we do it? she says. For those who do, it will be a seat-by-seat fight, determined by the microclimate of each electorate, the calibre of the candidate and the stature and performance of the incumbent (the polarising Abbott, and Sophie Mirabella in Indi, were seen as pivotal to previous success by independents in those seats). Holmes Court approached Hume at a pre-poll booth asking her if she was willing to withdraw her accusations. [3] Holmes Court stated "I got involved in Australia's first community-owned, wind farm in Hepburn. As interesting as the electoral prospects of the various groups is the movement itself: organic and unruly by definition, but increasingly networked and turbocharged by the likes of McGowans Community Independents Project (CIP), which aids nascent groups, and Holmes Courts C200. But it was when independent Kerryn Phelps was advocating the Medevac bill, that he became connected. Such tales have become part of the storyline of the independents groups as they need to be, given it is disenchanted small-l liberals they are looking to attract. He loved working, and he worked seven days a week. Holmes Court on his farm in Daylesford. I told her that I wouldnt tell anyone its a dead certainty well pull this off. While Voices of Hume was good for getting to know a diffuse and disparate electorate, it was also enormously time- and resource-heavy, he says. Ive had panicked calls from Liberal insiders asking that we lay off them, he says. Both of them [Frydenberg and Energy Minister Angus Taylor] are a bit obsessed with me, Holmes Court offers. Climate change. However much they end up mattering at the next election or not they are the latest manifestation of a longer-term trend that may redraw the political landscape: the rising minority vote. I think Indi kicked off their first campaign at about 800. On the other, though, has been the growing profile of an estimated 30-plus activist groups. Weve already given the money, I dont have anything to do with pre-selections he says. simon holmes a court daylesford. Paul Howden is one of them. There was a savage culture of physical abuse culture and as we found out in the Royal Commission, a massive sexual abuse problem. Simon Holmes Court was the founding chairman of Hepburn Wind. Simon began his career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley during the first dotcom wave, then spent more than a decade in precision farm water management. Your lead-in to the question expressing your thoughts seemed to cause Simon to merely agree with you rather than going into more detail on his thoughts. Holmes Court says despite the perception to the contrary, he doesnt feel he has landed too far from the tree. Holmes Court says he had been meeting Frydenberg every year from about 2012 until their falling-out and was a financial supporter. Im not just a follower any more. . Simon Holmes a Court got involved in the project in 2007. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. Last election, two seats flipped from Labor to Liberal in Qld. The catalyst was McGowans memoir, Cathy Goes to Canberra, published last November. It kept the lake area electrified, says Lane. Steggall agreed to do an Instagram post in the T-shirt on New Years Day 2019. I mean, its lovely but its also three years too late, the international focus is on targets for 2030, 2035, Kylea Tink tells Good Weekend of the Coalitions 2050 net zero target. On Thursday 14 October 2021 Holmes Court appeared on Q+A alongside Liberal MP Tim Wilson, Labor MP Chris Bowen, Amelia Telford (Director of SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network) and Anne Baker (Mayor of Issac Regional Council).
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