Jacqui Scruby set to win Pittwater, teals’ first NSW state seat

NSW is set to have its first teal candidate in state parliament after voters turned on the Liberal Party in the once blue ribbon seat of Pittwater following two high-profile scandals.

Climate 200-backed candidate Jacqui Scruby is set to win Pittwater, beating Liberal candidate Georgia Ryburn in a bitter battle that was focused on who was the most local candidate.

Party sources said Ryburn would not be conceding on Saturday night but senior party sources said it was not possible for her to win.

The NSW Liberals are confident of holding the two other seats – Epping and Hornsby – in the Super Saturday state byelections.

Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater went to the polls on Saturday after the resignation of former premier Dominic Perrottet and ex-treasurer Matt Kean. Pittwater was vacated after one-time Pittwater MP Rory Amon was forced to quit the northern beaches seat after he was charged with child sexual abuse charges, which he denies and has vowed to fight.

In Pittwater, Ryburn – the former deputy mayor of Northern Beaches Council – was up against Scruby, who narrowly missed out on snaring the state seat in last year’s general election by just 606 votes.

However, the Liberals were prepared for voters to punish the party after Amon’s sexual assault charges, as well as the party’s failure to nominate 140 local government candidates in last month’s council elections.

The NSW Liberals were sweating on the outcome of the byelection in Pittwater.Credit: Steven Siewert

Ryburn was one of dozens of councillors who missed out on recontesting their council positions because of the party’s administrative debacle, which saw the NSW Liberals’ state director Richard Shields lose his job and the federal executive take over the NSW division.

Speaking at Ryburn’s election night function in Mona Vale, Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said: “I want to see Georgia in parliament. And if it transpires it doesn’t come our way here in Pittwater, the battle to regain Pittwater starts right now.”

He said in other areas “where we haven’t had these challenges, our brand remains strong”.

Speaking as voting opened on Saturday, Pittwater’s former MP Rob Stokes said he was “nervous as the vote would come down to the wire”.

“We have two great candidates, but only one can deliver and that’s Georgia Ryburn,” Stokes said.

Speakman earlier criticised NSW Premier Chris Minns for failing to engage in the byelections, including Labor’s decision not to contest Epping, which was reduced to a margin of 4.8 per cent at the 2023 election.

“In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, housing affordability at record lows, infrastructure being slashed, Chris Minns is nowhere to be seen,” Speakman said.

Ryburn said earlier on Saturday the response from the community to her campaign had been “so positive”.

“We know this is going to be a tight byelection but the feedback that I have heard from the community is that they know only the Liberals deliver for Pittwater,” she said.

However, the campaign has been defined by which candidate is the more local. Scruby, who is backed by Climate 200, has made much of the fact that Ryburn lives in Frenchs Forest, which is outside the Pittwater electorate.

Ryburn, meanwhile, has stressed that while her current residential address may not be within the electorate’s boundaries, she has long family links to Pittwater.

The other Liberals contesting byelections on Saturday include Monica Tudehope in Epping, a former deputy chief of staff to Perrottet and daughter of upper house MLC Damien Tudehope.

In Hornsby, long-term Kean supporter James Wallace is likely to retain the seat for the Liberals.

While Labor and the Greens are missing from the byelections, the right-wing NSW Libertarians are on the ballot after success at the council elections.

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