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Sydney Morning Herald
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Someone will get hurt': Zoe Daniel feared for her safety in toxic election campaign
Zoe Daniel says the harder the struggle gets, the stronger she becomes. That's just her personality. But it doesn't mean she wasn't shocked, saddened and disappointed that the battle for the seat of Goldstein became so toxic that the former MP feared for her safety and was worried someone was going to attack her home. Sitting down with The Age for lunch at a cafe in Brighton East in the midst of packing up her electoral office, Daniel said she was, at times, scared for her personal safety during the election. 'I had the Australian Federal Police with me during the last week of the campaign,' she says. 'I was worried someone might attack our house.' The teal independent lost the seat in Melbourne's south-east to Liberal Tim Wilson by a margin of 175 votes after a recount. The close count further drew out a campaign that had already seen, Daniel says, bad behaviour online spill over into real life. During the campaign she says people screamed at her on the street calling her a 'c---' and a 'bitch', she reported harassment and stalking to police after a Facebook post identified her car in a private car park behind her electoral office, and she believes she was followed home in one instance. Daniel says advertising for her campaign did not target Wilson personally and was focused on policy. 'I won't go low, I don't go low,' Daniel says. 'The problem with not going low is that you just go under a barrage of attack.' Daniel says if voters in the electorate were driving down the highway seeing 'very personal' billboards targeting her, 'some of that will land'. She says fellow teal Monique Ryan also 'had it pretty hard during the campaign as well'. 'I thought one of us is going to get hurt eventually,' she says. Wilson said that after having had to make reports to state and federal police during election campaigns, he shared Daniel's concerns about safety. 'There is no place for conduct that makes candidates feel unsafe, and should it occur the best thing to do is report it to the police,' he said. The campaign in Goldstein featured billboards along the Nepean Highway, trucks driving around and digital advertising calling on residents not to vote for Daniel. She was also subject to attack ads run by third party proxy groups, including Australians for Prosperity and Repeal the Teal. One, a giant billboard opposite the Kingston City Hall displayed a photo of Daniel's head in a balloon. 'All hot air: Vote for change,' it stated. 'Blocked: Local voices. Disinterested: In local crime. Zero Delivery: On cost of living.' It was authorised by Australians for Prosperity, headed by former Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who describes himself as Wilson's 'good friend' and was behind Wilson's tilt at the Liberal leadership. At pre-poll booths, flyers were handed out with a photo of Daniel and the headline: 'Repeal the Teal'. They stated: 'Teals… Not open. Not accountable. Not independent. Not worth it. Put Zoe Daniel last.' Repeal the Teal is an initiative of the Jewish activist network J-United, with the material authorised by Harriet Warlow-Shill, a Melbourne lawyer who hosted an online event in March headlined, 'Does my teal support terror? One Woman's Journey to find out'. Warlow-Shill said the Repeal the Teal campaign was not linked to the Liberal Party, and that she resigned as a Liberal Party member in February. A spokesman for the Liberals said neither Wilson nor the party engaged Australians for Prosperity or Repeal the Teal. Daniel says much of the abuse towards her was 'opportunistic'. 'If you are a woman, they threaten to rape you or go after your children,' she says. 'As that kind of stuff continued to escalate, then people were getting those disgusting letters in their inboxes saying it was like 1930s Germany. I was really frightened of that.' The letters were sent anonymously to some residents with Daniel corflutes outside their homes, accusing them of being antisemitic and hating Jews. They claimed many in the Jewish community were considering their future in Victoria and Australia, and said Daniel's supporters were 'an active participant in our decisions to uproot our families and leave'. The letters, signed off 'Your Jewish neighbour', said the writers were not connected with any political party. Goldstein has a large Jewish population, with the latest census data showing 7.1 per cent of residents identify Judaism as their religious affiliation. The only debate between Daniel and Wilson during the campaign was before members of the local Jewish community at the Brighton Hebrew Congregation, where Wilson wore a yarmulke and declared he was a Zionist. He criticised Daniel for accepting funding from Climate 200, which he described as 'racist and antisemitic'. Daniel asked Wilson where his funding had come from and noted that he declared zero dollars in funding after the last election. 'I think it's incredibly unfortunate to see a political party weaponise people's grief and trauma for political gain,' Daniel says. 'I thought it was disgusting.' Daniel points to her advocacy for the Jewish community during her time as an MP, including helping to organise repatriation flights, establish an antisemitism envoy, introduce stronger laws criminalising hate crimes and support anti-doxxing laws. During the campaign, Liberal senator James Paterson accused Daniel of 'abandoning' the Jewish community and participating in the 'vilification' of Israel. 