In the pink enveloping walls of The Salon in Clovelly, the hairdresser Ash Croker has assembled a group of businesswomen who usually attend her eastern suburbs salon for balayage, foils or a trim. They’ve come to meet Allegra Spender, the independent candidate for Wentworth, whose campaign is engendering a frisson of interest among female voters and gaining high-profile support from leading women in the electorate.
The latest is Rowena Danziger, the former head of the elite private girls’ school Ascham in Darling Point, where Spender was head girl.
“I’ve known Allegra Spender since she was a child in kindergarten, and I was her headmistress from then until she passed the Higher School Certificate,” Danziger says.
“I’m voting for Allegra, because she is very intelligent, she’s hardworking, and she’s a woman of great probity. She will work hard for this electorate and it will be safe in her hands.
“I think we need the independents to change the conversation and to change the agenda, not only for climate change but for so many other things as well.”
Danziger, who later became a board director, joins Jillian Broadbent, another pioneering woman of Australia’s boardrooms, in backing Spender’s campaign.
But it’s not just high-profile businesswomen who are backing her. Women are organising gatherings throughout the electorate to meet Spender and help fundraise.
Croker says she approached the campaign to hold an event “because as a woman in business, I like her message”.
“I am uncertain about what the future holds and I believe in her messages about climate change and our need to take urgent steps – and I want someone like her supporting our local area.”
At Tuesday night’s function was Jenny Ringland, a client of Croker’s since 2005 who works in sustainability and has a communications business, Green and Simple.
Also attending were Vanessa Cardonnel, who works in asset management and sustainability for a developer, and Gemma Yeates, a fund manager and “a politics tragic”.
“She is very business-focused,” says Cardonnel. “She’s focused on moving Australia forward and taking advantage of the business opportunities of moving towards a more sustainable future.”
With only just over 2,000 votes determining the outcome in Wentworth in 2019, the campaign is hoping to hold independent Kerryn Phelps’s voters and win a few more Liberal voters, notably from conservative-leaning businesswomen and “trust fund kids” – children of wealthy parents who until now have tended to follow their parents’ voting patterns.
“The support I’ve received from women in business has been overwhelming,” says Spender, who was managing director of the Carla Zampatti fashion brand for a decade before moving into sustainable energy and an education-focused not-for-profit.
“Women in business are strong, and they bring compassion and authenticity to their work,” she says.
“They’re ready for a new, future-focused economy and have been dismayed by what they’ve seen in politics over the past three years. A lot of them have seen significant change in business’s attitudes to gender over the past few decades, and are frustrated that parliament still lags behind.”
The Liberal MP for Wentworth, Dave Sharma, did not respond to requests for comment.
A similar dynamic is helping power the campaigns of Sophie Scamps in Mackellar and Kylea Tink in North Sydney.
The fashion designers Heidi Middleton of Sass & Bide and Genevieve Smart of Ginger & Smart have already held fundraising events for the Scamps campaign. An event for women planned at the local cinema is coming up.
The campaign has also tapped into the expertise of craft groups set up to make reusable boomerang bags. They are now making yellow and blue bunting (Scamps’s campaign colours) for events.
“We wanted to emulate some of the organising events that were used in Indi,” says Scamps’s campaign organiser, Anyo Geddes. “We think craft groups are a great way to spread the word.”
“It’s no surprise that at each stage, it has been women who were the early adopters and jumped on board to help drive a different way of doing politics,” says Scamps.
“As we’ve seen in this term of parliament, there is a toxic culture in Canberra and women across Australia have consistently been ignored and not listened to.”
She says in Mackellar the independent push has been driven by women.
“With so many women standing as independent candidates, there is a good chance the balance of power could be in the hands of a female-majority crossbench and I know this will result in better outcomes for our community and our country,” she says.
Her rival in Mackellar, the Liberal MP Jason Falinski, said his campaign had also received the endorsement of high-profile women in the seat, and that it too had a highly engaged group of women supporters.
“Constituents have had the opportunity to meet some of our key cabinet ministers including Jane Hume and Michaela Cash. Both of these ministers are making important public policy contributions on issues that directly impact women’s financial security and safety in the workplace and elsewhere,” he said.
“We run programs like Female Founders to support local businesses and entrepreneurs,” he said. He also pointed to the series he has been running, “Pitt Dialogues”, which have included a number of high-profile women speakers.
“Throughout my career I have worked to action policy which I believe represents the best interests of the whole electorate, and support from women indicates to me that I have listened to their concerns and acted on them,” Falinski said.
“This election is not about winning a particular vote, it is about offering the best possible vision for a better Australia.”
Tink says she has been working hard to connect with different groups from across the North Sydney community and doesn’t discriminate or prioritise based on the makeup of their membership.
In terms of women’s events, Tink recently hosted an International Women’s Day breakfast at the Kirribilli Club, spoke at an assembly at Willoughby girls’ high school and attended a cooking session with an Armenian women’s group for Harmony Day.
