The NSW State Election will take place next week on Saturday 25 March, with seven candidates contesting the electorate of Manly (view Manly electorate map here).
Where can I vote?
For those voting on the main polling day, 21 voting centres will be open from 8am – 6pm across the electorate. We’ve made a map view of these locations for you here – accessibility information can be found in the descriptions of the various locations.
You can also access the NSW Electoral commission’s maps and information on their website.
Want to vote elsewhere? Residents are able to vote outside the district, just needing to notify poll workers that they’re doing so and sign a declaration envelope to ensure they’re marked off the electoral roll.
Early voting
Can’t make the main polling day? Early voting will be available in Dee Why, Manly and Brookvale for those who are eligible from today for the week up to the election (excluding Sunday). We’ve also made a map view of these early voting locations for you here.
Early voting hours:
Sat: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Mon – Wed: 8:30am – 5:30pm
Thu: 8:30am – 8:00pm
Fri: 8:30am – 6:00pm
Warringah Mall Community Room – 145 Old Pittwater Road, Brookvale NSW. This venue has lifts within close proximity and is recommended for the elderly members of our community who want to avoid the rush on election day. Being located in a shopping centre, parking is not a problem and is the ideal place to vote whilst doing the shopping.
St Matthew’s Anglican Church – 1 Darley Road, Manly NSW. The location has assisted access and parking can be found in the surrounding area.
Manly Election Manager’s Office – 8A/27-33 Oaks Avenue, Dee Why NSW 2099. This voting centre is located on the ground floor of Dee Why Market, close to the B-Line bus stop, with a car park on-site and wheelchair access.
What’s the state of play?
The Northern Beaches is shaping up to be a key battleground in the 2023 NSW Election, as a number of candidates from all persuasions line up to make their case in what are tipped to be the area’s most competitive races in over a decade.
The Manly electorate captures the suburbs between Seaforth and Manly, all the way up to Dee Why. Liberal Environment Minister James Griffin is the incumbent running for reelection and has represented Manly since the resignation of former Premier Mike Baird in 2017. The Liberal party holds the seat by a margin of 12.9%, making it the tightest electorate in the Northern Beaches.
Premier Dominic Perrottet currently leads a minority government with 75 seats, meaning the Liberal-National Coalition rely on a member of the crossbench to pass legislation in the lower house. Considering Labor is notionally nine seats away from a majority (accounting for redistribution), it is likely that either major party will need to negotiate for the support of independents or smaller parties to form government.
Residents have flagged the poor performance of local bus and ferry services, the proposed northern beaches tunnel, the environment, gambling and affordable housing as the main issues deciding their vote this cycle.
Manly Observer has put together a quick rundown below on who is who, with the candidates being listed in the order of which they’ll appear on the ballot.
Six of these candidates – representing Liberal, Labor, the Greens, the Animal Justice Party and two independents – recently fielded questions from the community at an event hosted by Curl Curl Lagoon Friends.
Who are the candidates for Manly?
[1] Phillip Altman (Independent)
Altman has a PhD in drug development and experience advising on clinical trials and regulation within the pharmaceutical industry.
As a self-described long-shot candidate, his campaign has been light on policy and is largely aimed at his concerns over the COVID vaccines.
“Our number one issue, surprisingly, is not climate. We are in a health crisis,” he told a recent community forum.
On other issues, he’s expressed general support for gambling reform, sympathising with what he describes as an unacceptable social cost of gambling, and is notionally in favour of the Northern Beaches tunnel, stating that “anything that can reduce traffic is great.”
[2] Joeline Hackman (Independent)
Joeline Hackman is a former marketing executive who co-founded the food donation and delivery program ‘Feed Our Medics’ in the early stages of the pandemic.
However, it was her growing frustration with the lack of action on the environment, after starting the ‘Northern Beaches War on Waste’ five years ago, that ultimately led to her to be the first independent candidate to directly challenge James Griffin for his seat as she “didn’t feel like enough action was being taken locally to global problems we had.”
Hackman was chosen by Manly Independent, a committee started in September last year to find a “community independent” for this election, and is backed by the area’s federal MP Zali Steggall and Simon Holmes à Court’s ‘Climate 200’, the fundraising group behind the teal independents movement that swept across Liberal seats in last year’s federal election.
Transposing the rhetoric of their successful campaigns to state politics, Hackman has called for further climate action and improved accountability in politics, pointing to a culture in government that she believes lacks integrity, as evidenced by partisan allocation of grant programs such as the bushfire recovery fund.