'It's just an outright lie, but it's also designed to inflame and, for me, that was at a point where I was starting to feel really concerned,' Daniel says. 'It's really irresponsible. You just shouldn't be saying that.' Daniel says she is proud of what she and her team achieved in Goldstein and believes the future is bright for the independent and teal movement, even though only eight of the 35 candidates supported by Climate 200 won seats this election. 'The independents got really close in lots of seats,' she says. 'There are various ways to measure success. I mean the presence of those independents now has the Liberal Party on its knees because the Liberal Party had to throw resources at so many seats that it previously would not have had to.' Loading Daniel says the independents and teals have delivered a 'massive change' to Australian politics. 'I don't think you can only judge it based on who won and who lost because I think what you need to look at is the erosion of the major parties, and just how that's changing the political landscape.' Daniel says there is a clear pathway for an independent in the future in Goldstein. 'Will it be me? I'm not sure,' she says. 'Do you want to have a look through my emails? Every single email is 'Please run in 2028', 'Please run in 2028', 'We'll be there', 'We'll be there'.' Daniel thought she had won on election night and claimed victory at a celebratory party at the Elwood Bowls Club, but a surge in postal votes got Wilson across the line. She says her supporters are disappointed but also proud and willing to keep going. 'I have the kind of personality where the harder it gets, the stronger I become. Not to say I'm not disappointed and generally pissed off.' Daniel says anything can happen in the next three years, in terms of domestic politics, international politics and what unfolds for her workwise. 'I am not 'in the foetal position' as the former member described himself after his loss in 2022, and for him to be telling all and sundry that he hopes I 'find peace' is the height of arrogance,' she says. 'His feelings are his own to wrestle with, not mine. I will write my own story and Tim Wilson does not dictate when my chapters begin and end.' Wilson said he thanked Daniel for her service to the community. 'The election is now over, the people of Goldstein have made their decision. As Australians, we must accept the results of elections and move on,' he said. Daniel is sanguine about what is next for her. 'I'm not dead,' she says. 'I'm not a career politician, so I've got other options, unlike my predecessor. I've done lots of different things in my life, and I've been really lucky with the opportunities that I have had. So I need to find the right path.'
The Age
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
‘Someone will get hurt': Zoe Daniel feared for her safety in toxic election campaign
Zoe Daniel says the harder the struggle gets, the stronger she becomes. That's just her personality. But it doesn't mean she wasn't shocked, saddened and disappointed that the battle for the seat of Goldstein became so toxic that the former MP feared for her safety and was worried someone was going to attack her home. Sitting down with The Age for lunch at a cafe in Brighton East in the midst of packing up her electoral office, Daniel said she was, at times, scared for her personal safety during the election. 'I had the Australian Federal Police with me during the last week of the campaign,' she says. 'I was worried someone might attack our house.' The teal independent lost the seat in Melbourne's south-east to Liberal Tim Wilson by a margin of 175 votes after a recount. The close count further drew out a campaign that had already seen, Daniel says, bad behaviour online spill over into real life. During the campaign she says people screamed at her on the street calling her a 'c---' and a 'bitch', she reported harassment and stalking to police after a Facebook post identified her car in a private car park behind her electoral office, and she believes she was followed home in one instance. Daniel says advertising for her campaign did not target Wilson personally and was focused on policy. 'I won't go low, I don't go low,' Daniel says. 'The problem with not going low is that you just go under a barrage of attack.' Daniel says if voters in the electorate were driving down the highway seeing 'very personal' billboards targeting her, 'some of that will land'. She says fellow teal Monique Ryan also 'had it pretty hard during the campaign as well'. 'I thought one of us is going to get hurt eventually,' she says. Wilson said that after having had to make reports to state and federal police during election campaigns, he shared Daniel's concerns about safety. 'There is no place for conduct that makes candidates feel unsafe, and should it occur the best thing to do is report it to the police,' he said. The campaign in Goldstein featured billboards along the Nepean Highway, trucks driving around and digital advertising calling on residents not to vote for Daniel. She was also subject to attack ads run by third party proxy groups, including Australians for Prosperity and Repeal the Teal. One, a giant billboard opposite the Kingston City Hall displayed a photo of Daniel's head in a balloon. 'All hot air: Vote for change,' it stated. 