Election 2022: Climate candidate Kylea Tink is on an emission

The Climate 200-backed independent candidate for North Sydney Kylea Tink says she will seek the introduction of vehicle and emission standards in exchange for her support in parliament.

Catherine Renshaw, Trent Zimmerman and Kylea Tink at the North Sydney debate. Picture: Richard Dobson

The Climate 200-backed independent candidate for North Sydney Kylea Tink says she will seek the introduction of vehicle and emission standards in exchange for her support in parliament.

Ms Tink refused to be drawn on which party she would support in the case of a hung parliament and said she would instead negotiate on the issues if elected.

The Northbridge resident named the price of her support during a candidates debate on Thursday with incumbent Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman and ALP candidate Catherine Renshaw.

“The price of my support is to pass vehicle and fuel emission standards,” said Ms Tink, who has pledged to introduce a private members bill on emission standards within a year if elected.

Mr Zimmerman holds North Sydney by a margin of 9.27 per cent but there are concerns within the Liberal Party that the seat may be at risk in the looming poll.

He said on Thursday that the two-party system was not without its faults, and added he didn’t understand why Ms Tink couldn’t say the party she would support in the result of a hung parliament, given that both parties have released their policies.

“I think if you’re interested in transparency and integrity, it’s a basic responsibility to let voters know what they’re going to get if they vote for you,” he said.

“It’s too late after the election’s happened for voters to wake up and find out they’ve got the Liberal or Labor government they didn’t want.”

Mr Zimmerman said Ms Tink was being “disingenuous”.

With climate looming to be a key election issue in the seat of North Sydney, Mr Zimmerman said he would push for stronger emissions targets if elected.

Ms Tink has raised about $1.2m in donations, about 35 per cent of which came from millionaire climate activist Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate war chest.

On Thursday, she denied she was a “Holmes a Court independent” or that she and the other 20-odd candidates were in collusion, saying the independents if elected would offer proper representation to their communities.

“Independents absolutely terrify the two major parties because they have a system that is set up to work for them,” Ms Tink said, adding she had voted for the Liberal Party for most of her life.

Labor’s Ms Renshaw said the best pathway forward for the nation was stable government, and said Ms Tink’s policy priorities of action on climate change and the establishment of a federal anti-corruption body closely aligned with Labor’s federal platform. “The country doesn’t need more conversations, it needs a strong hand on the steering wheel,” Ms Renshaw said.

She said stable government was critical given the current geopolitical climate and said all major policy advances had come through the two-party system.

Ms Renshaw, daughter-in-law of former NSW Labor premier Jack Renshaw, said Ms Tink’s policies had a lot of parallels with Labor, including a federal anti-corruption commission and stronger action on climate change.

An independent has snatched North Sydney from Liberal hands before when former mayor Ted Mack unseated incumbent Liberal MP John Spender in 1990.