Its people literally sending a message: If youre not prepared to endorse candidates with our values, or who can deliver on those values, well pick ones that are. I mean, its no accident that [independents like Haines and Steggall] are all progressive on climate change, social policy, and indeed are women. What the voting data is saying is when one-quarter of voters arent voting for the majors, the political system itself adjusts.. We are eating at a little Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Jiro, on busy Glenferrie Road, not far from Holmes Courts house. At the last election, the House of Representatives vote for minor parties and independents hit a new record of almost 25 per cent, or one in four voters. Steggall bought VTO T-shirts for her husband and parents two days before Christmas 2018. The trajectory twists through a series of how-to, technology-led apprenticeships, each leading logically to the next. That was the way electricity was first introduced into much of the country, with smaller decentralised generators, owned by the local communities. I wanted people to see I was just a normal guy and I wanted to talk to them about why they were joining. Drawing on his marketing background, Kelly did multiple surveys of his 6000-strong VTO database during its life.Ninety-five per cent of them had never done anything politically before, he says. Louis Trerise, He also says the movement would not have existed without the pandemic, lockdowns, and Zoom. I got involved accidently with the Kids off Nauru movement. Isamu Sawa. Or setting up a primitive internet communication system in our basement when he was 10 or 11; Robert and I always thought hed be an engineer.. Lane says the Danish founder of Hepburn Wind, Per Bernard, attended the meeting with a few people from Daylesford, and they saw the community express a lot of opposition to one of those projects. He is also a senior advisor to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University, as director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grant-makers Network.[1]. He is the son of Australia's first billionaire Robert Holmes Court, and convenor of Climate 200. After the bust, he returned to Australia, applying his software and product development skills to water issues at the eight NT cattle stations then owned by his family. Meanwhile, in September, North Sydneys Tink was announced as the first of the upcoming elections independent candidates, followed by reports that Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, a Liberal, will likely face a well-funded independent in the neighbouring blue-ribbon seat of Bradfield. Work with usPresent in 2023Share your ideas. Simon Holmes Court is founder of Climate 200, a group of more than 7,300 Australians working to help community-backed independent candidates contest Australian elections. He sold Observant in 2017 because it had reached a point where the US was its natural home, he says. Since then, businesswoman Susan Benedyka and constitutional lawyer Kim Rubenstein have announced campaigns for senate seats in Victoria and the ACT respectively, and the former deputy mayor of Greater Shepparton Rob Priestly has announced hell run against Nationals MP Damian Drum for the Victorian seat of Nicholls. Holmes Court says despite the perception to the contrary, he doesnt feel he has landed too far from the tree. And then we got COVID, and COVID absolutely fundamentally showed us that you need your community around you.. He seems to relish in the political barbs too, calling Jane Hume out for bitchiness and Sarah Henderson a #crumbmaiden, perhaps explaining why some rivals call him a piece of work. Josh. tesla model s hidden menu access code. As with most investors in community-owned renewable energy, his motivations were a mix of hard-nosed financial ones, and the desire to do a bit of good. From there, he was recruited by Netscape to work as a software engineer in Silicon Valley at the height of the 1990s dotcom boom. As does the evolution of the Community Independents Project itself. Its a circuit-breaker out of where we are right now, with an incredibly high rate of return.. Its what the third of four children to Australias first billionaire, Robert Holmes Court, and his former science teacher wife, Janet, had always done. On Leonards Hill, just outside the town of Daylesford famed for its natural springs stand two wind turbines that not only power the local area, but have also added substantial power to the community-owned renewable energy movement in Australia. ). You dont send John Howard somewhere you dont need him. Of course, how many of these burgeoning groups end up mounting compelling campaigns and finding the kind of authentically local, centrist candidates that all agree will be the key to success remains to be seen. Three weeks later, her candidacy was announced. So far, C200 has matched $100,000 in local donations in North Sydney, where former charities CEO Kylea Tink last month announced she will take on Liberal moderate