'Blocked: Local voices. Disinterested: In local crime. Zero Delivery: On cost of living.' It was authorised by Australians for Prosperity, headed by former Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who describes himself as Wilson's 'good friend' and was behind Wilson's tilt at the Liberal leadership. At pre-poll booths, flyers were handed out with a photo of Daniel and the headline: 'Repeal the Teal'. They stated: 'Teals… Not open. Not accountable. Not independent. Not worth it. Put Zoe Daniel last.' Repeal the Teal is an initiative of the Jewish activist network J-United, with the material authorised by Harriet Warlow-Shill, a Melbourne lawyer who hosted an online event in March headlined, 'Does my teal support terror? One Woman's Journey to find out'. Warlow-Shill said the Repeal the Teal campaign was not linked to the Liberal Party, and that she resigned as a Liberal Party member in February. A spokesman for the Liberals said neither Wilson nor the party engaged Australians for Prosperity or Repeal the Teal. Daniel says much of the abuse towards her was 'opportunistic'. 'If you are a woman, they threaten to rape you or go after your children,' she says. 'As that kind of stuff continued to escalate, then people were getting those disgusting letters in their inboxes saying it was like 1930s Germany. I was really frightened of that.' The letters were sent anonymously to some residents with Daniel corflutes outside their homes, accusing them of being antisemitic and hating Jews. They claimed many in the Jewish community were considering their future in Victoria and Australia, and said Daniel's supporters were 'an active participant in our decisions to uproot our families and leave'. The letters, signed off 'Your Jewish neighbour', said the writers were not connected with any political party. Goldstein has a large Jewish population, with the latest census data showing 7.1 per cent of residents identify Judaism as their religious affiliation. The only debate between Daniel and Wilson during the campaign was before members of the local Jewish community at the Brighton Hebrew Congregation, where Wilson wore a yarmulke and declared he was a Zionist. He criticised Daniel for accepting funding from Climate 200, which he described as 'racist and antisemitic'. Daniel asked Wilson where his funding had come from and noted that he declared zero dollars in funding after the last election. 'I think it's incredibly unfortunate to see a political party weaponise people's grief and trauma for political gain,' Daniel says. 'I thought it was disgusting.' Daniel points to her advocacy for the Jewish community during her time as an MP, including helping to organise repatriation flights, establish an antisemitism envoy, introduce stronger laws criminalising hate crimes and support anti-doxxing laws. During the campaign, Liberal senator James Paterson accused Daniel of 'abandoning' the Jewish community and participating in the 'vilification' of Israel. 'It's just an outright lie, but it's also designed to inflame and, for me, that was at a point where I was starting to feel really concerned,' Daniel says. 'It's really irresponsible. You just shouldn't be saying that.' Daniel says she is proud of what she and her team achieved in Goldstein and believes the future is bright for the independent and teal movement, even though only eight of the 35 candidates supported by Climate 200 won seats this election. 'The independents got really close in lots of seats,' she says. 'There are various ways to measure success. I mean the presence of those independents now has the Liberal Party on its knees because the Liberal Party had to throw resources at so many seats that it previously would not have had to.' Loading Daniel says the independents and teals have delivered a 'massive change' to Australian politics. 'I don't think you can only judge it based on who won and who lost because I think what you need to look at is the erosion of the major parties, and just how that's changing the political landscape.' Daniel says there is a clear pathway for an independent in the future in Goldstein. 'Will it be me? I'm not sure,' she says. 'Do you want to have a look through my emails? Every single email is 'Please run in 2028', 'Please run in 2028', 'We'll be there', 'We'll be there'.' Daniel thought she had won on election night and claimed victory at a celebratory party at the Elwood Bowls Club, but a surge in postal votes got Wilson across the line. She says her supporters are disappointed but also proud and willing to keep going. 'I have the kind of personality where the harder it gets, the stronger I become. Not to say I'm not disappointed and generally pissed off.' Daniel says anything can happen in the next three years, in terms of domestic politics, international politics and what unfolds for her workwise. 'I am not 'in the foetal position' as the former member described himself after his loss in 2022, and for him to be telling all and sundry that he hopes I 'find peace' is the height of arrogance,' she says. 'His feelings are his own to wrestle with, not mine. I will write my own story and Tim Wilson does not dictate when my chapters begin and end.' Wilson said he thanked Daniel for her service to the community. 'The election is now over, the people of Goldstein have made their decision. As Australians, we must accept the results of elections and move on,' he said. Daniel is sanguine about what is next for her. 'I'm not dead,' she says. 'I'm not a career politician, so I've got other options, unlike my predecessor. I've done lots of different things in my life, and I've been really lucky with the opportunities that I have had. So I need to find the right path.'
