Ben Smith will aim to become the first male teal MP at the next federal election, as Climate-200 backed independents seek to claw more power from the major parties.
Victoria’s reigning father of the year will aim to become the first man elected as a lower house teal MP, joining a host of about 30 candidates backed by funding machine Climate 200 in the looming election when he formally declares he is running on Saturday.
Climate 200-backed independent candidates, the teals, ran in largely Liberal-held inner-city seats for the past two federal elections, with seven MPs elected to the crossbench in 2022. That campaign, led by environmental campaigner Simon Holmes a Court, will be supercharged in the 2025 election. Community groups in the seat were split at the last election and could not unite behind an independent candidate. Smith will seek to consolidate the 12 per cent primary vote split across two progressive independents in 2022 and grow his support with the formal backing of Climate 200, but faces an uphill battle to take the seat from McKenzie.
Underscoring the sensitivity of the political leanings of teal candidates, Smith would not confirm whether he would support Labor or the Coalition in the event of a minority government.“It’s way too early to tell what policies may come out of the parties and how we’d position ourselves,” he said.
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