Former Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett urges teal independents to avoid forming a political party

The teals would lose their credibility with voters who backed independents if they formed a formalised political party, a former Australian Democrats leader says, after a former Climate 200-affiliated senator floated the idea.

Andrew Bartlett, who led the moderate left-leaning Democrats in Federal Parliament from 2002 to 2004, said the political party structure would turn off voters already disillusioned with political parties.

“The issue for the teals now is branding and I hate saying that because it sounds like it’s a marketing thing but it is a fricking marketing thing,” he told The Nightly on Monday as a former senator with the Democrats and the Greens who spent three decades as a political party activist.

“My personal view is don’t do it, just don’t do it. You’re independents, you’re community independents — you can figure out how to work together in Parliament in whatever mechanism but do not form a party; that would be my one single, sole piece of advice after 35 years in this thing.”

The Australian Democrats had senators in Federal Parliament from 1978 to 2008 as a party formed by disillusioned former Liberal minister Don Chipp.

Like them, the teals appeal to disaffected moderate Liberal voters concerned about the environment, but have lower house seats in upmarket areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Teal MPs Nicolette Boele, Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender on Monday rejected the idea of forming a political party after Senator David Pocock on Sunday told ABC Insiders he was open to the idea of a party as a former Climate 200-backed candidate with support from renewable energy investor Simon Holmes a Court’s campaign group.

But RedBridge director of strategy Kos Samaras, a pollster who previously worked as a Labor campaigner in Victoria, said a political party structure would mean a teal independents in Sydney and Melbourne would have a better chance of succeeding another independent, as Helen Haines did in 2019 in the rural Victorian seat of Indi.

“This is probably ensuring that this form of politics is around a lot longer than just the individual and particularly when you contrast that up with the rise of One Nation, I think there is an appeal for something different to emerge,” he said.

“It’s a safe bet, as long as they manage it clearly and whatever this political party may look like, if it’s less like the major parties is in they have a lot more autonomy as individuals themselves, I think it could work.”

La Trobe University emeritus professor of Australian politics Judith Brett said forming a political party would enable teal candidates to pool campaign resources.

“If they’re a party, I think that might help them with some of the funding — the caps on donations and things which the independents feel when they’re all operating singularly is quite disadvantageous,” she said.

A backbencher or crossbencher in Parliament gets a base salary of $239,270 but the leader of a minor party gets a 42.5 per cent pay bump, taking their remuneration to $340,960 for presiding over up to 10 MPs in both houses of Parliament.

The House of Representatives has six MPs regarded as teals, but that grows to nine when other left-leaning crossbenchers are added, in including Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie and Ms Haines, and 10 with Senator Pocock.

Ms Boele, who won the Sydney north shore seat of Bradfield last year by just 26 votes, is predicted by RedBridge to lose to the Liberal Party at the next election, as One Nation won as many as 53 seats in the lower house.

“Over the last 48 hours, there has been media speculation about a new party being formed by members of the crossbench,” she said in a statement on Monday.

“I will contest the next election as a community independent – that has never been up for debate.”

Ms Steggall, who won the Sydney northern beaches seat of Warringah from former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott in 2019, has talked down the idea of forming a political party.

“It comes back to communities — communities have to be wanting the solutions and looking for these options,” she told reporters in Canberra.

“I’m now in my third term and I absolutely respect that I may be at a different place to where my other independent colleagues are at.”

Ms Spender also downplayed the idea of forming a formalised party structure, as the daughter of former Liberal MP John Spender, who argued business and the environment could be compatible concerns.

“Why did I get into politics? Because I felt completely homeless, I didn’t think there was any party that could represent me who’s always been focused on business, on growing prosperity, growing the economy but has concerns about fairness,” she said.

“So many people are playing the culture wars which are trying to pit parts of our country against each other and that is against Australian values.”

But in a sign politics may be less divided than portrayed, a South Australian One Nation MP Jason Virgo told State Parliament in a teary maiden speech he had a boyfriend who was a Muslim born in Indonesia who was now “a proud Australian”.

“Our closest friendship circle was made largely of immigrants from China, India, and the Philippines,” he said.

“I am deeply thankful for their support, including my partner.

“I love migrants. The overwhelming majority are simply searching for a better life.”

A RedBridge poll published on Friday night suggested One Nation could win up to 53 seats in the House of Representatives — with 51 of those electorates in regional areas and outer suburbs supporting gay marriage in a 2017 postal vote survey.