Gabrielle Upton reflects on her 11 years as Vaucluse MP and whether her party can stem the teal tide

Once a very safe Liberal seat, Vaucluse’s future is now uncertain. Margaret Rice investigates the changing political landscape and the legacy of departing state MP Gabrielle Upton.

In a new political colour landscape – think big splashes of teal – what will be the palette of the new member for the NSW seat of Vaucluse? And what colour does that make the departing Liberal member, Gabrielle Upton?

Upton has announced she won’t contest her seat at the next state election, to be held in March 2023.

Upton is trim and neat. If she were a jacket, the stitching would be as perfect on the inside as on the outside. Some locals suggest beige might be her colour. But maybe this would be Burberry beige, the background that sets up a prestige brand to shine.

Among her list of outstanding roles, Upton has been the parliamentary secretary to two premiers, Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet. Parliamentary secretaries don’t front up to the press gallery or talkback radio jocks, fighting out the controversies of the day. They support the leader from the shadows. So the role is a bit, well, secretarial. But so what? Upton was there.

Generously, to both the people of Vaucluse and her party, Upton made her resignation announcement early and will stay on until the election, avoiding a by-election and giving time for her Liberal colleagues to search thoroughly for their next candidate.

Gabrielle Upton MP announced her retirement from state politics. Picture: John Appleyard

With teal candidates and outspoken independents stepping up in contemporary politics, was Upton tapped on the shoulder, as some suggest, and asked to make way for a more flamboyant Liberal figure?

No, she says, explaining that after more than 11 years it was her decision to leave and hers alone.

“I’ve been a strong and consistent advocate for my electorate and I’ve worked tirelessly, never taking it for granted. But it’s time for a refresh locally and for other challenges for me.”

She wants to continue to work for the community in her next role.

Sitting recently in the same office we sat in about a decade ago, on New South Head Rd, Double Bay, discussing what she wanted to achieve as a new politician, it was a bit like deja vu all over again as she reflected on her record.

Upton was looking at transport issues then and arguing that she would improve ferry, train and bus timetabling and services. When asked to list her successes now, that was the first point she went to.

“I’ve responded to the electorate’s needs for better public transport services and more ferry services. I’ve achieved the total renovation of the Rose Bay ferry wharf with a new wharf and upgraded ferry wharves are under way at Double Bay and Darling Point.”

But would these have happened anyway? There have been ferry upgrades on the other side of the harbour too.

Upton argues not: “It takes years of advocacy and lobbying to get the budget for those. These don’t just happen unless you’re a respected voice in government.”

Upton lobbied for amenity upgrades in her area. Picture: John Appleyard

Upton’s second example of her achievements, before moving on to her ministerial successes, illustrates a similar point. She secured $80m to close the wastewater outfalls at Diamond Bay and Vaucluse.

“Again, that doesn’t just happen,” she says.

But in an age when environmental issues are so pressing, it’s amazing to think that until 2019 raw faeces was being pumped from those two outlets.

In a way, Upton’s revelation of her hard work on these issues goes to the heart of the problem for members sitting in safe electorates – and why independents have been so successful.

Woollahra local councillor Luise Elsing says Upton has been a diligent local member: “I really would like to congratulate her. She’s a good role model for parliamentary behaviour and she’s a very decent person. But you don’t have as much power when you’re on the inside of government, in a safe seat, as you do if you’re on the outside, when it’s a balance of power situation. So I’m very keen for independent representation when Gabrielle leaves.”

The seat of Vaucluse has always been held by conservatives, and by the Liberal Party since it first formed in 1944. So in the past it’s been a safe sinecure, a blue jewel handed to loyal party members.

In such a safe seat its representative didn’t need to be a parliamentary performer or a media star. The fight for the seat wasn’t at the election but behind the closed doors of preselection committee rooms.

At home with her daughter Georgie and dogs Oscar and Toffee. Picture: John Appleyard

But the success of the teal movement at the federal level has changed all that. And the Liberals endured a 19 per cent swing against them in the previously ultra-safe blue seat of Willoughby, formerly held by Berejiklian.

If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere, even Vaucluse, where the Liberals’ margin is also 19 per cent. Once safe, nothing can be certain anymore.

Former premier Mike Baird appointed Upton the first female attorney-general in 2015, and says she is unlike other politicians.

“She’s incredibly diligent and focused. She’s determined to get outcomes and that makes her very, very different to most people in politics. She was there for good policy and good outcomes for her community,” he says.

“She played very little part in the usual political shenanigans that come with the territory. That makes her very unusual.”

But this strength is also her weakness.

When asked if the big forces at play in the federal election, mainly the climate change anxieties that swept the teals to power, will have an impact on the state election, Upton’s response reminds us she is a lawyer.

“State and federal politics have different issues. At the state level we provide services to the community – transport so people can get to work, hospitals to provide good medical care and an education system that provides good education,” she says.

“So we’re dealing with quite different issues at the state level, they’re much more about the texture of people’s lives.”

At the start of her political career. Picture: John Appleyard

But aren’t the big issues dripping into the texture at the moment?

Devastation caused by building on floodplains has had a savage impact in north-western Sydney and across the state. The state-level planning implications of this are not lost on residents.

Double Bay, parts of Edgecliff, Woollahra and Bellevue Hill are all built on 280ha of floodplains, which drain into Sydney Harbour. Residents of Kiaora Rd remember severe flooding as recently as 2007.

They might be more financially secure than some in other parts, but it doesn’t matter how well off you are, you want the security of knowing the state’s planning laws, which override local council authority, will protect you and your property.

“We are facing unmanaged floodplain risk in Woollahra LGA and other serious environmental issues for our community,” says Elsing, who’s lobbying the community on the issue.

And, like others in Sydney, residents of the seat of Vaucluse are also furious about overdevelopment.

“The state government overrules our management of height controls and disregards our objections when our development targets are exceeded by threefold,” Elsing says.

She warns this issue alone will drive voters to independents at the next state election.

Improving water quality at Rose Bay is something Upton is rightly proud of.

Woollahra Mayor Susan Wynne. Picture: John Appleyard

Daisy Turnbull.

The beach is now rated in the NSW State of the Beaches report as “good” instead of “poor”. Locals, including Elsing, acknowledge that it was Upton’s tireless negotiation, pulling a number of disparate entities together, that achieved this.

But Elsing argues overdevelopment is behind the problem in the first place: “Water quality issues at Rose Bay are caused by densification.”

Already, a flurry of names has been suggested for the Liberals to replace Upton, all women and good media performers – Woollahra mayor Susan Wynne, former TV presenter and previous Willoughby candidate Kellie Sloane and Export Council director Cristina Talacko. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s daughter Daisy is on the list too.

Locals are also watching the space closely to see what happens with the independents.

Delia Burrage, of Voices of Wentworth, which set the stage for the Wentworth Independents to take federal teal Allegra Spender to electoral success, says there could be several candidates, “or at least more than one, since so many have been emboldened by the success of the teal movement”.

Upton is entitled not to care about any of this anymore. But she remains fiercely loyal to the party that supported her.

“Of course, the colour I want to see returned to Vaucluse is blue.”