A packed house of Teal supporters heard directly from Simon Holmes a Court and Dr. Monique Ryan about the direction of the Teal election bids in 2025.
The Astor event was part film preview, part Q&A, and part fundraising rally. The short 30-minute film “No Safe Seat” explained the community campaign philosophy and detailed the new seats that Climate 200 had in their sights.
The capacity crowd heard the details of the seats targeted by Climate 200 community campaigns in 2025 – and it doesn’t include Macnamara.
The numbers in Macnamara don’t add up for a Teal bid – they would have to get about 30% of the vote to have a chance. Mind you, the major parties, including the Greens, struggle to get much more than 30% as it is!
In 2022, the Macnamara primary vote was Labor 31%, Greens 29% and Liberal 29%. Preferences from Greens voters delivered the seat to Labor by a significant majority.
Teals target five new seats in Victoria alone
In Victoria, the new seats on the Teal target list are Wannon, Casey, Deakin, Flinders, and Monash. These seats fit the Teal modus operandi of targeting Liberal or coalition seats with weak Labor votes – if they can outpoll Labor and take votes from the Liberals, preferences from Labor and other independents can give them a home run.
But Teal supporters don’t have to go far to get involved. Both Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniels are powering ahead with their campaigns to get re-elected in the neighbouring electorates of Kooyong and Goldstein.
Issues have changed since 2022.
In the Q&A, Kooyong MP Dr. Ryan was candid about the feedback from door-knocking and community contact. She said community safety and cost of living, including housing, had become the dominant issues. This was also echoed by Flinders candidate Ben Smith.
This shift may seem like a challenge to a team with solid climate change messages, but the speakers had a confident answer to that. Their message was that the big parties had stopped listening. The Teals assert that as a flexible group of independents, they are more attuned to their communities – and that’s their superpower.
And the crowd revelled in that message. Resplendent in their campaign t-shirts, fired up by a complimentary glass of prosecco and thrilled to receive a Climate 200 tote bag, the atmosphere was energetic and independent.
But a grassroots question during the Q&A raised the tricky question about which communities were being represented. Speaking in self-described ‘Chinglish’, a man asked where were the Asian faces in the film and the campaign? The audience initially disputed his question but settled to hear him out and later applauded.
But the unintended probe may have found a target. Consider his question and then look at the list of Climate 200 candidates.
Local connection
Claire Ferres Miles, the independent candidate for the seat of Casey, is a former senior executive with the City of Port Phillip. She went on to be head of Sustainability Victoria.
While working at Port Phillip she frequently cycled to work from Upwey. At least it was down hill one way!
