Climate 200 tries to even the playing field rather than just stacking independents with wads of cash to take out major party MPs, its founder argues.
The multi-million dollar funding vehicle is donating to 35 independents at the upcoming federal election, a quarter of whom are incumbents.
While Australians have been consumed by cost-of-living concerns for months, strong climate action would help mitigate this, such as rooftop solar bringing down energy bills, Simon Holmes a Court said.
A hung parliament would pressure the government to act on important issues like climate change and integrity in politics, he said in an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
"We are all aware that the increased severity and frequency of natural disasters is driving up insurance costs," he added.
"There is a direct connection between climate and cost of living and the good campaigns, the good communicators are getting this message across."
But there was still a strong commitment to climate action, which was proven when comments about the Liberals walking back on environmental commitments from a candidate sparked more than $1 million in donations to Climate 200, he said.
Incumbents entered a "danger zone" when their primary vote dropped below 43 per cent, opening the way for a second-placed independent to take the seat on preferences, he said.
Climate 200 polling shows that's the case in 14 of 19 electorates where the organisation is backing independent challengers and in all of the nine seats where it is backing incumbents.
While this wasn't a sure thing, "there is a very good chance those campaigns can win", he said.
Even if independent candidates didn't win, the community did by putting incumbent politicians on notice the community couldn't be taken for granted as a safe seat, Mr Holmes a Court said.
"Ask Tony Abbott who lost his seat of Warringah to Zali Steggall which he previously held by over 20 per cent - no seat is ever owned by a political party or is theirs by right," he said.
The son of Australia’s first billionaire also used his national address to spruik community-run campaigns compared to individual independents, as debate rages over the influence of big money in elections and its potential to undermine integrity in politics.
While he agreed with capping electoral spending, it needed to be fairer than the government's reforms, which stacks the deck towards incumbents and major parties.
Mr Holmes a Court said the scales were tilted against new challengers who had to fund administrative costs like staff, which would be covered under the electoral spending cap, but incumbents had an allowance for that.
Public funding given to candidates for the number of votes received also helped MPs, as new challengers had to spend their own money before getting anything back after the election, providing another barrier to entry.
"We have recently learnt that the banks won't lend to up-and-coming campaigns.
"What public funding does is the rich get richer and the poor stay poor," he said.
Climate 200 didn't select candidates, target seats or run on-the-ground political campaigns but instead recognised a "profound shift" in the nation's democracy and tried to provide the resources it needed to help candidates succeed, he said.
He disagreed his funding vehicle was outgunning major parties with large amounts of money and becoming the Goliath rather than David.
"They'll likely be out-spent two to one by Labor or the coalition," he said of community campaigns.
"We help people build an amazing slingshot."
