Ad campaign comparing Peter Dutton to Donald Trump sees Climate 200’s donations surge by $380,000

Organisation asked supporters if they ‘want to feel different on our election night’ in an ad with half of Trump’s face and half of Dutton’s

Climate 200 has reported a surge in first-time donors in November off the back of a donation-matching campaign comparing the Coalition and Peter Dutton to the politics of Donald Trump.

The funding aggregator claims to have raised $377,000 from 3,900 donations including 1,373 people who donated to it for the first time, the biggest wave of first-time supporters since it was launched in 2021.

Meta’s ad library reveals that the result was driven by a pledge to double donations given in the days after Trump’s US election victory, with ads linking the Coalition to Trump on issues including access to abortion and questioning its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

When some in the Coalition raised the issue of abortion, Dutton said there would be no change in the opposition’s policy.

Climate 200 raised $13m from 11,200 donors before the 2022 election, helping to elect six new independent MPs and the senator David Pocock, and to re-elect the MP Zali Steggall.

According to its November 2024 donation statistics, Climate 200 raised $377,000 with an average donation size of $95 and the most common donation $30. Some 88% of donations were under $100 and 98% were under $500, it said.

In the days leading up to the US election, Climate 200’s ads accused Dutton of thinking “fossil-fuel-funded attack ads are enough to win back seats Liberals lost to pro-climate independents in the last election”. They also highlighted the success of the independent Jacqui Scruby at the Pittwater byelection in New South Wales.

After Trump’s victory Climate 200 asked its supporters if they “want to feel different on our election night”, in an ad illustrated by a split portrait with half of Trump’s face and half of Dutton’s.

An ad with a similar image urged supporters to “let Dutton know we won’t stand for Trump’s politics in Australia”.

Some ads used newspaper headline clippings with text warning that “emboldened by Trump, extremists in the Coalition and anti-abortion activists are already working to undermine reproductive rights in Australia”.

Several ads quoted the Nationals senator Matt Canavan arguing that the US result meant that “net zero is dead”, despite Dutton and the Coalition remaining committed to that medium-term target.

From 13 to 22 November a series of ads promised “one generous Climate 200 supporter is DOUBLING all donations made to Trump-proof Australian politics for the next 48 hours”.

In some ads posted from 18 November the donor was identified as “Jenna”, a mother of two who “lived in the US through Trump’s last term”.

“Now, she’s moving home, and she’s determined to stop Trump-style extremism taking hold here,” they said.

In a statement provided by Climate 200, Jenna said she was “terrified to see the same red-flags emerging in Australia”.

She said it felt “familiar” to see Coalition senators celebrating Trump’s win while declaring net zero “dead”, as well as seeing “Dutton’s campaign team reaching out to Republican strategists”.

Byron Fay, the executive director of Climate 200, said: “Peter Dutton’s relentless Trumpist negativity are serving to enhance the attractiveness of community independents and to drive voters away from the major parties.”

The funding aggregators ads also claimed that the major parties had done a deal on electoral reform “to kill the independents movement”.

In fact in the last parliamentary fortnight Labor failed to pass its spending and donation caps after negotiations with the Coalition reached an impasse.

The special minister of state, Don Farrell, has criticised teals for their fundraising and campaigns in excess of the proposed $800,000 spending cap per electorate.

Labor has said Farrell will now spend summer seeking Greens and crossbench support for the bill.

Cover photo: By The Guardian