Independent MP Zali Steggall speaking on the Climate Change Bill last November. It was the cross-bench that gave Gillard the backbone to take action on climate change. Freshly engaged, looking to make a difference, they tend to have reached a point in their lives and careers where they have options. 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. Taken from 'Aerial Objects', out now. He loved working, and he worked seven days a week. 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. Photo by Kristoffer Paulsen, signed contributor The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Photos - Simon Holmes Court on his 40-hecatre farm in Daylesford, Victoria, 2021 To meit will unleash a whole different way that were dealing with this, the medical researcher turned federal backbencher said. He also believes the opportunity for the independents to control the balance of power is within reach. He subsequently established Observant Pty Ltd as a company to develop remote water monitoring systems and other products. And you read the Liberal Partys core tenets and think, Yeah, I believe in freedom, and I believe that individuals should be allowed to excel, and I believe in well-regulated markets. [16] Another version of the exchange was later released showing Hume calling Holmes Court an "arsehole". In March this year, he and another member launched the sharper Vote Angus Out (VAO) group, following the advice of Steggalls team that Vote Tony Outs T-shirt-led social media had been a major driver in Warringah. Kelly says he hand-delivered the first 1600 T-shirts. But it means I dont want or need anything, except good policy.. Twitter played an important role in Holmes Courts political awakening too. I need your help to test it. I wanted a proof of concept that I could get philanthropists generous to the environment to back. C200 is also considering funding independents in Sydneys Hume, held by the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor; and in Victoria, in the seats of Goldstein (held by Tim Wilson), Flinders (Health Minister Greg Hunt) and Kooyong (Frydenberg). Whats been missed is why people are rising up in these locations? Voices Of, Voices For and non-aligned groups. We pay our deepest respects to elders past, present, and emerging. I guess for most of my fathers professional life Labor would have been in power, [and] some of the last days of the [Liberal] Fraser government, but his later years were very much internationally focused. His parents were unaligned in more essential ways, too. Someone from the movement called me up and said, This is a moment., He started a fundraiser on Chuffed and it raised $117,000 in 48 hours. 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. [17] Hume and Holmes Court clashed again on the Channel 9 coverage of election night. The idea of communities owning their own power generators is not new in Australia, according to Lane, its just been forgotten. One of those was how much time the son of Australias first billionaire, Robert Holmes Court, spent on his off-grid, 36-hectare farm at Daylesford, during the two years of Melbournes extended lockdowns. Holmes Court says despite the perception to the contrary, he doesnt feel he has landed too far from the tree. It kept the lake area electrified, says Lane. Its an entirely private setting, the backside of the familys beaglier, Kingston, heaving into view on my computer screen occasionally, or Katrina, down a hallway, cleaning windows. We used to have our own generator in the main street of Daylesford [and] we used to have our own hydro station down at the lake, he says. Post author By ; impossible burger font Post date July 1, 2022; southern california hunting dog training . I think theyre lost as well, he says of the federal Labor Party. I met with him quite a few times, but I havent spoken to him since we had a run-in about four years ago. Simon Holmes Court was the founding chairman of Hepburn Wind. They both felt that if something was wrong you fixed it, and you dont complain, you just made it happen.. He is an energy analyst, clean tech investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network, senior advisor to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University and writes regularly about the transformation of Australias energy sector. What strings have I got? 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. 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. 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. She says that will be enough to power about eight to 12 houses not a huge amount, but its an easy win. Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court addresses the National Press Club. I just remember the environmental devastation, puddles of algae and no regrowth, and the feeling of being cheated; that we were being lied to.. To me, it just provides the electorate with even greater opportunity to observe that this government is still out of step with community wishes and whats going on in the rest of the world. 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. 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. Its Josh. Holmes Court says he had been meeting Frydenberg every year from about 2012 until their falling-out and was a financial supporter. Kristoffer Paulsen. For former Kevin Rudd staffer Lachlan Harris, that 25 per cent minority vote is a magic number. And thereby hangs the tale. [15], During the campaign for the 2022 election, Holmes Court sued Victorian senator Jane Hume for allegedly lying about him on the radio. Why is the narrative that the election was won and lost in Queensland? Three weeks later, her candidacy was announced. Holmes Court was a driving force behind the country's first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind. Its a model minted next door in Warringah, where a T-shirt, and the all-important database that trailed in its wake, drove the 2019 Vote Tony Out (VTO) campaign, which itself spearheaded a loose association of grassroots anti-Abbott groups dubbed the Coalition of the Willing. Hepburn Wind began construction in 2010 and started selling power in 2011. 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.. It was not a pleasant time at all. Holmes Court insists his journey into political activism makes sense when you map out the dot points. He is an energy analyst, clean technology investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network, senior advisor to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University, and writes regularly about the transformation of Australias energy sector. 