After fires and floods, climate-aware independents could sway polls

SYDNEY • After some of the worst fires and floods ever to hit Australia, a new cohort of climate-conscious independents are threatening to shake up the federal election on Saturday, putting the government under pressure in key districts and potentially reshaping the country's political landscape.

Enraged by the lack of government action on climate change, the candidates are campaigning hard on environmental issues in the hope of wooing moderate voters away from the major parties.

"There is deep frustration that real action hasn't been taken on climate change," said Ms Allegra Spender, 44, an independent candidate in the wealthy Sydney electoral district of Wentworth. "It's become ideological rather than based on science and business, and that's what people are seeking: just a rational, proportional response to the evidence."

Ms Spender, a former analyst with McKinsey, is one of more than 20 independent candidates, predominately women, who are running for seats in traditionally conservative, mostly urban districts, and who draw some of their funding from Climate 200, a fund set up three years ago to back candidates looking to advance climate policy.

About half a dozen of these candidates have come to be known as the "teal independents", reflecting the combination of their appeal to "blue" moderate liberals and "green" climate stance.

Opinion polls show the group is gaining traction among voters with their environmental, anti-corruption and gender equality policies, posing a threat to the established parties which have trodden lightly around the climate issue for fear of alienating voters in a country that is one of the world's largest exporters of coal and gas.

Liberal Party leader Scott Morrison seems likely to lose power, ending nine years of conservative government. A poll last week suggested the opposition Labor Party would win 80 seats, more than the 76 needed for a majority government. The poll showed the current government could be reduced to 63 seats with the remaining eight seats won by minor parties and independents.

If the polls are wrong, as they were at the last vote, a hung Parliament where independents hold the balance of power is possible.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - widely seen as the Liberal Party's next leader - is in danger of losing his Melbourne seat of Kooyong to a teal independent, neurologist Monique Ryan, a poll shows.

Another independent, former journalist Zoe Daniel, is leading a poll in her Melbourne seat.

"Climate change," said 36-year-old Jess Daniel, when asked about her top priority after casting an early ballot in Bondi. "I have a little one and I am thinking of him, not just the here and now."

After 58 years of voting conservative, Mr Ian Tresise has donned the teal T-shirt and joined Ms Spender's army of 1,000 volunteers handing out flyers at an early-voting booth.

A survey published by the Lowy Institute independent think-tank in May last year showed that concern over climate change is rising, with 60 per cent of Australians agreeing that "global warming is a serious and pressing problem", up from 56 per cent the year before.

REUTERS