incumbent Trent Zimmerman; $60,000 in Wentworth (Sharma) and $51,000 in Mackellar (held by Liberal Jason Falinski), both Sydney seats for which candidates are expected to be announced soon. Last election, two seats flipped from Labor to Liberal in Qld. Introducing Simon Holmes a Court. Its my responsibility to do something., Simon Holmes Court; But if it does work, the payoff for Australia will be enormous. I did an op-ed on why it was inevitable, and you shouldnt worry. I found myself standing on the footpath with a glass of wine, Holmes Court says. my cat will only eat fish flavored cat food osrs zuk timer par Catgories : castle in the ground ending explained. Three days later, she rang to discuss running. Connecting, networking, making things happen. To meit will unleash a whole different way that were dealing with this, the medical researcher turned federal backbencher said. how much sperm does a 15 year old produce. amr covid testing results springfield, ma. Through that I got to know Kerryn Phelps and got to see how the independents could make a difference. I want it to be six to 10 times bigger and more effective, he says of C200s campaign for the next federal election, due by the end of May. Im not actually concerned. He was very impressed with the Hawke-Keating era and Australia becoming brave on the world stage., Ive always rallied against injustice. Such tales have become part of the storyline of the independents groups as they need to be, given it is disenchanted small-l liberals they are looking to attract. The incumbents, Zali [Steggall], Helen [Haines], Rebekha [Sharkie] and Andrew Wilkie, are all doing a great job and I hope they remain. Simon was a driving force behind Australias first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Simon is also a cleantech investor, climate philanthropist and a director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grant-makers Network. These are incredibly powerful organisms and if you do something to threaten them you can expect a swift immune system response, he says. Main Menu. Deves' bodyguard + the Jane Hume vid", "Simon Holmes Court and Senator Jane Hume clash live on TV", "10 Aug 2003 - Simon & Katrina Holmes a Court ~ 19 June 1997 - Archived Website", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Simon_Holmes__Court&oldid=1123053515, People educated at Geelong Grammar School, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2022, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Entrepreneur, convenor of Climate 200, director of the Smart Energy Council, Katrina Holmes Court (nee von Mller-Harteneck), This page was last edited on 21 November 2022, at 14:28. It was a very simple reform, if there wasnt appropriate medical care locally they could get flown for treatment. Why is the narrative that the election was won and lost in Queensland? Their model this way of owning your own energy generator locally emerged in the late 70s, so they have been doing it for decades. . He writes on news, business and leadership. fremont high school yearbook 2020; dave willis pastor quotes; rochester gymnastics academy. Three of our donors have been called up by Frydenberg and berated for donating.. In the lead up to the 2019 Australian federal election, Climate200 raised nearly half a million dollars[6] for the campaign. But he says it was a community wind farm in Hepburn, near his farm in Daylesford, 15 years ago, that proved very significant for me. Post author By ; impossible burger font Post date July 1, 2022; southern california hunting dog training . Holmes Court was a driving force behind the country's first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind. Simon Holmes Court began his career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley during the first dotcom wave, then spent over a decade in precision farm water management. Its against the government; anything other than the existing major parties, he says. Theyve contributed just under $10m.. And unlike in 2019, when C200 only came to light five months after the election when the Australian Electoral Commission released its political donations list, this time Holmes Court is very much leading from the front, initially via his preferred platform, Twitter, but increasingly in the mainstream media, as moderate Liberals began to show unmistakable signs of heat stress on the climate issue. Holmes Court says he had been meeting Frydenberg every year from about 2012 until their falling-out and was a financial supporter. But back in Hepburn shire, not satisfied with the windfarm, the residents are expanding the renewables in their area. I dont even know if its a 50/50. Everyone knows hes a management consultant who not long before he was parachuted into his seat was living in his $6 million mansion in Woollahra. With the bushfires, everyone could see that the government wasnt the answer, that fire brigades werent the answer, that just trusting the system to solve your problems wasnt working, she says. The hostess said, You have to leave now. I said, Can I finish my drink? She said, No, the Treasurer says you have to leave now.