In an interview with The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age, Mr Wood said the Greens needed a “shot in the arm” because its support had not increased since 2010. The party’s vote is still hovering just above 10 per cent and Mr Wood said that could be doubled with the right leader and strategy.
“They just don’t seem to be cutting through enough,” Mr Wood said. “They could double their vote if they had somebody out front really telling the world what they do. Someone like Sarah Hanson-Young is clever,young,and female with opinions – she should be handed the megaphone a bit more often.”
Mr Wood,who made his fortune by starting online travel company Wotif and is now an investor and philanthropist,said he had not been in touch with the Greens for some time. His last donation was in 2019 and while he did not rule out donating to them ahead of the election,he said he was “more attracted” to the growing movement of independents such as Warringah MP Zali Steggall.
“The independents are the new wave,” Mr Wood said. “They’re our best hope of reshaping Federal Parliament and reshaping the direction the country’s ... just sort of lumbering into.”
The 2010 donation to the Greens,which Mr Wood described at the time as an attempt to “level the playing field”,was a record for Australian politics until former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull donated $1.75 million to the Liberals before the 2016 election.
Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt said Mr Wood had been “a fantastic supporter of climate action and the Greens” and one of hundreds of thousands of Australians who donated to the Greens.