Simon Holmes à Court has denied any ties between Climate 200 and a community media organisation the Coalition claims is peddling “disinformation” and promoting teal independent candidates.
The Coalition has filed a complaint to the Australian Electoral Commission about the five digital newspapers owned by Gazette News.
“I don’t know a lot about Gazette,” Holmes à Court, the founder of Climate 200, told the National Press Club on Wednesday. “There’s no connection between Climate 200 and Gazette.
“I have met the founder of [Gazette] before, I knew she was starting a business, [it] sounds like a really interesting development in media.”
The businessman said there should be transparency across all media, which he believed has been “lacking” over many decades.
Gazette was founded by Anna Saulwick in 2024. Saulwick has said Gazette is backed financially by Matt Doran, James Taylor and Mark Rawson.
According to AEC disclosures, in the 2021-22 financial year, Doran donated $100,000 to Climate 200, and in 2023-24 he donated $128,800 to the organisation.
In the 2022-23 financial year, Taylor gave Climate 200-backed ACT Senate candidate David Pocock $91,539, and in the following financial year gave Pocock the same amount, as well as $50,000 to Climate 200.
The shadow minister of state, Jane Hume, filed the complaint to the AEC and called Gazette News a “disinformation campaign”.
“What has been uncovered appears to be a highly sophisticated domestic disinformation campaign bank rolled by Climate 200 and boosted by teal MPs and candidates,” she said.
“How can the teals claim to be champions of transparency if Climate 200 is running a fake news operation, disguising political ads as journalism in a clear attempt to mislead voters ahead of the federal election?”
Saulwick said there would “always be politicians who don’t like scrutiny”, in response to questions from Guardian Australia.
“Gazette is an independent news organisation with no ties to any political group, and any claims otherwise are categorically false,” she said.
“In a small country with relatively few philanthropists, we are glad to have attracted seed support from people whose values align with our mission.”
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According to her bio on Gazette’s website, Saulwick was formerly head of product innovation at Change.org.
Gazette News has five digital papers across metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney, and parts of regional Victoria. The titles cover seats being targeted by the teals – including several Climate 200 are hopeful of claiming like Bradfield, Cowper and Wannon.
The online papers publish local news, including local events, as well as political profiles of candidates in the area.
Independent candidates are often featured in policy pieces. Each outlet also promotes pieces critical of the Coalition’s nuclear policy, including the impact of a hypothetical nuclear disaster.
Gazette’s five digital papers include: the Eastern Melburnian, covering marginal seats including Menzies and Deakin; the North Shore Lorikeet, covering Bradfield and Berowra; the Mid North Coaster, covering Cowper and Lyne; the Gippsland Monitor, covering Monash; and the West Vic Brolga, covering Wannon.
Climate 200 has been spending big in online advertising through its Facebook and Instagram pages and via Independent News, a separate social media page run by Climate 200. In the past 30 days, Meta tracked Climate 200’s spending at just under $330,000 while Independent News spent just over $71,000.
Holmes à Court said that process was transparent.
“We need to meet the public where they are and that is largely on social media these days,” he told the Press Club.