Federal election 2022: Kate Chaney nears $1 million dollars in campaign to crush Lib ‘machine’, win Curtin

Kate Chaney’s independent campaign has raked in nearly $1 million in her effort to seize the blue-ribbon seat of Curtin. Ms Chaney - who has taken a lead against Liberal MHR Celia Hammond in the latest polls - has disclosed $967,478 from 668 donations, as of Friday when her campaign shut off donations. Ms Hammond is a first-term MP after taking over from former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at the 2019 election. Many of Ms Chaney’s donors have contributed as little as $10, $25 or $50. But her single biggest donator is Simon Holmes a Court’s group Climate 200, which has contributed a total of $450k over seven transactions. This in addition to $10k from businesswoman Janet Holmes a Court, who is Mr Holmes a Court’s mother. Climate 200 is backing several high-profile independents against Liberals in wealthy inner-city seats. The so-called Teal independents have focused on climate change and establishing a Federal ICAC. Ms Hammond did not respond when asked how much she had raised or who her biggest donor was. Going through Ms Chaney’s donor wall, it reflects the profile and character of the affluent western suburbs communities that make up the seat, with several high-profile lawyers, doctors, mining executives and financial experts among her backers. Among these is lawyer Tony Fairweather who has contributed a total of $20,000, pathologist Wayne Smit who has donated $25,000 and has also volunteered to hand out Chaney how-to-vote cards, and mining industry software engineer Norman Pater who donated $5000. City of Perth Deputy Mayor Di Bain also gave $500 in March. Ms Chaney, who is still refusing to reveal who she will support in the event of a hung Parliament, has also had help from her family, with her uncle Fred — deputy Liberal leader in the Fraser government — donating $2300 and her father, Michael, contributing $11,000. Her mother Rose donated $21,000 across two payments and the candidate has put in $12,500 of her own money. Ms Chaney told The West her campaign to win the State’s safest Liberal electorate “certainly isn’t a level playing field”. “We’ve started from scratch in terms of building a profile and a team and we’ve been up against a large, highly funded and experienced party machine,” she said. “The funds we’ve raised have allowed us to run a reasonably competitive campaign but we’ve been easily outspent by the Liberal Party, which this election has earmarked $500 million for election expenditure and has revealed nothing about who’s funding them. “I think people are completely distrustful of politicians and the major parties and that they deserve to see full transparency regarding political donations.” Ms Chaney said this distrust was one of the reasons she had received “enthusiastic support.” “Because people are completely fed up with secrets, deals and rorts,” she said.