Northern Beaches deputy mayor Georgia Ryburn to take on teal in Pittwater

The Northern Beaches deputy mayor Georgia Ryburn’s political career has been resurrected after she was preselected as the Liberal candidate for Pittwater, which was abruptly vacated after the former sitting MP was charged with child sex offences.

Ryburn beat fellow Northern Beaches councillor Michael Gencher 48 votes to 38 in the final voting round of the preselection on Wednesday night, paving the way for a tough contest with teal candidate Jacqui Scruby, who narrowly missed out on claiming the seat in the March 2023 election.

Georgia Ryburn has been preselected to contest the state seat of Pittwater.Credit: Steven Siewert

Pittwater was forced to a byelection after former MP Rory Amon’s resignation from parliament on August 30, only hours after he was charged with child sex offences.

Police charged Amon with offences including five counts of having sexual intercourse in 2017 with a male between the ages of 10 and 14. Amon has denied wrongdoing and will fight the allegations.

Four Liberal candidates nominated for preselection, including Ryburn, lawyer Claire Longley, Gencher and another Northern Beaches councillor Bianca Crvelin.

Teal candidate Jacqui Scruby will take on the Liberals in Pittwater for the second time.Credit: Janie Barrett

Senior Liberals, however, fear that the seat will be impossible to hold regardless of the candidate, with party insiders expecting voter backlash over the council nominations saga.

Northern Beaches Council was left without any endorsed Liberal candidates ahead of this weekend’s local government elections after the party’s embarrassing administrative fiasco meant it failed to nominate 140 candidates, including Ryburn.

The debacle forced the federal arm of the party to step in and take control of the NSW division for 10 months, including the appointment of a three-man committee to oversee the troubled party.

On Tuesday night, the NSW state executive met to discuss the federal intervention, but the meeting was heated as Opposition Leader Mark Speakman told party members he refused to accept the committee of “two elderly gentlemen” was merit-based and presented “terrible optics” to the electorate.

Last week, two Victorian Liberals, former senator Richard Alston and ex-state treasurer Alan Stockdale, were announced as part of a three-person committee delegated to manage the dysfunctional NSW Liberals. Former NSW Minister Rob Stokes was also named as a committee member, but turned down the role.

Speakman insisted there should be female representation on the committee.

“We can debate the merits of federal intervention or not, but it’s best that we all unite and get behind it anyway and all of us do our best to win the upcoming elections, federal, state byelection and local. However, I don’t think it’s the right thing to have the committee dominated by two elderly gentlemen from Victoria,” Speakman told Tuesday’s meeting.

“This isn’t about wokeism or quotas; we need women on this because we need a merit-based committee. I refuse to accept that a committee dominated by elderly men from Victoria is a merit-based committee … It’s terrible optics, when women are half the voters, not to have women on the committee.”

The meeting eventually resolved to appoint two women, former Lindsay MP Fiona Scott and ex NSW MP Peta Seaton.

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