The campaign team behind federal teal MP Kylea Tink has been mobilised in the hope of repeating its success in the state seat of Lane Cove, selecting a businesswoman to take on NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts, who, like former prime minister Scott Morrison, once famously took a lump of coal into parliament.
He is the second Liberal cabinet minister to face a teal challenge in the March NSW election, with the Climate 200 group supporting a candidate in Environment Minister James Griffin’s seat of Manly.
Victoria Davidson will run as an independent candidate for Lane Cove at the March state election.Credit: Edwina Pickles
North Sydney Independents are backing long-time Lane Cove resident Victoria Davidson in the safe Liberal seat, which has a 14 per cent margin, as teal candidates turn their focus to NSW ahead of the election in March.
The group, which found Tink and then resourced much of her successful bid to oust former North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman at the federal election, is targeting state seats that fall in that electorate, which include Lane Cove, North Shore and Willoughby.
Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 group has also endorsed Joeline Hackman who founded the 2000-strong Northern Beaches War on Waste community group, inspired by the ABC TV show.
While NSW’s emissions targets are much more ambitious than those of their former federal colleagues, independents, including Davidson, are convinced that the state is still failing in many other areas of environmental protection, including logging native forests.
“We know that climate is very important to this electorate. We know this Coalition government did better than the past federal government and a lot of people, me included, think Matt Kean has done a good job around climate, but one minister in a government is not enough,” she said.
“There have been 26 coal and gas approvals in NSW since the Paris Agreement, 11 of those under Matt Kean ... we also know there is some deal between Nats and Liberals about koala habitat. It has come up twice, it will come up a third time.”
The state government was forced to withdraw a native forestry bill in the final weeks of parliament which would have reignited the so-called koala wars, with Liberals in at-risk seats including Felicity Wilson in North Shore threatening to cross the floor rather than support it.
The community independents are hoping for a teal wave to roll across the state as it did in the federal election, however the task is more challenging because NSW has optional preferential voting and caps on how much candidates can spend on their election campaigns.
Anthony Roberts brandishing a lump of coal in NSW Parliament in 2017.
However, Davidson said Roberts, who has been the local member since 2003, did not reflect the growing progressive vote in Lane Cove and voters were demanding change.
In 2017, Roberts lugged a large lump of coal into question time and placed it on the dispatch box while answering a question about a bill to keep open a coal mine in Sydney’s catchment.
“This amazing piece of black rock keeps you cool in summer, warm in winter, it produces power to power electric motor vehicles,” Roberts told parliament, just months after Morrison, then federal treasurer, took a piece of coal into question time, accusing his opponents of “coalaphobia”.
Davidson also pointed out Roberts’ opposition to decriminalising abortion and voluntary assisted dying, saying “I don’t think his position on those issues would reflect our community”.
Davidson, who runs a podiatry business with her husband, helped on Tink’s campaign and said voters were increasingly walking away from the major parties. “On election day, we were so energised and even then, we were saying great, it’s the state election next.
“The existing two-party system doesn’t work for the voters, it works for career politicians and vested interests. We saw in the federal election the difference that individuals can make,” Davidson said.
“I am not going to be busy trying to protect my preselection, or keep my factions happy. I can just focus on listening to the community, that is the strength in community independents. ”
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