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. Theyre Australians who have found a new way of doing politics.. Simon Holmes Courts parents, Robert and Janet. ). 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. tesla model s hidden menu access code. Holmes Court addressing the National Press Club earlier this year. Holmes Court is outlining the steps that have led him to where he now sits, in a polo shirt (Liberal-blue) and baseball cap, in a makeshift study in the off-the-grid farm where he and his wife of 24 years, Katrina, and their four children, aged 15 to 21, have spent much of Melbourne's world-beating lockdown. Simon was a driving force behind the countrys first community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, near Daylesford in Central Victoria. The Holmes a Court family at the funeral of Robert Holmes a Court in 1990. 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. Twitters been huge for me, he says. Simon Holmes Court (born 30 May 1972) is an Australian businessman and political activist. Simon Holmes Court's personal battle with Josh Frydenberg The son of Australia's first billionaire, the man who might help decide the next federal election, says having independents control. 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. He is the son of Australia's first billionaire Robert Holmes Court, and convenor of Climate 200. Hepburn actually used to own its own power generating sources. Were working to restore it. He is an energy analyst, clean technology investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and . By now our bento boxes have arrived: deluxe for me and seafood for Holmes Court. Please try again later. Isamu Sawa. Holmes Court was part of Kooyong200, Frydenbergs fundraising arm led by Citis head of investment banking, Tony Osmond, before he wrote an op-ed in The Guardian in 2018 supporting the closure of AGLs coal-fired Liddell power station and was dumped. Even as a really young child, he was constantly tying things together, like a cord from his bed down the stairs and onto the front door so that he could open it, says Janet. As you can imagine, I had a fairly bizarreupbringing, with politicians of the day around the dinner table, he says. publics scepticism about Holmes Courts motives: as he did at the National Press Club earlier this year. Three of our donors have been called up by Frydenberg and berated for donating.. 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. It will be the greatest piece of philanthropy we could do.. Hes talented but no one can actually pin him down on what he believes.. Photo by Kristoffer Paulsen, signed contributor The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Photos - Simon Holmes Court on his 40-hecatre farm in Daylesford, Victoria, 2021 Im Catholic. In recent years he has written opinion pieces on climate for The Guardian, emerging occasionally to talk about energy transition. From here Ill be working the Rolodex again to try to convince philanthropists that this is a really effective form of philanthropy. As for why someone running their own business, with a wife and 10-month-old twins, bothered in the first place: You see an article about the Great Barrier Reef being on its way to 95 per cent death and you look at your kids and you think, What explanation can I give them when Im 80 years old and theyre living in a radically different world? Im at the age now where you think, People are actually listening to me now. Josh. That was very significant for me. He sold Observant in 2017 because it had reached a point where the US was its natural home, he says. On 18 May Holmes Court launched a defamation action against The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail news outlets and is also considering suing Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who accused Holmes Court of a Holocaust slur. The last time he willingly broke cover for a profile was a decade ago, announcing Australias first community-owned wind farm on Victorias Central Highlands, a project that arose from building the off-the-grid farm. Speaking a week ahead of the PMs mid-October negotiations with the Nationals, Katie Allen, who holds Melbournes affluent, marginal Liberal seat of Higgins, was confident the announcement would underline to voters the importance of working within the tent to effect change, as she and other moderates have done. It was a f---ing awful experience. My daughter said, Wow, thats a lot of money, are you sure this will work? he says, out walking the dog in the dark after a virtual, mid-October celebration of surpassing 2000 donors. Its all still a work in progress. He is famous for these calls. Their focus? I know Mike a bit, yeah, he says. People are organising, getting together and having dozens of meetings in a month that could never have happened without a party structure.. Holmes Court approached Hume at a pre-poll booth asking her if she was willing to withdraw her accusations. Louis Trerise, He also says the movement would not have existed without the pandemic, lockdowns, and Zoom. It was shut down in 1934, and has lain dormant ever since. You could hold your nose and vote Labor or hold your nose and vote Liberal and for a lot of people it is difficult to hold their nose and vote Green., A politician is a very particular skill set and it is not mine and the last thing the parliament needs is another white, middle-aged male, says Holmes Court. [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. These are incredibly powerful organisms and if you do something to threaten them you can expect a swift immune system response, he says. We got 300 people from 79 electorates. He writes on news, business and leadership. Last election, two seats flipped from Labor to Liberal in Qld. Simon owns a farm half way between Daylesford and Leonards Hill, the location of the two turbines erected in . That he chose a non-aligned path through university politics reflected the very particular conditions of home. Thats when Josh turned on me, I think, he says. Steggall agreed to do an Instagram post in the T-shirt on New Years Day 2019. He took me aside at the end and said, Country folk dont like you city people coming in and talking down their leaders and I should show more respect.. Simon has been a pioneering force in the Australian community power movement as the founding chair of Hepburn . He is an energy . Labor would need to win seven seats, and its difficult to come up with seven seats that are a definitive win.. What is the first thing he thinks about in the morning and the last thing at night? Because while Holmes Court is a quintessential brahmin, his motivations dont differ fundamentally from a cross-section of activists Good Weekend speaks to for this piece. As does the evolution of the Community Independents Project itself. - FXB1285471 Simon Holmes Court photographed for Good Weekend around his his 40-hectare farm in Daylesford, Victoria, October 2021. It was the cross-bench in NSW when ICAC was introduced. Listen/Buy: https://SimonAndKatie.lnk.to/AerialOb. simon holmes a court daylesford. In the lead up to 2022 election, Holmes Court began to get more press coverage, which helped to raise the profile of Climate 200. I joined the Liberal Party because I was interested in reform. 