An independent candidate who narrowly missed snagging the blue-ribbon seat of Pittwater at the last state election is trying again after the Liberal MP Rory Amon quit earlier this year.
The byelection was triggered by Amon’s resignation after being charged with 10 child sexual assault offences in August. He has denied all charges.
The Climate 200-backed Jacqui Scruby is up against Liberal candidate Georgia Ryburn at this Saturday’s byelection. Ryburn, seen within the party as a rising star, most recently garnered attention after falling victim to the Liberal’s council election fiasco.
Voters are also heading to the polls in Hornsby and Epping, where the Liberals are expected to hold on despite the resignations of their high-profile former MPs Matt Kean and Dominic Perrottet.
Former treasurer Kean left to take up a job as the chair of the Climate Change Authority, while former premier Perrottet quit to head up the BHP office in Washington.
Labor announced last month it would not be running in any of the byelections, much to the disappointment of party faithful, especially in Epping, where the Labor candidate secured a 6.5% swing in 2023.
The key issues for voters in Pittwater are largely local, with both candidates pledging to fight for funding for key infrastructure including Mona Vale Road and flood-proofing the Wakehurst Parkway. Scruby and Ryburn both enjoy high profiles locally, despite the Liberal candidate living outside the electorate in nearby Frenchs Forest. Ryburn has promised to move to Pittwater if successful.
Ryburn’s career as deputy mayor of the Northern Beaches council was cut short by her party’s failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more many candidates for the recent local government elections. Two days out from the byelection, she said the election would be tight but she was feeling “really excited”.
“I’m a proud fourth-generation northern beaches local,” she said. “My dad has taught thousands of local Pittwater students … and I delivered for Pittwater as deputy mayor.”
Amon won the seat in 2023 by just 606 votes, after Scruby secured a historic 22% swing against the Liberal party.
Ryburn said she had knocked on more than 5,000 doors in the electorate and felt there was still strong support for the Liberals. She named development, infrastructure and cost of living as her priorities, and said if elected she would fight Labor’s transport-oriented development scheme, which encourages higher-density living around train stations.
In the tight race, Scruby is focused on many of the same issues as her opponent.
“I’m not taking anything for granted,” she said.
“People are disappointed at the state of the Liberal party, and not just the circumstances of this election, but also the administrative bungle that impacted the Northern Beaches as well.”
Asked about independent MP Alex Greenwich’s equality bill, which would enable transgender people in NSW to change their sex on their birth certificates without surgery, Ryburn said she shared the Liberal party’s concerns. Scruby said she would have looked at the bill closely, and likely supported it.
Much of the debate before the byelection has centred around which woman would more effectively advocate for the community. Ryburn would join the opposition as a backbencher, which she points out would put her in a big voting bloc.
Meanwhile, Scruby said as an independent and more progressive politician she could effect greater change, pointing to the successes of other crossbenchers including Wakehurst MP Michael Regan.
The premier, Chris Minns, said on Monday that his government worked with parliamentarians from “every ideological background” and that he had worked well with the independents.
While polls are tight, electoral analyst Ben Raue said he saw Scruby as “the favourite”.
“They’ve got a big campaign,” he said.
If Ryburn managed to win, he said, it would be “very impressive”.
“I can see why they really want to make sure that there’s somewhere for her … but I think probably she’s working with the very unfavourable conditions,” he said.
