Council & Politics
27 October, 2025
Dyson’s Wannon campaign among Australia’s best funded
THIS year’s federal election campaign in Wannon was officially a big spending affair. Whilst the major party federal campaign contributions for 2025 are still shrouded in secrecy, the Australian Electoral Commission has published information disclosing donations to independent candidates and senate groups at the May 2025 federal election. It shows Independent candidate Alex Dyson received a total of $2.1 million in cash and in-kind donations.
The staggering figure makes the Dyson campaign one of the best funded in Australia.
In 2018, Mr Dyson’s campaign was self funded and in 2022 he raised around $200,000.
This year’s campaign was visibly well funded, with several campaign hubs across the electorate including one in Ararat as well as extensive advertising and online promotion.
Mr Dyson said all of his donations were published online in real time, while his opponent is yet to reveal his campaign contributions.
“The response was enormous. We had 1,786 cash donations averaging $674, the majority of them from South-West Victorians chipping in what they could,” he said.
“Add
these to the in-kind donations, or physical contributions, the value of which is added after the election, and we cracked the $2 million mark.
“I’m very proud we finally gave South-West Victoria the competitive campaign it deserved and injected a lot of these
funds into the local economy.”
“As a believer in political integrity and transparency, I was the only Wannon candidate to reveal my cash donations in real time, whereas Dan Tehan and the Liberal Party continue to keep their donations and spending a mystery,” he said.
People will have to wait until February for the AEC to disclose donations to the major
parties.