[4], Frydenberg criticised Holmes Court for spending much of the COVID-19 Melbourne lockdowns at his farm in Daylesford with his family. I was hopeful, Tink says. He has also been accused of running a party of white privilege for rejecting more diverse candidates such as Kyinzom Dhongdue, a refugee and former MP in the Dalai Lamas Tibetan parliament in exile. If anything were like a political venture capitalist, your readers would understand that, he says. And in the case of the former Liberal supporters among them, hell-bent on unseating a party many say left them before they left it. From the road, all you saw were these beautiful stands of massive eucalypts. Now he will turn his focus to his third interest, Embark Australia, which helps other communities develop their own renewable-energy projects. I mean, its lovely but its also three years too late, the international focus is on targets for 2030, 2035, Kylea Tink tells Good Weekend of the Coalitions 2050 net zero target. But the die was already cast in most peoples campaigns., From here Ill be working the Rolodex to try to convince philanthropists that this is a really effective form of philanthropy. If you look at the data during this term of government, real emissions have dropped by 1 per cent with the benefit of COVID shutdowns and drought, so really there has been no progress. Holmes Court is at pains to argue this Climate 200 movement has been misrepresented including by incumbent politicians and the mainstream media. His mother remembers him enthusing about a fantastic electrical socket that caught his three-year-old eye as they walked through Myer six months later. Simon began his career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley during the first dotcom wave, then spent more than a decade in precision farm water management. Not that it ever drove her all the way to apostasy. Look, Im an impatient incrementalist. The government lost a vote on their own bill for the first time in 90 years. . Im not feeling a mood for change. (As she speaks, though, at least one potentially noteworthy Liberal-aligned candidate is being sounded out to run against her. That all changed two months ago, when he relaunched Climate 200 (C200), the fundraising group he founded just before the May 2019 federal election with support from 35 investors, including tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. is pepperoni processed meat; pictures of yin yang tattoos. So a vote for Sharma or Zimmerman endorses the governments record on climate. Throughout, Holmes Court has kept largely to himself, certainly compared to his headline-grabbing elder brother Peter, the former theatre impresario and South Sydney Rabbitohs co-owner. ABC TV - 7.30 Report by Cheryl Hall. Simon was a driving force behind the countrys first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Credlin thinks Im a stooge for GetUp. I got involved in Australias first community-owned, wind farm in Hepburn. Im not a billionaire, I built and sold an ag-tech business five years ago, worked on precision water management in agriculture. He insists, as he did at the National Press Club earlier this year, there are three criteria to fund their candidates: action on climate, integrity, and gender diversity. Fairfax Photo Library. [2], Holmes Court was a driving force behind Australia's first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Holmes Court also funded a series of ads supporting the Medevac bill. Kristoffer Paulsen. And the group had overwhelming local support. Simon is the founder of Climate 200, a group of more than 7,300 Australians working to help community-backed independent candidates contest the recent federal election. Part of the sale was a commitment, not to work in the space [for seven years]. When Trump got elected four years ago, I decided it was time to pull my finger out and start to apply my skills to make change, he says. From CIP to all the Voices For, Voices Of, Vote Out and independent groups, the enabler has been technology. [4], Later in 2019 Holmes Court was kicked out of the Auburn Hotel in Hawthorn East at a "meet the candidate" event with Frydenberg before the 2019 election. He doesnt know me.. On Thursday 14 October 2021 Holmes Court appeared on Q+A alongside Liberal MP Tim Wilson, Labor MP Chris Bowen, Amelia Telford (Director of SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network) and Anne Baker (Mayor of Issac Regional Council). Every time, one of the major parties has [eventually] either collapsed, fused with another party, or split. Not that the number is determinative. [18], Holmes Court married Katrina von Mller, sister of the Australian film director Karl von Mller, in 1997 at Hydra, Greece. World Vision, Save the Children Fund, GetUp, all worked really hard on getting kids off Nauru, he says. Patrick Durkin is Melbourne bureau chief and BOSS deputy editor. It helped support the campaigns of Zali