High-rise could cost Gladys her seat
INDEPENDENTS believe they can topple Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Willoughby at next year’s state election, as well as embattled North Shore MP Felicity Wilson.
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INDEPENDENTS believe they can topple Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Willoughby at next year’s state election, as well as embattled North Shore MP Felicity Wilson.
Buoyed by the stunning federal by-election success of independent Kerryn Phelps in Wentworth, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s eastern suburbs seat, they feel they are ideally placed to profit from voter disillusionment with both major parties.
Genia McCaffery, an independent mayor of North Sydney for 17 years, is convinced disenchantment with a planned “tsunami” of overdevelopment in her area will tip the scales against the state government in March – and the premier could pay the price.
Although Ms Berejiklian captured almost two-thirds of the vote in Willoughby at the last election, Ms McCaffery believes she could face a “massive” contest, particularly after a boundary change meant the seat now included Crows Nest and St Leonards.
Residents in those suburbs are upset over state government development plans including towers up to 27 storeys high over the planned Crows Nest Metro station.
“Protest meetings at Wollstonecraft are massive. People who normally vote Liberal are angry,” she said.
“We have written to the premier but we just get letters back saying, basically, stick it up your jumper. We know what happens to governments when they stop listening.”
Ms McCaffery has ruled out running herself but hopes to play a behind-the-scenes role in helping an independent end a 37-year-old Liberal stranglehold on Willoughby, which Premier Berejiklian has held since 2003.
She told The North Shore Times emphatically: “I am never going to run as a politician again.
“I take it as a great compliment that people are talking to me about it but I tell them I am a recovering politician.
“If you hear me nominating I think you could put me in a lunatic asylum. I think my family would want me in an asylum.
“I’m 66 in April and I’m doing other things with my life.
“I really did like it (my time in politics) and I liked being mayor. But it takes a certain personality to do it. You get fatigued. I’ve been there, done that, and I won’t do it again.
“It’s a great time for independents and at another stage I probably would have been interested. But it’s for a younger person.
“I’m an assistant now rather than a front person.”
But the government’s growth plans have infuriated her to the point that she is fighting them through her membership of the Committee for North Sydney action group, and will do all she can to help independents on the north shore.
The state seat of North Shore has a strong history of independents, such as Ted Mack and Robyn Read, who between them held it for 10 straight years until 1991.
“There’s a lot of unhappiness about development. I don’t think the government realises how angry people are. They sit in Macquarie St and they are detached from people. They need to get out more,” said Ms McCaffery.
Sitting MP Felicity Wilson is reportedly at risk of losing Liberal preselection after key party branches reportedly withdrew their support.
They say she has failed to provide a full residential history and to clear up discrepancies on her academic record.
Ms Wilson says the Liberals have confirmed her candidacy is “in line” with party rules.