Sydney Morning Herald
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Package teal: The independent movement, three years on
Elsewhere in Sydney, the teal line held firm. Sophie Scamps retained Mackellar with a swing, Zali Steggall held Warringah, and Allegra Spender stayed on in Wentworth. The only departing teal was Kylea Tink, whose North Sydney seat was abolished. Victoria: Teal cracks show The sole teal upset came in Victoria, with Zoe Daniel all but assumed to have lost Goldstein to former Liberal MP Tim Wilson in a dramatic rematch (although a recount is still on the cards). Daniel beat Wilson in 2022, but this time Wilson pulled ahead on postal votes after Daniel prematurely claimed victory on election night. The margin in the see-sawing count narrowed again in recent days, but most observers predict Wilson will win – just. His triumph was historic: the first Liberal to reclaim a seat from an independent, and the first to defeat a teal incumbent. He dubbed himself a 'teal slayer' and borrowed from their campaign playbook – early corflutes, branded T-shirts, and 'coffee swarms'. While Daniel focused on national issues like climate policy and tax reform, Wilson zeroed in on hyper-local concerns around crime and planning, despite them being state matters. He also targeted Goldstein's 10 per cent Jewish community, calling himself a Zionist and criticising Daniel's support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Wilson's win came despite being outspent by Daniel, who raised more than $1.8 million – including $570,000 from Climate 200 – and, like other incumbents, had the advantage of publicly funded office resources running into the hundreds of thousands. Wilson said his $1 million campaign was partly self-funded, but he disclosed no donations pre-election, in line with the minimum requirements under federal rules. Third-party groups – Australians for Prosperity, Better Australia, and Repeal the Teal – ran aggressive attack ads against Daniel. Two of these had direct Liberal links. 'The teals are not an unstoppable force,' Wilson said. 'No matter how large their chequebook, it can be beaten by a strong Liberal heart and a courageous Liberal heart.' Loading Monique Ryan survived a tough battle in Kooyong after a redistribution added Liberal-leaning areas such as Toorak and Malvern from the abolished neighbouring electorate of Higgins. Her six-point 2022 victory over Josh Frydenberg was reduced to a slim margin – 50.6 per cent after preferences, or just 1400 votes as of Saturday – following a strong challenge from Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer. Anticipating a tight race, Ryan's team knocked on 55,000 doors and raised $1.1 million from 2683 donors (including $47,000 from Climate 200) since the start of the year. Hamer's campaign cost around $1.5 million, according to a Liberal party spokesman. Kenny noted that the Melbourne teals had a rougher ride than their Sydney counterparts due to a number of small but compounding factors: the unpopularity of the Allan Labor state government, local law and order issues in affluent suburbs, and less favourable boundary changes. 'So a lot of small things adding up to pretty difficult circumstances,' he said. Added to this was the sizeable Jewish population in both electorates – larger in Goldstein. 'There's obviously quite a strong pro-Israel vote in Goldstein … so I think that's probably not helped [Daniel], either. And given that we're talking about such fine margins, you don't need big shifts in any of these things for it to matter.' Kenny and other analysts said while then-opposition leader Peter Dutton was not popular, the vitriol felt for him was not comparable to Scott Morrison in 2022 – most notably because Dutton was not prime minister. Still, Dutton mostly stayed clear of teal seats, where he was seen as a liability. 'That anti-Dutton message doesn't work quite as well … particularly as we got later in the campaign, and it became clear that he wasn't going to win,' analyst Ben Raue, of The Tally Room blog and podcast, said. 'Dutton stayed away from these seats, he was no help there. If Tim Wilson gets re-elected [in Goldstein], it's not thanks to him.' Unlike Bradfield in NSW, the Liberal candidates in Goldstein and Kooyong also had long lead-in times – Wilson began campaigning almost as soon as he lost in 2022, while Hamer was preselected for Kooyong more than a year out from the election. Both candidates mounted strong ground games. Beyond the city: High hopes, hard limits Regional Victoria was also disappointing terrain for independent candidates hoping to make fresh inroads. Helen Haines comfortably retained Indi with 58.5 per cent of the vote after a minuscule swing against her (-0.41 per cent), but no new Climate 200 candidates broke through. Wannon, held by Liberal MPs (including former prime Minister Malcolm Fraser) since 1955, proved resilient to the teal pitch for a third time. Dan Tehan's campaign, assisted by right-wing lobby Advance, framed Alex Dyson – a comedian and podcaster – as a 'Green in disguise' and even a 'clown'. The result was a modest swing to Tehan, now a rising power in the diminished Coalition. Touted contests in peri-urban Flinders, on the Mornington Peninsula, and regional Monash, covering parts of Gippsland, failed to fire, despite independent candidates snatching double-figure primary votes. No inroads were made elsewhere in NSW: Berowra (won by Liberal Julian Leeser), Gilmore (Labor's Fiona Phillips), Cowper (Nationals' Pat Conaghan), Calare (National-turned-independent Andrew Gee), Lyne (Nationals' Alison Penfold), Farrer (now Liberal leader Sussan Ley), or Riverina (Nationals' Michael McCormack). Kenny said regional seats were less susceptible to independent challengers unless they were former Nationals – like Andrew Gee or Bob Katter. 