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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is my first episode of 7am.

The 2022 federal election saw a historic loss for the coalition - and a historic shift towards Independent candidates - like Allegra Spender in Sydney, Zoe Daniel in Melbourne and Kate Chaney in Perth.

Elected on promises to fight climate change, make progress on gender issues, and advocate for more integrity in politics, the Teals flipped some of the wealthiest, and safest, Liberal seats.

But now, as cost of living becomes the most pressing issue for voters, the Teals’ views on social inequality are being put to the test.

Today, contributing writer for The Monthly, Rachel Withers, on the seven Teal Independents, and whether they are Australia’s best hope for addressing inequality.

It’s Monday, July 17.

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Archival tape -- Rachel:

“Do you think we currently live in a fair country?”

Archival tape -- Allegra Spender:

“Hmm, interesting question. From an intergenerational point of view I think we’re not doing enough to make sure the next generation can thrive. So no….”

ANGE:

Rachel, you've been spending time with all seven of the Teals. Tell me a bit about what you wanted to find out about them and why you wanted to do this now.

RACHEL:

Yeah, well, it started out as a piece to mark the first anniversary of the Teal wave, which is when six of those seven independents took seats from the Liberal Party at the 2022 federal election. And as I was looking back at their first year in office and their voting records and the positions they've taken, I noticed that on some economic issues they were a little bit more left than I would have expected for an independent holding a traditionally liberal, wealthy seat.

Things like raising the rate of Jobseeker, the single parenting payment, the stage three tax cuts, even changes to tax concessions for superannuation balances over $3 million. Most of them have been on board with most of these things.

And I was interested to ask them, basically, do they worry about going too far on these issues and, you know, whether there might be a backlash from the wealthier voters who didn't vote for them to talk about economics, to talk about inequality.

And it got me wondering whether they felt they had the backing of their very wealthy electorates for some of these more left leaning policies.

ANGE:

So take me back to the 2022 election that you just mentioned. There was this historic move away from the major parties and towards Greens candidates, as well as these Teal independents. Can we go back to looking at what voters wanted from them at that election? Why did voters turn to the Teals?

RACHEL:

Yeah, look, I think it was primarily the climate issue.

Archival tape -- Reporter:

“Independents march into parliament. The nation has voted for change and in particular stronger climate action.”

RACHEL:

They were campaigning on a stronger response to the climate crisis as well as to issues around integrity and government and gender equity, basically picking up on issues that the so-called moderate liberals had failed to do anything about.

Archival tape -- Monique Ryan:

“The Liberal party no longer reflects the small ‘l’ liberal values of electorates like Kooyong. It’s moved too far to the right.”

RACHEL:

These independents were often labelled socially progressive, but fiscally conservative.

And so there were six candidates that all won basically some of the wealthiest seats in Australia.

Archival tape – Allegra Spender:

“It is the people of Wentworth, that is our power!”

RACHEL:

Allegra Spender, Kylea Tink and Sophie Scamps in Sydney and they joined Zali Steggall, who had already won the election before taking Warringah off Tony Abbott.

Archival tape -- Reporter:

“This is Sydney, folks, this is the north shore of Sydney; Teal, teal, teal, teal.”

RACHEL:

We had Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniel in Melbourne.

Archival tape -- Reporter:

“Zoe Daniel has defeated Tim Wilson in Goldstein.”

RACHEL:

And Kate Chaney over in Perth.

And so these seven women now hold seven of the ten wealthiest electorates in the country.

And they did face a lot of criticism in the lead up to the election, mostly from the Liberal Party because that's who they were all challenging. They were accused of being fake independents, secret Labour stooges, puppets, groupies, as John Howard labelled them.

And they were also just sort of accused of being people without any real political experience.

Archival tape -- John Howard:

“I call them anti-Liberal groupies. Because none of them is standing..."

Kenny: “Is that a sexist term people said it was sexist?”

Howard: “Oh, really!”

ANGE:

Yeah, there was a lot of doubt cast over their legitimacy. At one point, Liberal Senator Jane Hume even accused them of being part of the “new bunyip aristocracy.” What is that term, Rachel? And what did she mean when she said that?

RACHEL:

I mean, it was quite laughable to hear Jane Hume say this on Sky News while talking to Peta Credlin.

