Teal politicians elected with financial backing from the ‘Climate 200’ group are split on the push to form a new political party, while former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull endorses the idea as an alternative to the Liberals he once led.

Crossbench MPs Allegra Spender, Zali Stegall and Nicolette Boele, who all represent previously safe Liberal Party seats in Sydney, have confirmed discussions are underway on a possible new Teal party which they would be open to joining.

Fellow crossbenchers Monique Ryan, who represents the Victorian seat of Kooyong, and Western Australia’s Kate Chaney, have however declared they remain committed to serving their electorates as community independents.

Last year Climate 200 co-founder Simon Holmes a Court dismissed suggestions the teal candidates whose campaigns he supported could form a new political party after new electoral laws placed strict caps on spending and donations.

“I have zero interest in being involved in any party structure. I can’t see how it would actually benefit Climate 200 and certainly I’m not sure that any of the independents would want anything to do with it,” he told the National Press Club in March 2025.

“I don’t think any of them would join a party, and if such a thing ever happened it would be long after I’ve left, I want nothing to do with it,” Mr Holmes a Court added.

During a press conference at Parliament House on Monday, Ms Spender and Ms Steggall were pressed on whether forming a party would damage their reputations as MPs elected to represent their communities as independents.

“You can’t run senate candidates without a party, you know there are a lot of advantages now the government has put in place (changes)… to make sure that independents have less access to funding than themselves,” Ms Spender told reporters.

Former Olympic skier turned Warringah MP, Ms Steggall also said recent funding rules that disadvantage independents as well as looming changes to donations laws were factors in favour of teals forming their own party.

“I’m in my third term, obviously there’s a lot of speculation out there, some of it correct, some of it incorrect. As an athlete, you always have to meet the field of play. Staying still is not how you keep winning.”

On Monday, fellow teal Ms Ryan issued a statement noting that in 2022 and 2025 she had stood as a community independent and that was “the commitment I made to the people of Kooyong”.

“For the past four years, I have worked closely and collaboratively with the crossbench colleagues from both the House and the Senate.”

“Representing the people of Kooyong in Canberra has been one of the biggest honours of my life. I will continue to do that in the capacity in which I was elected: as a community independent, voting for and answerable to the people of Kooyong.”

Ms Chaney, who has held the previously safe Liberal seat of Curtin since 2022, has also declared she will continue to represent her electorate as a community independent.

“I am interested in working more collaboratively with other crossbenchers on policy – many of our communities have similar values – but right now I do not think that requires me to be a member of a political party,” she said in a statement.

Despite being previously linked to a possible new party, Mr Turnbull has denied having any discussions with the teals on the idea but declared on Monday they could fill a “vacuum for an alternative” on the centre-right of politics.

Mr Turnbull, who led the Liberal Party between 2015 and 2018, said the organisation had done “enormous damage” to itself and now only the Labor Party was managing to occupy the centre of politics.

“I think there is a vacuum for an alternative centre party. The teals would be obvious people to be part of that or to do that, but I’ve talked to them about that publicly going back some years.

“Whether they actually decide to do so is up to them. So I’m not involved with any … plans to set something up.”

“People talk about this sort of stuff all the time, but I don’t think there is anything that … well, if there’s something concrete being organised, I’m not aware of it,” Mr Turnbull told the ABC.

Figures inside the teal movement insist forming a new political party would only be a viable option if it was able to recruit disaffected or former Liberal MPs voted out of Parliament.

Over the weekend, ACT Senator David Pocock also left the door open to forming an independent party, saying there were “plenty of conversations” going on “all the time”.

“I think we’re in a real time of flux, politically, and there are people actually looking for candidates who are going to come to Canberra and actually put them first, put them ahead of vested interests,” he told ABC Insiders on Sunday.