'The Nats have done quite well, and the reasons for that is that these country electorates, or regional electorates, tend to be very stable, population-wise,' he said. 'They tend to still reflect the somewhat older model of people being loyal to a particular party consistently and perhaps even intergenerationally.' Climate 200-backed independents failed to take any of the six Queensland seats they contested – although Holmes à Court has said Ellie Smith, who ran in Dutton's seat of Dickson, holds some responsibility for unseating the opposition leader by sending preferences to Labor's Ali France. Do the teals still matter? And to whom? Holmes à Court said the election result was 'a strong endorsement' for community independents and noted that independents had finished in the top two candidates in 22 electorates. He noted that 1 million Australians voted for an independent and that independents enjoyed the strongest swing, marginally ahead of Labor. 'But politics is brutal, right? There's, there's no silver medal,' he admitted. Psephologist Kevin Bonham was more blunt. He said the teals were 'a side show'. 'The whole election was very heavily about what people thought of the Coalition and the influence of Trump making people wary of change,' he said. 'The sort of the issues that the teals campaign on were big things in 2022, and they're just not the same deal any more to a lot of voters.' Labor's massive majority means it doesn't need support from the independents to pass legislation and has a reliable Greens bloc in the Senate. Kenny says the teals could still be influential in the political discussion. 'They're articulate. They're professional. It's what differentiates them from a lot of the hacks that the major parties [field],' he said. 'Zali Steggall made this point very well. She's not had the balance of power in either of the two last parliaments, but still been able to get quite a lot done in terms of legislation that she's either sponsored or championed in one way or another, or made amendments to through negotiations.' Perhaps where the teals remain most significant is in what their presence means for the Liberal Party. Of the 35 candidates backed by Climate 200, only five targeted Labor-held seats – in Bean, Fremantle, Franklin, Gilmore and Solomon – and all were unsuccessful. The movement's greatest impact continues to be as a thorn in the side of the conservative party. However, Ghazarian noted that the mixed results for the teals signal volatility among voters. 'This result suggests that it's still not conclusive about the longevity of the teals and that voters are still willing to go back or to support the Liberal Party if the candidate and the local campaign resonates with their preferences and with their aspirations,' he said. Despite likely regaining Goldstein, the Liberal Party will remain in the political wilderness if it cannot win back the inner-city metropolitan seats it has lost to the teals, according to Kenny. '[Liberal leader] Sussan Ley seems to be saying the right things now about steering the Liberal Party back to where the Australian people are – in other words, back to the mainstream centre,' he said. 'I think that represents some sort of recognition of what they've lost to the teals and to mainstream Australia, and therefore, by definition, you have to say it at least potentially presents a threat to the teals as well. Because the teals – that's the ground they're looking to occupy. But it's also the ground, broadly speaking, that Albanese is looking to occupy as well. 'It's pretty crowded territory, that middle ground – so if the Libs want back in there, they're going to have to do so with more than rhetoric.' Holmes à Court agreed. Even if the Liberals managed to put forward candidates that teal voters might, in theory, support, he argued the power of the movement now came from the social energy and sense of purpose surrounding it. 'One phrase I've heard many times over the last year is 'active hope',' he said. 'The first time I heard the phrase from a Sophie Scamps volunteer. The vollie explained, 'I could stay home and throw the remote every time Dutton comes on the telly or yell at my husband how Murdoch is destroying democracy, but volunteering gives me hope and the satisfaction that I did something meaningful when it mattered'.' 'The Liberal Party would have to change quite dramatically to inspire Australians to join – let alone volunteer.'
AU Financial Review
11-05-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Coal lobby spins electoral defeat to its advantage
Former Liberal MP Jason Falinski was second only to Clive Palmer for the extent to which he clogged up Australians' inboxes in the federal election campaign. As Australians for Prosperity's spokesperson, he was emailing voters daily to urge them to vote for 'economic freedom and common sense' by backing the Coalition.