Archival tape -- Jane Hume:

“And by the looks of things it’s simply a large group of wealthy trust fund babies that are the new bunyip aristocracy, that are essentially providing themselves the equivalent of colonial titles with hereditary privileges in order to subvert democracy.”

RACHEL:

Basically, the bunyip aristocracy is this old Australian slang term that's lobbed at kind of people who consider themselves aristocrats, you know, it's a bit of a tall poppy syndrome thing, but basically the bunyip aristocracy term came about in 1853 when this conservative politician, William Wentworth, who now has a very wealthy electorate named after him, he proposed establishing hereditary peerages in colonial New South Wales. So basically he wanted Australia to have an aristocracy, lords and titles like England, like the UK. And so there was this young Sydney radical who accused Wentworth of wanting to create a Bunyip aristocracy, basically like saying all these animals from from the old lands had changed form when they came to Australia and the bunyip aristocracy was what we were going to get instead of a real aristocracy. And this was satire. Wentworth's idea was laughed out of town and the idea was dropped. But the term kind of has stuck around as this pejorative in Australia. And so what Jane Hume meant was that the Teals were being funded by the wealthy, by sort of the elite.

Archival tape -- Jane Hume:

“Because they think that their money can buy more influence in our democracy than the average Australian.”

RACHEL:

Part of this comes down to the fact that the Teal campaigns were backed in part by this group called Climate 200, which was a political funding group, and that was started by Simon Holmes à Court, the son of Australia's first billionaire.

Now, of course, the Teals were community independents whose campaigns were sort of supercharged by Simon Holmes à Court. But the Liberals were quite keen to imply that they were just kind of puppets of the wealthy.

ANGE:

And whatever you think about that term, you can kind of see what Jane Hume was trying to get at. But how fair is it, do you think, to see the Teals in this way as representatives of an aristocracy?

RACHEL:

I mean, they do represent seven of the ten wealthiest electorates in Australia and in Australia, the hereditary wealth gap is growing at an alarming rate. Economic inequality is at a 70 year high. Almost half the private wealth in the country is held by the top 10% and social mobility is on the decline. So it's increasingly difficult to build wealth in this country unless you're born into it, and it's very easy to build wealth if you are born into it. And these are sort of the representatives of those very people who are doing really well out of this quote unquote, “bunyip aristocracy” that we now find ourselves in.

ANGE:

I suppose this is now how you arrived at this question that you wanted to explore - how these independents look at social inequality and how they can possibly tackle that while representing the wealthiest electorates. And you went out and spoke to them. You went to events with all of them around the country. How do they grapple with the tension of representing really wealthy voters while having at the same time to address the cost of living crisis, for example?

RACHEL:

Yeah, look, I was quite surprised how open to talking about this inequality crisis most of them were. I think it is something that they're thinking about. It's not necessarily what they were elected to talk about. But, you know, I think they're also aware that in some ways they are some of the only politicians who can talk about this because they're not members of political parties.

You've got the Labor Party, which I would say is concerned about wealth inequality, but there are certain topics they just won’t go near because of what happened to them at the 2019 federal election when they actually ran on wealth redistribution policies and, and major tax reform and they lost and now they are unwilling to talk about things like negative gearing, capital gains tax.

The Liberals obviously don't actually care at all. To them, it's the politics of envy.
And so I wondered if maybe the Teals were the ones best placed to actually lead this conversation, but also whether their constituents would let them.

I think the tension with being a Teal MP who is socially conscious and who is aware that we have massive inequality in this country while also representing the people doing really, really well out of inequality, is how do you advocate for a levelling of the playing field when you represent, and in some of these women's cases, are the people benefitting from the uneven field? And I think all of them in some way struggled with that tension, but especially when I was speaking to Allegra Spender who represents the wealthiest electorate in the country, that's when that really came to the fore.

ANGE:

We’ll be back after the break.

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ANGE:

So Rachel, let's talk about Allegra Spender. She's the MP for Wentworth in Sydney's eastern suburbs. How does the wealthiest Teal in the wealthiest electorate think about social inequality?

