Lib candidate Katherine Deves hits back and labels Zali Steggall a hypocrite on women’s issues

Steadfast Liberals hopeful Katherine Deves has come out swinging, lashing Warringah opponent Zali Steggall and highlighting the concerns of “a lot of quiet Australians” on women’s sport.

Steadfast Coalition candidate Katherine Deves has hit back at her critics, saying the “silent majority” of Australians support her campaign to protect women’s sport and that current Warringah MP Zali Steggall, herself a pioneering female athlete, is a hypocrite who is “trying to pull the ladder up behind her”.

Speaking in her first print interview since coming under fire for historic social media posts about transgender athletes, Ms Deves also said that if elected she would be a far better advocate for local issues like aged care, cost of living and infrastructure with a seat in the Coalition party room than independent Ms Steggall, who can only offer private members bills.

“My opponent had extraordinary success in the Olympics and she is to be commended for that,” Ms Deves said of Ms Steggall.

“Her sports success led to her professional success, and yet she’s not prepared to stand up and defend the rights of women and girls coming after her.”

When asked previously by The Daily Telegraph if she would have been prepared to compete against biological males in the 1998 Olympics – where she took bronze in the women’s slalom – Ms Steggall declined to answer and instead said the issue was “creating division”.

Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, at her Northern Beaches home. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Warringah independent MP Zali Steggall with her new electric campaign bus on April 28. Picture: Supplied

While Ms Deves has apologised and said she regretted that some of the language she used in her tweets, including references to Nazis, offended some people, she also said the overall issue of protecting women’s sport was resonating across the country.

“I think there’s a lot of quiet Australians out there who do hold common sense positions on many things and I’ve received messages of support from all over the country, even internationally,” she said.

Katherine Deves on the campaign trail. Picture: Facebook

CONFLICT OF RIGHTS

Asked why her campaign to keep transgender athletes from competing against women had attracted such criticism, Ms Deves said it was about a conflict of rights that needed to be resolved.

“Historically, we women have had to fight very, very hard to participate equally in public life, and this is just another demonstration of women fighting for their rights.”

“A lot of the tactics we have seen really debase the electoral process and I don’t think Australians take kindly to intimidation and bullying,” she said, referring to vile threats she has received and to an incident where a man was charged after allegedly pushing a Liberal volunteer at an event she was attending at a local RSL.

Ms Deves arriving at the Forestville RSL for a politics in the pub appearance. Picture: Richard Dobson

FIGHTING FOR THEM

However, Ms Deves is quick to make it clear that if she is sent to Canberra she will be fighting for her constituents with a “seat at the table”.

“Warringah deserves to have a representative who is in the party room, who can affect change, who can represent them, and who’s not sitting on the crossbench,” she said.

“When I’m out on the hustings, the themes that continually arise are to do with the economy and cost of living pressures.

“People think the Northern Beaches or Warringah is all millionaires, but you know it’s really a pretty ordinary middle class type of community around here and the cost of living is biting.

Katherine Deves with her family.

“I hear people talking about the price of petrol, the price of food.

“And people are also really concerned about aged care – they want to make sure they have choice in their retirement.”

Infrastructure is another key issue for Ms Deves, who says that it is beyond time for the Beaches Link Tunnel to be built.

“The Spit Bridge is decades old and it is not sustainable for people trying to get around having to sit around waiting for the bridge to go up.”

MOTHER AT LAW

Born in Sydney, Ms Deves moved to the Central Coast when she was 3 and was a boarder at Abbotsleigh School on the Upper North Shore.

After studying business at UTS she worked in the wine industry in the US and Australia before going back to law school when her twin girls were barely toddlers, having her third child midway through her studies.

“I think I had been very sleep-deprived and hadn’t really thought about what I was getting myself into, but I managed to complete it,” Ms Deves said.

“So I was trying to juggle three little kids and be studying law and doing part time paralegal work, with my partner working as a tradesman running his own business.”

Ms Deves said she got into activism when her daughters got interested in sport.

“Just like with so many Australian families, everything’s a juggle.”

“We ended up here because my partner is a beaches boy, and this is where we wanted to raise our family – this is the best place in the world to raise a family,” she said.

Ms Deves says her foray into activism began when her daughters began to get interested in sport.

“I had been looking into the issue of how gender identity was coming into conflict with sex, and I realised that in Australia there were policies that were being put in place that were going to prioritise gender identity over sex in sports,” she said.

“There wasn’t in my view, a proper debate being had about that.”

Hand-selected by Scott Morrison to stand in Warringah, the Prime Minister has subsequently backed her views, saying “I think Australians are getting pretty fed-up with having to walk on eggshells everyday because they may or may not say something one day that’s going to upset someone”.