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Australian millionaire donated $1.6 million to Greens last election

By Ross Levin on January 7, 2011 2:47 PM

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Mr Wood, whose wealth was estimated at $372 million in last year’s BRW Rich 200 list, gave $1.6 million to fund the Greens’ TV advertising campaign, helping to significantly increase votes for the party in key states…

Mr Wood’s donation enabled the Greens to run advertisements on high rotation on commercial television stations for the first time. Independent market research found the ads had contributed to higher swings to the Greens in the states where the ads were run most frequently…

Helping the Greens to secure the balance of power in the Senate was a ”critical step”, he said. The Greens’ vote tended to drop away in the final weeks of an election campaign as the bigger parties outspent them on advertising, and in May Mr Wood approached the Greens’ leader, Bob Brown, to propose that he help fund a ”proper” Greens ad campaign.

In the end, Mr Wood provided the bulk of the campaign funding. Mr Wood denied that he, or wotif.com, had anything to gain from his donation.

”There’s nothing in it for me financially,” he said. ”I’m not looking for any favours.”

Senator Brown said he would be ”forever grateful” for Mr Wood’s donation, which was both selfless and hazardous.

”There’s nothing that Graeme could possibly gain personally out of this,” he said, including influence over policy.

9 Comments

  2. Carey Campbell January 8, 2011

    That Joschka!

    Joschka, like Petra Kelly, have always had a natural gift. My family , Southern Baptist, Kentucky culture and training taught it was a God given gift.

    Joschka in English says, “Jewish culture teaches. God gave us. Two hands. Two ears. Two eyes. To comprehend. To understand. Multiple perspectives.”

    Joschka again defines the basis of our Green Party. Concise. Correct. Just.

  4. Carey Campbell January 8, 2011

    It’s Petra Kelly.

    Two ll’s.

    apologies.

  5. Carey Campbell January 8, 2011

    Bob Brown the Green Party Senator mentioned in your post is a gentleman. I’ve had the honor, and downright good fun, of spending time with him. It was at a Green Party gathering in Washington D. C. a few years back. Bob is a skinny, gentle, and gifted joke teller. Bob is a Green Party man like me, who knew Green Party founder Petra Kelly. Senator Bob Brown, like so many remains inspired by Petra Kellly.

    Want to point you to a quote from Joschka Fischer’s article.

    “Wherever you look, the price tag put on Europe these days is calculated in euros and cents and no longer in political and historical currency. Germany, in particular – Europe’s largest country, and its strongest in economic terms – seems to have fallen victim to historical amnesia.”

    It’s very true. And it was the same impression I had visiting the Green Party convention in Freiburg in late November 2010.

    In conversations with old Green Party friends, and family, this was clear. They are worried. About being pulled to economic ruin by the irresponsible behavior and policies of other member nations of the Euro.

    Thanks to the great green jobs in Germany in wind, solar, geothermal, and the Green Party being such a powerful political force, the economy is strong, and growing, with unemployment at 7 per cent. That’s about 3 percent lower than the U.S.

    Still my German Green Party friends are worried.

    Concerned about their retirements. Troubled by the other Euro currency countries with more benefits, later retirements, and perhaps less cultural and societal discipline, aka work ethic.

    Granted. Those are debate worthy concepts.

    Still. The Green Party’s Joschka Fischer, as he so often has over 30 years, nails it. The temper of the times. Exactly the temper of the times. Joschka brings it to the key point.

    Read this paragraph, however poorly translated from the original German.

    “Any eurozone political leader whose primary consideration now is re-election will face certain failure by not meeting this historical challenge. But European priorities have to be the primary concern in this crisis – even at the price of losing office. On the other hand, taking this historic initiative would, relative to fainthearted tactical maneuvering, substantially increase politicians’ chances of re-election later.”

  9. tiradefaction January 7, 2011

    We’ll see I suppose.

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