Steggall, Helen Haines and Rebekha Sharkie. He subsequently established Observant Pty Ltd as a company to develop remote water monitoring systems and other products. No connection at all, he says. His AIESEC experience led to networking the Asian offices of the then family-owned company John Holland, before completing an artificial intelligence and cognitive science degree at Americas Ivy League Dartmouth College. He and Katrina recently told their kids they had decided to sink upwards of $200,000 of their own money into C200. They are the latest manifestation of a longer-term trend that has the potential to redraw the political landscape: the rising minority vote. craig apple sheriff married 0 Vous etes ici: . Climate change. And with Hepburn shire adding its name to a growing list of councils shooting to reduce their emissions to zero, every bit counts. Several projects around the country have received advice and support from Embark, including Pingala, which gathered locals in Sydneys Newtown to build a solar array on the top of a brewery, and the Sydney Renewable Power Company, which recently built Australias largest CBD solar farm. Holmes Court insists his journey into political activism makes sense when you map out the dot points. For former Kevin Rudd staffer Lachlan Harris, that 25 per cent minority vote is a magic number. publics scepticism about Holmes Courts motives: as he did at the National Press Club earlier this year. And thereby hangs the tale. Simon is the founder of Climate 200, a group of more than 7,300 Australians working to help community-backed independent candidates contest the next federal election. Simon Holmes Court was the founding chairman of Hepburn Wind. So basically, without spending a dollar, we were able to rely on peer-to-peer communication; people talking to their friends.. Mall of Georgia's retail roster includes shops such as Apple, Altar'd State, Coach, H&M, Michael Kors, Pandora, Pottery Barn . But there are no more strings attached. The idea of communities owning their own power generators is not new in Australia, according to Lane, its just been forgotten. I was 35 and had never done any advocacy before.. Two of my family members [he is married to Katrina, the sister of filmmaker Karl von Moller, with four children] were seriously ill, it was the most shit f---ing time ever, so Josh can f--- off, excuse me. It kept the lake area electrified, says Lane. As you can imagine, I had a fairly bizarreupbringing, with politicians of the day around the dinner table, he says. He was a swinging voter. In recent years he has written opinion pieces on climate for The Guardian, emerging occasionally to talk about energy transition. Holmes a Court describes Observant as his ''day job'', although getting the wind farm up and running has consumed much of his energy in the past couple of years. Every week I speak to someone who has made a major career change or left their career and are focusing on nothing but this climate problem., Its people literally sending a message: If youre not prepared to endorse candidates with our values, or who can deliver on those values, well pick ones that are. , He initially tried the party route, approaching his local member in Kooyong, Frydenberg, even joining the Treasurers Kooyong 200 Club fundraising group in early 2017. Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. . He is an energy analyst, clean technology investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and . I found myself standing on the footpath with a glass of wine, Simon Holmes Court says. Essentially what youve got is traditional small-l liberals, who feel the partys leadership and its policies no longer represent their values, says former PM Malcolm. From left: Paul, Simon, Cathy, Janet and Peter. His father, Robert Holmes Court, who died at 53 in 1990 from a heart attack, became Australias first billionaire as a corporate raider across mining, media, real estate, and famously tried to buy BHP. He was expelled by Frydenberg after he wrote an op-ed in Guardian Australia in 2018 supporting the closure of AGL's coal-fired Liddell Power Station. Id messaged the Treasurers office earlier to let them know about my lunch date and on my way to the restaurant, Frydenberg called and bent my ear for 15 minutes, suggesting a few tough questions he would ask Holmes Court. Its an emergency and we have to be really strategic, he says. For a number of years, people havent had to rely on each other, because the system was basically working. Disgruntled small-l liberals. - FXB1285484 Simon Holmes Court photographed for Good Weekend around his his 40-hectare farm in Daylesford, Victoria, October 2021. This was in reference to a quote by a Liberal insider from The Saturday Paper who said "I look at John Howard as the angel of death. Holmes Court and his wife have a 36-hectare off-grid farm in Daylesford, Victoria, living there during Melbourne's lockdown. Our conversation turns to the publics scepticism about Holmes Courts motives: who he is and why he is