Nicolette Boele spent $2.26m to claim a nail-biting victory in the Sydney seat of Bradfield, making her 26-vote win the most expensive campaign of any teal independent.
Boele narrowly beat the Liberal candidate, Gisele Kapterian, in 2025, outspending cashed-up fellow teals including Allegra Spender and Monique Ryan, who each spent $2.1m when they ousted Liberals from traditionally blue-ribbon seats in the 2022 election.
The new political donations data released by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), released on Monday, found Boele received more than $696,000 in donations from Climate 200.
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She also received $265,057 from Climate 200, the political campaign group founded by businessman Simon Holmes à Court, classified as “other receipts”, which can include membership fees, corporate sponsorship, grants or contracts. Among other major donors, Boele received more than $92,000 from key Climate 200 backer Robert Keldoulis’ investment company, and another $170,000 from Keldoulis personally.
Climate 200 was again a key financial player, spending just under $25.87m as a “significant third party” under AEC rules over the last financial year, which included $14m in donations to candidates and other significant third parties and just under $5m of spending on the federal election.
The data shows the 2025 federal election was a record high for political donations in Australia.
Nicolette Boele thanks her supporters after being declared the winner of Bradfield in June 2025. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
Boele, whose campaign was registered as an “associated entity”, disclosed her spending separately to other candidate data for the 2025 election, published by the AEC in October.
Boele spent more than the high-profile independent candidate Alex Dyson, who ran unsuccessfully with the backing of Climate 200. Dyson’s campaign in the Victorian seat of Wannon cost $2m.
Spender and Ryan both spent less on their 2025 election campaigns compared to 2022 in their respective seats of Wentworth and Kooyong, with each spending under $1.9m. Meanwhile Zoe Daniel, who lost her seat of Goldstein to Liberal Tim Wilson, spent $1.8m in donations.
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Boele’s disclosure shows she received almost $1m in donations below the $16,900 threshold, and told Guardian Australia in a statement that she was thankful for the community support.
“Community donors help level the playing field,” she said. “Their generosity made it possible for community-backed independents like me to stand up and genuinely challenge the major parties.
“Independents face an electoral system stacked against them. The political system in Australia continues to favour the major parties, who rely on donations from big business – including the fossil fuel industry, unions and lobby groups – to entrench their power.”
The government’s changes to political donation laws, passed in the last parliament, will come into force from 1 July this year, which independents claim will stifle political competition.
Under the changes, the disclosure threshold for donations will drop from $16,900 to $5,000 and individuals will only be able to donate up to $50,000 per political candidate. Boele said the rules will make it “harder for independents to compete”.
“Our spending will be capped, while the major parties can access significant additional funding through the notorious ‘nominated entity’ loophole,” Boele said. “Rather than winning voters with better policies, the major parties have colluded to tilt the rules in their favour.”
Nominated entities are bodies under the legislation that can give money to political parties without those transfers qualifying as donations.
Boele won the previously blue ribbon seat on Sydney’s north shore by just 26 votes after a recount ordered by the AEC, making it the tightest contest of the 2025 election. Kapterian had won on the initial distribution of preferences by just eight votes. She subsequently challenged the result in the court of disputed returns but dropped the case 145 days after the election.
A Climate 200 spokesperson told Guardian Australia the group received donations from 33,000 donors, which supported 35 community independent campaigns.
“Community independents were outspent by the major parties more than 10 to one during the last election,” the spokesperson said. “Despite this, 10 independents came closer to winning in 2025 than … Nicolette Boele did in 2022, leaving them well placed for 2028.”
The new donation caps will also hinder big political spenders including Clive Palmer, who was the largest single donor in the last financial year, giving his party Trumpet of Patriots $53m.