RACHEL:

So Allegra Spender, I would say is the Teal who would have seemed most at home in the Liberal Party if it hadn't veered off course in the way that it has. She's a business leader. She's the daughter of fashion designer Carla Zampatti and former Liberal MP John Spender, who himself was the son of a Liberal MP.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“You know I’d probably say Wentworth expects people to look after themselves…they do expect self starters…”

RACHEL:

So I guess we started by talking about what the values of Wentworth were, and she said “kindness and decency.” And when I said, “what does that mean to Wentworth?” You know, she started talking about equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“This is not about government solving all problems for people, I actually think that you want to empower people to have their best lives, and to be able to create the life that they want, and I guess that…”

RACHEL:

And so when I started to probe her on whether we actually have equality of opportunity in this country, or if not, what we needed to do to reach that, she didn't necessarily seem open to some of the more rational fixes.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“Some of the answers being suggested are actually not going to make a difference, and that’s where I’m coming from…”

RACHEL:

When it came to house prices, she seemed genuinely quite torn up about the fact that in this country, two people on a good income are unable to afford a home, and so that seemed to really bother her.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“Two people, who have good jobs, who are trying hard in life, they should not be in housing stress, I find that really appalling, you know…”

RACHEL:

But when I suggested that we needed policies in place to make house prices go down, that's not what she wanted.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“I don’t want to have house price drops, but I want to see wages growing and house prices basically stabilising, flatlining…”

RACHEL:

She basically said, no, you know, we don't need prices to go down. She would like to see prices flatline and everyone's wages to go up so that more people could afford a home.

But you know, that doesn't quite seem to line up with the fact that she votes against things like industrial relations reforms that would help those on low incomes to have their wages rise. And also, how much would wages need to rise to afford house prices in this country at the level that they're currently at? And then, you know, it sort of came to this idea, I didn't plan to ask her, but, you know, I asked. “Do the rich need to get a little less rich?” You know, if we're talking about inequality, is it about the people at the top coming down a little bit as well? And she said, you know, oh, I don't have any problem with rich people.

Archival tape -- Allegra:

“Some people are very wealthy, I don’t actually have a problem with that at all, it’s not my issue. I think it’s more about making sure everybody else has access to a really good life.”

RACHEL:

So she's worried about those at the bottom, but she has no interest at all in doing anything to slow down the growth of those at the top.

ANGE:

Yeah. And while Wentworth is an extremely wealthy electorate, it also isn't exclusively wealthy. I mean, how do you think Allegra Spender’s position not wanting to see house prices drop or have rich people maybe be a little bit less rich will impact her popularity among voters she might actually have to rely on to be re-elected at the next election. You know, young people, families who rent, the people that are actually impacted by these decisions around housing affordability, for example.

RACHEL:

Yeah, look, I think when we think about the Teals, it's easy to just think of their electorates and their constituents as wealthy, white, privileged. I mean, they are electorates that have high average wealth. But, you know, these electorates are diverse. There are plenty of people in all of these electorates who are renting, who are on Jobseeker, who are in rental stress and, you know, especially in places with extremely high real estate costs.

And so I think someone like Allegra Spender needs to be very cautious about who she speaks for in her electorate. And when I had a look at just, you know, a cursory look at the polling booths in Wentworth, I noticed it was actually the more renter heavy areas that swung towards Allegra Spender in the 2022 federal election. Those really, really wealthy mansions along the harbour - those areas stayed Liberal.

It was a lot of Labour and Greens voters who voted tactically to get in someone who wasn't the Lib. You know, there are plenty of Labour and Greens voters in these seats and I think Spender sort of is currently trying to speak for both and you know, trying to say she's worried about housing affordability and those at the bottom. But at the end of the day, her class allegiance lies with those at the top who didn't actually vote for her.

And it's the people who voted for her who may actually look for other alternatives next time if they find that their sort of ‘Liberal light’ MP didn't do what they needed.

ANGE:

You also went to a Cost of Living forum in Zoe Daniel's Melbourne electorate of Goldstein, which is the wealthiest electorate in Victoria. What was that like?

RACHEL:

Yeah, well that event really caught my eye when I was starting to report this essay because I was invited along to a couple of constituent events. And when I saw Cost of Living Forum in Goldstein, I kind of thought, ‘what's that going to be?’ You know, rich people talking about the price of a cup of coffee. And so, yeah, when I went down to this event at the Bentleigh Bowling Club, the people there weren't necessarily the face of the cost of living crisis. You know, it wasn't necessarily those people living in poverty.

Archival tape -- Cost of Living forum:

“It is an incredibly worthwhile exercise to consider where you’re living and how to reduce your costs.”

