The financier and son of deposed PM says he wants action on climate change and would back ‘small-L liberals’ not brutalised by the party machine

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Alex Turnbull has committed to fund independent, locally based “small-L liberal” candidates who advocate action on climate change and can play a constructive role in the parliament.

Turnbull, a Singapore-based fund manager and son of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, said he would support “reasonable” independents to run against a number of senior government MPs at the 2019 election.

Turnbull said he would both donate his own money and help raise funds for the right candidates in key government seats. He named those held by Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce and energy minister Angus Taylor.

“If [the hurdle] is a money thing, you would be surprised at how much could be raised,” he told Guardian Australia.

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“The issue is, if you are going to win, you need someone with local credibility, who is practical and reasonable. Their only real barriers are cash and organisational support. Cash often solves organisational issues.”

Turnbull said he would personally donate if the National Farmers Federation president, Fiona Simson, chose to run as a independent in Joyce’s electorate of New England. Simson has been urged to run against the former National party leader but is understood to be considering her options.

“Independents can be very constructive and helpful members of parliament, they haven’t been brutalised by major party machines,” Turnbull said.

“There is something happening here but we have to make sure people are resourced.”

Turnbull has been a vocal critic of the Liberal party since his father was toppled from power and he previously urged voters to support the Labor candidate Tim Murray in the Wentworth byelection.

Funding is often a stumbling block for independent candidates, particularly where large rural seats. Cathy McGowan’s seat of Indi is 28,000 square kilometres and her budget for the 2016 federal election was $200,000. Wentworth MP Kerryn Phelps had a budget of $300,000.

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Turnbull’s comments come in the same week his father highlighted that three of the key lower house independents; McGowan, Phelps and Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie were “small-L liberals” formerly involved with the party.

On Q&A, Malcolm Turnbull said: “So what that’s telling you is that the voters are – through voting for these independents – saying, “We are concerned that the Liberal party is not speaking for small-L liberal values, for genuinely liberal values, and therefore we take the matter in our own hands and we put in a liberal independent.”

Interest is building in regional areas for independent and minor party candidates across the political spectrum, though funding options appear to be coalescing around centrist candidates.

It is understood Alex Turnbull is not the only individual willing to fund independent candidates. In Abbott’s Sydney seat of Warringah, Atlassian cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes has also offered to donate to Jane Caro if she decides to run against Abbott.

Alex Turnbull said at issue was how to scale up campaigns to give people “some support”, but candidates needed to be locally based, particularly in rural and regional areas.

“I want action on climate change but it can’t be chia seed-munching hipsters in rural electorates,” he said.

Peter Mailer, a founding member of the microparty Country Minded who ran against Barnaby Joyce in the 2017 byelection, urged disparate independents to get together as a group to have an effect in parliament.

Though tiny in membership, Country Minded has a wide-ranging policy platform. For example, it supports action on climate change but seeks a more flexible approach on issues such as native vegetation laws. It opposes tax increases and would abolish payroll tax and stamp duties while phasing out negative gearing.

Seeking to build common ground and a membership base, Country Minded is merging with the Australian Democrats, Don Chipp’s old party which famously promised to “Keep The Bastards Honest”.

Together, the merged parties hope to fill the centrist space to appeal to city and country voters disillusioned with the major parties and get the 500 required members needed for political party registration before the 2019 election.

The Democrats president, Elisa Resce, is from a conservative religious family, with both Anglo farming and Italian heritage. She is a 34-year-old teacher and is lesbian. Her need to incorporate her sexuality with a deep religious background was the thing that pushed her to think about politics with shared values.

When Resce joined the Democrats in 2013, she described it as “a broken vehicle” with limited interest. But in a climate of alternative increasing polarisation, she said it was a viable alternative with a history, that does not have to be made from the ground up.

Television host James Mathison, who ran against Abbott in Warringah, has also joined the Democrats as communications director.

Mailer hopes the new structure appeals to a more progressive country audience around issues including climate change.

“It seems obvious to me that there needs to be a wedge applied to regional politics,” Mailer said.

“There is an opportunity here, to target Joyce, [deputy prime minister Michael] McCormack, Taylor, [Nationals MP Mark] Coulton, as well as building a Senate campaign behind candidates, but it needs to be cohesive and organised.”

Mailer said there were “good like-minded candidates” in the regions but without organisation and support, they were not prepared to risk their reputations.

“It needs a strategy put together to target these guys to provide coordinated support that doesn’t have to be duplicated across the electorate. They have to be confident they will not be left isolated. I know because it has happened to me.”

