Holmes à Court insists Climate 200 doesn’t have any agreements with the independents it’s backing

Simon Holmes à Court tells the National Press Club Climate 200’s objective is to level the playing field between independents and the major parties. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Simon Holmes à Court, the convener of Climate 200, says his organisation has not extracted specific undertakings from candidates running in Liberal party heartland, because “if we start dictating specifics then we can hardly say these independents are independent”.

Holmes à Court on Wednesday declared Australian politics was “broken” and blasted the Morrison government’s record on climate policy, transparency and gender equality.