By Wendy Harmer
When Tony Abbott last appeared on Q&A on August 16, 2010, a middle-aged man in striped shirt and silver tie stood to pose a question.
"I'm a Vietnam veteran," he said. "I've been a plumbing contractor for 37 years, I support with a social conscience the Liberal philosophy.
Illustration: Glen Le Lievre
"I have a gay son. When I was confronted with that situation, in a very short amount of time, and with due consideration, I accepted his position and I overcame my ignorance and my fear of gays and the idea of gay marriage.
"When will you, Mr Abbott?"
That man was Geoff Thomas and five years on, his son Nathan Thomas, now 40, is the convener of a group that aims to defeat the Prime Minister in Warringah at the next election.
People of Warringah (POW!) has met only once, at The Oaks hotel in Neutral Bay, with just 25 in attendance, but but may already be punching above its weight. People leading parties and coalitions of community groups with a similar aim were either at the meeting, knew about it or have been in touch, and the (secret) word is that support is coming from surprising quarters.
"I know Australians are looking at us in Warringah and thinking we're very affluent, out of touch and self-absorbed, but we're actually very community-minded," Nathan says.
"There's a lot of anger here about Abbott's stance on children in detention, refugees and renewable energy. Then there are the local issues of population growth and a lack of transport. Tony's our absent member."
Abbott has held Warringah since 1994 and last won it with 60.88 per cent of the primary vote. Opponents figure they have to win around 15,000 hearts and minds to oust him.
Opinions on Warringah range from "no, Tony's just not beatable," to "absolutely winnable" and "why not have a crack?"
Nathan, an accountant, says he was finally stirred into action after the latest stall on marriage equality. He'd like to have the option to marry his partner, Michael, an engineer who works a factory in Forestville.
"I had to do something. When Dad stood up on Q&A. Oh my god! I was so proud of him."
Also at The Oaks that night was Louise Hislop from the Australian Progressives, a party formed in February with plans to run a candidate in Warringah.
"People don't understand this electorate," she says. "Yes they're well off and have pretty good lives, but there's a huge level of dissatisfaction, especially when it comes to small business. There's a feeling that the major parties are too obliged to their big donors and they don't really care about the little guys. They think Tony is hopeless."
"It will be a huge effort to unseat him," Hislop says. "However, different groups are touching base and the feeling is growing we can do this."
After saying he'd consider running against Abbott, entrepreneur Dick Smith has apparently ruled himself out with the protestation "it was just a throw-away line."
The Greens have already nominated their candidate, Clara Williams-Roldan, a university student who stood against Mike Baird in Manly and garnered a tidy 25.5 per cent after preferences, outpolling Labor. The ALP are actively looking for "a high-profile woman" to run, at the same time admitting the seat is "too safe" to win.
The guest speaker at the next meeting of POW! at The Oaks will be the highly-regarded former mayor of Manly and independent state MP, Dr Peter Macdonald. An old foe of Abbott's, he whittled down his winning margin to a mere 5.7 per cent in 2001.
It was the last time anyone seriously tried to win Warringah, Hislop says. She and Nathan are hoping that from little things big things grow.
Sydney has been hailed as the world's most friendly city for tourists in 2015 by an international travel magazine. We responded with our usual cynicism: "Huh? Who? Us?"
This city is spectacularly blessed in the holiday photo department and we'll quite happily steer around a group posing for a snap, even help out with the camera. We're polite, reasonably tolerant, but "friendly"? Seems a bridge too far.
The mystery is solved if you look at where visitors to our fair city actually go. A typical full-day tour offers "headlands, lookouts and beaches" – Manly, Bondi, Clovelly, Middle and North Head, The Gap and the myriad attractions of our splendid harbour. It's a chance to "get some sand between your toes" says one brochure.
"What's not to love?" one traveller asks.
Well, the people who live here, for a start.
Touring the shorelines of Sydney and seeing only yachts, ferries, sunbathers and crowded beach cafes, it must look to outsiders as if the whole joint has taken the day off to celebrate the arrival of the latest tour bus.
Meanwhile, just a few kilometres away, real Sydney-siders are stuck in traffic, engaging a bit of the old road rage, punching each other for parking spots and barking at the odd, bewildered tourist who's accidentally wandered into the CBD and is holding up crowded footpath with an upside-down map.
"Such friendly people," another magazine reader gushed, "so much so that after we met an Australian woman on our flight there, she offered to pick us up at our hotel and spent a whole day showing us her favourite parts of the city."
Yeah, right. Obviously some sort of scam. Typical Sydney!