doing this? [2], After completing his degree, Holmes Court spent five years working in Silicon Valley, including for Netscape, before returning to Australia in 2001. Voices Of, Voices For and non-aligned groups. When he launched the Climate200 fund he did so on Twitter and raised $1.4 million in two weeks. It was a f---ing awful experience. Simon was a driving force behind the country's first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Holmes Court subsequently moved to the United States to study cognitive science and computer science at Dartmouth College. A few heads turn when a photographer arrives to take some photos as we eat. But beyond the construction of the 4.1MW windfarm enough to power about 2,300 households Hepburn Wind pioneered the modern large-scale community-ownership model of renewable energy in Australia, which is now being replicated around the country. 2019 was basically me hitting the phones 10 weeks before the election saying, Heres my strategy. I thought wed have about 50 people, because Id had about 50 phone calls from all over Australia and it was a short time-frame, she says. Which is why Im happy to do it., Even hes been surprised by the response since late August. Its a big call for someone who culturally identifies as Liberal to cross, Lock says. It was the cross-bench that gave Gillard the backbone to take action on climate change. Credit:Louise Kennerley, What turned disaffection into active resistance was Abbotts 2017 vote against marriage equality, despite Warringah having one of the countrys highest votes in favour, at 75 per cent. Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. I much prefer incremental change than blowing everything up, but my impatience is that I believe we have a hung parliament right now. The Holmes a Court family name is well known in Australian business circles but Simon's involvement in Hepburn Wind is that of a local and his focus is community-owned enterprise. [15], During the campaign for the 2022 election, Holmes Court sued Victorian senator Jane Hume for allegedly lying about him on the radio. Simon Holmes Court addresses the National Press Club of Australia on "Independents and Climate - the hope to end the lost decade". Thats where we cant let the pressure off., Im at the age now where you think, People are actually listening to me now. On the other, though, has been the growing profile of an estimated 30-plus activist groups. Twitters been huge for me, he says. Frydenberg has called Holmes Court gutless for founding the Climate200 fund, which has raised more than $9 million (he is at pains to say that is from more than 9000 donors) to fund 22 election candidates, mostly in inner-city Liberal seats, but not putting his own hand up to run for political office. And theyre stuck, and theyve been stuck for eight years., Nor does he need wholesale revolution. He is the son of Australia's first billionaire Robert Holmes Court, and convenor of Climate 200.He is also a senior advisor to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University, as director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grant-makers Network. It is a very, very important pivot pointhaving seen us go through the cultural energy wars, and seen three prime ministers change because of that pressureits a pretty significant step., First-term Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, whos been the governments point man on the Voices Of, Voices For and non-aligned groups, including asking the Australian Electoral Commission to ensure they comply with funding-disclosure requirements reinforces this point. Which is why Im happy to do it.. He then began working for the family-owned Heytesbury Pty. Instead, theyre giving up jobs, taking career breaks to get involved in politics, often for the first time, bypassing parties and party machines with which theyve lost faith. Matt Murfitt, 39, was another swinging voter politicised by climate change. He was up there with his R.M. The turbines, cheesily called Gusto and Gale, constitute the very first community-owned windfarm in Australia. It underlines just how organic these groups are. This time around Holmes Court has gone much earlier, looking to support the climate-and-integrity-focused campaigns that have sprung up around the country in recent years, inspired by McGowan and Hainess success in Indi and Zali Steggalls 2019 unseating of former prime minister Tony Abbott in the northern Sydney seat of Warringah. Simon Holmes Court (born 30 May 1972) is an Australian entrepreneur, cleantech investor, climate philanthropist and convenor of Climate 200. . We dont start campaigns, we dont choose candidates, campaigns come to us and if the campaign matches our mandate, the seat is winnable and the fundamentals check out we will donate to them., If anything we are like a political venture capitalist, your readers would understand, he says. The hostess said, You have to leave now. I said, Can I finish my drink? She said, No, the Treasurer says you have to leave now..