Independent Judy Hannan claims Wollondilly

A Climate 200-backed independent has won a seat southwest of Sydney held by the Liberals for 12 years. Read her plans for her region.

Judy Hannan Independant for Wollondilly. Picture: Facebook

A Climate 200-backed independent has claimed one of the bigger upsets in the state election, winning a seat held by the Liberal Party for more than a decade.

Judy Hannan ousted the incumbent Liberal MP Nathaniel Smith with 51.9 per cent of the preference count, a 7.1 per cent swing towards the independent.

Ms Hannan said she was “surprised” and “delighted” by her win.

“It makes me very proud,” she said.

The soon-to-be MP for Wollondilly said her focus on both climate issues and political integrity attracted Climate 200 to her campaign.

Judy Hannan’s supporters campaigning on election day. Picture: supplied/Facebook

“I’ve been around for a long time and I didn’t come (to Wollondilly) to be elected,” Ms Hannan said.

“That’s the thing that upsets people - when political parties ship people in just to stand for a safe seat.

“That’s not what government should be about — it should be about representing the community that you live in and come from.”

Ms Hannan said she agreed with statements made by Labor Candidate Angus Braiden about Wollondilly being “taken for granted”

“(The Liberals) were able to parachute somebody in and think they had a job for life without really understanding the community,” she said.

“And they’ve got the result they deserved I guess.”

Ms Hannan said running as an independent had its advantages over running with a left leaning party.

“I do think not being (in the Greens or Labor) has allowed a lot of Liberal people to change their vote.

“There was an elderly man, his son came up to me and said for his entire life (his dad) always voted Liberal but was willing to give an independent a go for once.”

Ms Hannan said she was concerned about an increase of developments “being forced” onto the community “not in a particularly nice way”.

“(These developments are) developer led not community led and we’re not getting any of the required infrastructure,” she said.

“This area is as big as the whole of the Sydney metropolitan area and we’ve only got two public high schools.

“We’ve only got one hospital and it’s low on resources.

“We’ve got hardly any public transport and our roads are terrible.

“Everything is in a state of disrepair.”

Judy Hannan and her grandsons. Picture: Facebook

Ms Hannan said there were a few clear priorities to get cracking on when she arrived at Macquarie St.

“There’s the simple things — half of my community get the $250 senior travel grant and the other half don’t,” she said.

“The big thing will be the Picton Bypass - I need to get that into our budget and start to look at the roads in the area.

“The rest of it is about getting the community together, hopefully starting to have a committee that looks after our flora and fauna.”

For Ms Hannan her rise into politics, and concern for a region already affected by climate change, is personal.

“I’ve got two little grandsons and I want to make sure this place is a really lovely area for them to live in,” she said.