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. It was not a pleasant time at all. Holmes Court is outlining the steps that have led him to where he now sits, in a polo shirt (Liberal-blue) and baseball cap, in a makeshift study in the off-the-grid farm where he and his wife of 24 years, Katrina, and their four children, aged 15 to 21, have spent much of Melbournes world-beating lockdown. 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. I was hopeful, Tink says. Josh can f--- off, Simon Holmes Court explodes in the most memorable moment of our 90-minute lunch in Melbournes Hawthorn, where he lives and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is fighting for his, and his governments, political life. He was up there with his R.M. 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. At the University of Western Australia, he neglected an old-school law degree for student politics via the French-founded International Association of Students in Economics and Commerce (AIESEC), which he describes as a bit like a model UN that introduced students to fundraising, running events and plenaries and constitutions and stuff and for which he spent a year introducing networking technology, such as email. But I think COVID makes it a little bit different. Simon was a driving force behind the country's 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. Which is why Im happy to do it.. "[citation needed], Holmes Court was a financial supporter and member of federal Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg's Kooyong200 fundraising arm. 2019 was basically me hitting the phones 10 weeks before the election saying, Heres my strategy. The group spearheading the Tink candidature, North Sydney Independents (NSI), for instance, was created by Kristen Lock, a former nurse, Young Liberal and staffer for former Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, whose disaffection with her former party was mounting in the lead-up to the last election. From CIP to all the Voices For, Voices Of, Vote Out and independent groups, the enabler has been technology. And after spending years developing a model that worked, and navigating the various logistical potholes in getting it up and running, he set up Embark, a non-profit company dedicated to helping other community energy projects adopt the Hepburn model. A small project, only two turbines but it generates as much power as the town uses in a year. It is, says former Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley, a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, an anyone-other-than movement. It was at the intersection of technology, climate action, community, and politics. 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. Says Lane: At Hepburn Wind we really want to play our role in helping our community reach zero net emissions., Energy positive: how Denmark's Sams island switched to zero carbon, Australia's regions already have an energy crisis and a climate of investment is the answer, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Renewables roadshow Daylesford: The windfarm is a symbol of our community, recently built Australias largest CBD solar farm. simon holmes a court daylesforddaily news subscription phone number. If you took a side-access track and went 200 metres off the road, though, it was clear-felled, hollowed out in the middle. Owned by more than 2000 people. Main Menu. A digital marketer with his own company, hed done pro bono work for the Australian Conservation Foundation and others, but never been particularly political. 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. 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.. The Morrison government has come under a lot of criticism because of its failure to have regard to the respect that is due to womenand obviously on climate, many believe their performance is very inadequate., Holmes Court is a case in point. When he was two-and-a-half, Simon Holmes Court tried to unlock a power point with a car key. An Instagram account featuring local celebrities wearing the T-shirt peaked at 20,000 followers. By a picturesque lake in Daylesford, where locals go to swim and cool off, is an antique hydro generator, which used to power a few homes around the lake, and the lakes lights. While his hometown of Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands is in the federal seat of Whitlam, he was, he says, much more motivated to move on Taylor, because of his proximity to, and record on, the climate issue. Its not tax-deductible, its uncomfortable for a lot of people to have their name out there. Even putting aside the question of how many of the burgeoning groups can bring themselves to behave enough like parties to launch campaigns and candidates, the governments net zero 2050 plan announced by the Glasgow-bound PM may sufficiently salve the wound, much as the governments 2019 Climate Solutions Package did. The government lost a vote on their own bill for the first time in 90 years. He founded Voices of Hume in February 2020, which pursued what has become the classic Voices Of formula of kitchen-table conversations with 10 facilitators doing meetings in Camden and in Goulburn and all around small towns in between. Strong community opposition, often encouraged by the fossil fuel industry, has at times been a roadblock for large windfarms built by traditional energy companies. Now he will turn his focus to his third interest, Embark Australia, which helps other communities develop their own renewable-energy projects. But this time around, Holmes Courts ambition, like the number of independent activist groups, has hugely increased. This isnt a new thing., Holmes Courts sense of environmental peril was sown only slightly later, visiting the massive karri and jarrah forests of Western Australias south-west.