Zali Steggall’s ex-husband’s new wife Bridie Nolan is involved in campaign to oust her as MP for Warringah
Barrister Bridie Nolan, who is the stepmother to Zali Steggall’s children, is helping to run the campaign to defeat her.
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EXCLUSIVE
A war of the roses has erupted in the seat of Warringah with Zali Steggall’s ex-husband’s new wife playing a key role in the Liberal campaign to oust her.
Barrister Bridie Nolan, who is the stepmother to Ms Steggall’s children, is helping to run the campaign to defeat her.
Ms Nolan previously hit the headlines during the 2019 campaign after a bitter war of words where she and her husband David Cameron attacked Ms Steggall on Twitter as “an idiot” who “loved the limelight”.
It has now emerged that Ms Nolan is playing a key role in the campaign of the Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who is trying to win the seat back from Ms Steggall.
Ms Steggall won the seat of Warringah as an independent MP against former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2019.
A Liberal Party spokesman told news.com.au that Ms Nolan, a longtime Liberal Party member, was not the campaign manager in the seat but a “volunteer”.
However, a number a Liberal MPs suggested that Ms Nolan was playing a key role in running the campaign against her husband’s ex-wife and that the situation was “weird”.
Ms Steggall told news.com.au she believed it was inappropriate that the Liberal Party was involving her children’s stepmother in the campaign.
“I find it personally distasteful that my opponent and the Liberal campaign are using extended members of my separated family,” she said.
News.com.au has contacted Ms Nolan for comment.
Ms Steggall and Mr Cameron have two teenage children together, Rex and Remy.
During the 2019 campaign, Ms Nolan deleted a string of earlier tweets in which she attacked the mother of her husband’s two sons for “cashing in” on the Lindt cafe siege – because she spoke to reporters about the tragedy.
Ms Nolan also deleted tweets in which she asked Ms Steggall, a former Olympic skier: “Do you really think you deserved special treatment because you ski?
“You cannot bear to be out of the limelight,” she said.
On April 6, she sent a tweet to her husband’s ex-wife urging her to “be transparent or quit”.
“Withdraw now before you embarrass your family further,” Ms Nolan wrote on March 17, 2019.
The couple took particular exception to a condolence tweet from Ms Steggall to the victims of the March 15 Christchurch massacre, which she hashtagged “Warringah votes.”
“Such a stark and horrific reminder of where extreme ideology, hate and divisive speech leads. My deepest condolences to the families. #warringahvotes #auspol,” Ms Steggall wrote at the time.
“What sort of opportunistic person puts a promotional hashtag in a tweet intended for the condolences of a grieving nation? Idiot,” Mr Cameron wrote of his ex-wife’s tweet.
Ms Nolan urged Ms Steggall to quit politics.
“You are showing you do not have what it takes. Withdraw now before you embarrass your family further. This and your tweet from Friday really are disgraceful.”
Ms Nolan backed those comments in a Daily Telegraph interview, where she said she was “appalled” by her husband’s ex-wife.
“My husband and I were appalled that Zali considered it appropriate to tweet in an opportunistic fashion not once, but twice about the Christchurch tragedy, in the manner and tone in which she did. Unfortunately, neither he nor I was surprised. We both know personally how opportunistic Zali is,” she said.
Ms Nolan is a high-profile barrister with a personal website that describes herself as “devastatingly experienced”. She recently suggested that if an actress was to appear in a movie about her life it would be Charlize Theron.
“Oh, there’s only one person. Charlize Theron. Tall, elegant, and you know the kapow factor,” she said.
She is a mother of three and stepmother to Ms Steggall’s two teenage sons.
But after the story appeared in the Daily Telegraph under the headline Piste Off, the couple deleted the tweets and suggested they preferred to move on with their lives.
Tuesday’s front page of The Daily Telegraph â¦@dailytelegraphâ© â¦@Houghtontweetsâ© pic.twitter.com/c5Vn0JxepP
— Ben English (@bennyglish) April 15, 2019
Meanwhile Scott Morrison’s ‘captain’s pick’ for the seat of Warringah, Ms Deves, has apologised for describing trans kids as “surgically mutilated and sterilised”.
Ms Deves issued a public apology for the language after news.com.au revealed she had wiped her social media accounts, including posts that said she was ”triggered” by the LGBT rainbow flag.
She also posted graphic topless images of a trans teenager who had undergone ‘top surgery’ to remove their breasts.
“My advocacy for the rights and safety of women and girls is well known, and I stand by my desire to ensure we protect the safety of women and girls and our entire community,’’ Ms Deves told news.com.au.
“However, the language I used was not acceptable, and for that I apologise.”
It is not suggested that Ms Nolan or her husband endorse the comments made about trans kids or LGBT people.
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