Kerryn Phelps intends to remain councillor if she wins Wentworth
Kerryn Phelps would want to stay on as a City of Sydney councillor if she wins the Wentworth by-election.
Central Sydney
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Kerryn Phelps would want to stay on as a City of Sydney councillor if she wins the Wentworth by-election.
The independent told Central Sydney she’s the most likely out of the 16 candidates to wrest the blue-ribbon seat from the Liberals this Saturday.
“By any estimate, I’m the only candidate who can possibly win the seat from the Liberals,” she said.
It’s her “intention” to remain a councillor, undaunted by the mammoth workload that would represent. “I’m used to working hard,” she said.
“I’d have to look at the schedule and make sure I could attend as many council meetings as possible.”
In a poll of 736 Wentworth voters by The Voter Choice Project, Liberal candidate Dave Sharma received 38.8 per cent of the likely first preference vote in comparison to Dr Phelps’ 23.5 per cent and Labor Tim Murray’s 17.2 per cent.
The projected two party preferred figures showed Mr Sharma trailing both Dr Phelps and Mr Murray by about 10 points.
The Liberals, who hold the seat on a 17.7 per cent margin, are clearly threatened by Dr Phelps.
She accused the party of running a “nasty hate campaign” against her after it released an advert stating: “A Kerryn Phelps win could deliver a hung parliament and uncertainty”.
Leaflets attempted to link Dr Phelps to the Labor Party.
“It’s ridiculous to say I have an association with Labor because I’m standing as an independent against both the Liberal and Labor Party,” she said.
“I’ve released a comprehensive climate action policy and the two big differences between me and Labor on that score is they haven’t said they would stop Adani and they haven’t said they wouldn’t knock back political donations from fossil fuel companies.
“Another thing of urgency...is to get kids off Nauru.
“The people who risked the stability of the Government was the Liberal party who dumped Malcolm Turnbull as leader and triggered a by-election.”
Dr Phelps said she would do everything in her power to prevent schools being able to exclude students after a leaked review recommended allowing religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of their sexuality.
The Liberals have since assured they would strengthen discrimination laws to prevent that.
Dr Phelps would also take a stand against live sheep exports.
Mr Sharma has promised to support small business, to keep the economy strong, action on climate change and to work with the local community to improve community safety.
Bondi identity and The Castle star Michael Caton has thrown his support behind Mr Murray, who wants to see action on climate change, better education policies and housing affordability for young people.
Independent Licia Heath will be a popular choice with parents because of her advocacy for a second high school to be built in the east.
The candidates
Robert Callanan: Katter’s Australian Party
Dominic Wy Kanak: Greens
Shayne Higson: Voluntary Euthanasia Party
Steven Georgantis: Australian People’s Party
Tim Murray: Labor
Ben Forsyth: Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party
Tony Robinson: Australian Liberty Alliance
Samuel Gunning: Liberal Democrats
Dave Sharma: Liberal
Angela Vithoulkas: Independent
Deb Doyle: Animal Justice Party
Andrea Leong: Science Party
Licia Heath: Independent
Barry Keldoulis: The Arts Party
Kerryn Phelps: Independent
Kay Dunne: Sustainable Australia