Abbott foe tied to Left in her early legal days

Zali Steggall was linked with Labor lawyers as a young barrister despite saying she has no ALP ­affiliations.

Zali Steggall is contesting the Warringah seat of former prime minister Tony Abbott as an independent. Picture: Troy Snook/AAP

Zali Steggall, the independent candidate campaigning to oust Tony Abbott from his seat on Sydney’s northern beaches, was linked with Labor lawyers as a young barrister despite saying she has no ALP ­affiliations and has never voted Labor.

Ms Steggall studied law after a career as a champion skier and was recruited on to the sixth floor of Sydney’s Wentworth Selborne chambers, which is widely known as the chamber’s floor of Labor and left-leaning barristers, with former notables such as Jim Spigelman.

In her early days as a barrister, Ms Steggall was taken under the wing of Tim Hale SC, a prominent barrister with known Labor connections who represented former NSW minister Ian Macdonald at recent Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings.

Ms Steggall was not offered a room at the chambers during her term with Wentworth Selborne and eventually left, switching from commercial to family law.

While campaigning against Mr Abbott in Warringah, Ms Steggall has fended off repeated questions about whether she is a true independent, or aligned with Labor or the Greens.

She told The Australian yesterday she had no affiliation to any party. She had “never voted Labor” and only voted Liberal at “state or local government elections”.

Ms Steggall’s campaign manager, Anthony Reed, is a long-time Labor operative and former staffer, as first reported by The Australian. Although claiming to receive no financial help from activist groups such as GetUp, Ms Steggall’s campaign team includes supporters of GetUp.

She also has direct Warringah campaign endorsement and support from GetUp, which claims to be independent but has repeatedly battled claims it is aligned with Labor or the Greens, and does not endorse Coalition candidates.

Some opinion polls show Mr Abbott, who has held his seat since 1994, could struggle to win this time.

Ms Steggall said she would “caution” about “making allegations in respect to one of the NSW bar’s leading commercial floors, from which the last two chief justices of the NSW Supreme Court were appointed”.

She said she was privileged to start her practice at the bar on the sixth floor, and “be led and mentored by numerous leading commercial senior counsels”.

“I am unaware of any of their political inclinations,” she said.

During her time at Wentworth Selborne, Ms Steggall was voted on to the NSW Bar Council as one of the council’s representatives with less than five years’ experience at the bar.

As for other council members, she was required to chair a committee and was put in charge of the health, sport and recreation committee.

When her committee was abolished during an overhaul, Ms Steggall protested. The committee was reinstated but chaired by another barrister, then council vice-president Arthur Moses SC.