Advance Australia splashes $2.6m on unsuccessful conservative campaigns

The conservative activist group behind a series of controversial political attack ads against independent candidates received $2.5 million in donations over the 2021-22 financial year, its most recent financial report shows.

But the firebrand group, who strongly insists its independent of any political parties despite ties to the Coalition, was largely unsuccessful in its attempts to scare voters off left-leaning candidates and prop up conservative options.

Still, the group's financial report maintained it played a "prominent" role in the federal election.

In Canberra, former ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja, a staunch conservative, was knocked from his seat in the upper chamber by former Wallabies captain David Pocock.

Advance Australia had run a series of attack ads suggesting Mr Pocock was an undercover Greens member, labelling him an "extreme green" - a claim the independent candidate strongly rejected.

The rugby star was later elected as ACT senator over Mr Seselja, leaving the Liberal Party without a representative in the capital for the first time in half a century.

Elsewhere, the group also targeted Warringah MP Zali Steggall with similar claims while supporting Scott Morrison's controversial captain's pick Katherine Deves.

The Labor Party was also in the Advance Australia's sights, with advertising trucks depicting Chinese leader Xi Jinping casting a ballot in favour of Labor.

The activist group, which has been billed as the hard right's version of Get Up, claimed its Facebook posts had "reached" nearly 30 million users.

"Advance Aus remains one of the fast-growing campaign organisations in the nation, with an active supporter base over 180,000 people during the last 12 months," its report said.

"Advance Aus was a prominent part of the 2022 federal election, campaigning on the threats to Australia's freedom, prosperity and security posed by the formation of a left-wing Australian government."

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Despite the millions spent to resource conservative campaigns, the results of the 2022 federal election suggest it failed to transpire into votes.

The Liberal Party faced a 4.3 per cent swing against it nationally and a 9.6 cent swing against it in Western Australia where it was decimated.

But success for conservative candidates backed by the group was found in other areas.

Former Advance Australia spokesperson Jacinta Nampijinpa Price won a Senate seat for the Coalition in the Northern Territory.

The frequent commentator on Sky After Dark programs announced she would step back from being the group's face but vowed to take the fight to Canberra.

Senator Price's comments on key conservative issues, such as her opposition to the Voice to Parliament, have featured heavily in Advance Australia's social media advertising after the election.

Advance Australia has spent more than $700,000 across 1230 ads between August 2020 and the end of 2022, according to data from Facebook's parent company, Meta.

Around $30,000 of that figure was spent during December last year alone.