RACHEL:

And the topics being discussed were mostly aimed at homeowners, to be honest. You know, it was about how to transition your home to cheaper forms of energy, how to sublet a room in your house if you're an empty nester, you know, needing a little bit of extra cash.

Archival tape -- Cost of Living forum:

“There are just so many benefits to opening your space. And for people to actually go into a home where…”

RACHEL:

But I found that Zoe Daniel was also really speaking to her constituents and really educating them about inequality in this country. And, you know, it was the week after the federal budget, she was talking up the increase to Jobseeker that she had advocated for and basically explaining to her constituents why there needed to be help for those at the bottom.

And, you know, we had a conversation about this in her electorate office as well. You know, I asked about Goldstein and she pointed out that, you know, it's not wealthy across the board. You know, young people were moving in, apartments were going up, big houses being torn down. And that's something that's happening in all of the Teal seats. You know, demographics are changing.

But it's also..there is this growing understanding, even from the wealthy, comfortable people in these electorates, that there is a growing wealth gap and it is now very, very difficult for young people to get into the property market. Or to aim for the kind of things that their parents aimed for. And I think that's something Zoe Daniel was especially aware of.

Archival tape -- Zoe Daniel:

“I think there’s an element of sort of not only thinking for yourself, but thinking bigger picture around the wealth gap in this country and poverty, and that that’s not the kind of country we want to be, and that we can’t just sit here in our beautiful, largely comfortable electorate and not worry about that. I think people are concerned about it and also within that context concerned about what the future looks like for their kids if they don’t - and their grandkids, if we don’t do something about these structural issues.”

ANGE:

So, Rachel, as we've said, the Teal wave largely promised action on climate change. That was their big selling point. But a lot has changed in a year, we’re now at a point where the cost of living crisis has overtaken climate change as the most pressing issue in Australia. So in a moment like this, can these independents actually live up to the promise of taking on these problems? Can they do what the major parties can't?

RACHEL:

I mean, the answer is I don't know. My levels of hope of what the Teals could do in this space vary depending on which one I was speaking to. It's important to remember their independence. They're not a party. And what they choose to advocate for and what their electorates want them to do will vary. I heard some really good things on inequality from all of them. They all understand inequality, especially generational inequality, which was something that I heard again and again. You know, people are worried about the next generation, especially when it comes to housing affordability. The other important thing I think about independents is that they're not bound by party lines. You know, they can talk about negative gearing and other tax concessions, these political taboos. So I think they've got the power to put some ideas back on the table. But the question is, it's one thing to say inequality is bad and negative gearing is questionable and that it's horrible that people can't afford housing. But when the rubber hits the road, will they actually be willing to advocate for solutions that involve the wealthy giving something up, whether that's a tax break or, you know, a particular perk that is benefiting only the upper classes?

And I think what I came to here is that there is this strange notion that's taken hold in Australian politics that no one should be worse off because of a policy aimed at helping those at the bottom. You know, winners and losers. Nobody wants to talk about there being losers in order to help another group who maybe needs the help more. We've seen it with sort of Scott Morrison's International Women's Day comments when he said, “we want to see women rise, but we don't want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”

You know, I think we hear it in Anthony Albanese's catch phrase - “a country where no one is held back and no one is left behind.”

But I think ultimately we all know that inequality is getting worse and we're reaching a crisis point. We're in a state of gridlock. The Labour government isn't willing to touch some of the most obvious policy solutions. So I think the question is, can the Teal MPs help break down this gridlock and say some of the things that the major parties can't about inequality and whether they, on behalf of the wealthy in this country, are able to lead a conversation about the fact that, you know, we are now living in a bunyip aristocracy and the aristocrats may be the best place to fix that?

ANGE:

Rachel, thanks so much for your time.

RACHEL:

Thank you for having me.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today,

The Liberal party has won the by-election in the Gold Coast seat of Fadden — with former Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell set to replace Stuart Robert in federal parliament.

The Liberal-National Party received a positive swing of 2-3%.

And

Italy has faced one of its hottest weekends on record, thanks to what’s known as an ‘anti-cyclone’.

The anti-cyclone, named Cerberus, sent temperatures in Rome to 41 degrees, while nearby Sardinia may have reached 48 degrees.

The phenomenon comes after the world recorded its hottest day ever on July 5th.

I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am, I’ll see you tomorrow.

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