Hackman wants less State involvement in planning decisions, although she is open to models that make at least 10% of new homes “affordable for key workers”, noting council has underdelivered on its own targets. She also believes gambling reform needs to go beyond the Liberal’s proposed cashless gaming card to include a self-exclusion register and the closure of pokies between midnight and 10am.
She “does not think there is a clear business case for the Liberal’s version of the tunnel” and opposes the privatisation of public transport on the Northern Beaches, urging a return to public ownership. Hackman supports the removal of shark nets and has criticised the Liberals for not supporting the Great Koala National Park proposed near Coffs Harbour.
“On the environment, they [the Liberals] say one thing, then they do another.”
[3] Terrance Le Roux (The Greens)
Terrance Le Roux is a former ‘techno-economist’ and has experience advising the community on proposed local infrastructure, being awarded Senior Citizen of the Year by the Northern Beaches Council in 2022.
Le Roux said his objective while challenging Griffin is to advocate the Green’s principles – primarily a ban on new coal mines and gas projects – and not to “take his seat away.” He could be in for a surprise though, with the possibility of winning not out of this world, considering the Green’s received the second most votes last cycle, ahead of Labor.
He has been actively involved in the campaign against the Northern Beaches tunnel and is against the privatisation of public transport in the area, supporting the return of buses and ferries to public ownership.
He supports the removal of shark nets and believes the State’s Environmental Planning Legislation should be revised to prevent the sell off of affordable housing.
He supports the removal of poker machines from clubs and hotels, as well as the introduction of gambling self-exclusion registers.
“The addiction the NSW government has to the revenue from poker machines blurs their judgement and allows it to be influenced.”
[4] Emanuele Paletto (Sustainable Australia – Stop Overdevelopment/Corruption)
Emanuele Paletto also contested the 2017 by-election on behalf of Sustainable Australia. He has not attended any of the ‘Meet The Candidates’ forums, and he has not formally lodged any electoral material for distribution on election day.
His party, Sustainable Australia, advocates stricter planning laws and the restriction of the development and foreign ownership of new housing. While in favour of expanded public transport options, they are neutral on privatisation. They support a cashless gaming card and caps on poker machines. Their stance on other local issues is unclear.
[5] Bailey Connor Mason (Animal Justice Party)
Bailey Mason is a local animal rights activist campaigning for a prohibition on shark nets, drum lines and 1080 poison – a controlled pesticide used in culling of wild animals.
Mason opposes the capture of marine life for aquariums and is against the Northern Beaches tunnel, citing the environmental impacts. While generally in favour of general gambling reform, he has called for a ban on the greyhound racing industry, as floated by the Baird government, to be a top priority.
“There was a ban [on greyhound racing], and then there was a backflip… Criminal activity runs rife. It is cruel, it cannot be reformed, it must be shut down,” he told residents at a recent forum.
[6] Jasper Thatcher (Labor)
Jasper Thatcher works as a deckhand on the Manly Fast Ferry while studying law at the University of New England. Having been on shift during an engine failure on an Emerald Class vessel last year, he has made an opposition to foreign-made fleets and privatisation central to his campaign.
“Manly has been the guinea pig for privatisation. We’ve lost our buses, our ferries, our hospitals. And we’ve got absolutely nothing for it,” he recently told a community forum.
He opposes the Northern Beaches tunnel, expressing doubts over the extent it will improve traffic, instead favouring the reinstatement of cancelled bus routes and an expansion of ferry services. He has proposed that Indigenous art and names be added to the ferry fleet, having been involved in the inclusion of the Aboriginal flag to all vessels last year. Thatcher is the only candidate in the race that identifies as Indigenous.
Toeing the Labor line on poker machines, he has stopped short of fully supporting a cashless gaming card, committing instead to a trial of the program. He has suggested Clubs NSW be designated as a prohibited donor to political parties to “maintain integrity in politics”.
He supports the establishment of a ‘rental commissioner’ to further regulate the rental market, and he opposes the sale of existing social housing. He supports the establishment of a new national park in Sydney’s south-west that’ll serve as a koala ‘corridor’ – connecting large areas of habitat.
[7] James Griffin (Liberals)
James Griffin has been the sitting member for Manly since 2017 and, having been the Minister for Environment and Heritage for a little over a year, is the only candidate in the race with a political record.
Responding to concerns around transport in the area, he has rejected his opponents’ claims that it is inherently problematic for the ferry and bus fleets to be run by private operators like the NRMA, Keolis Downer, and Forest Coach Lines.
“[Privatisation is] not the solution to everything, but to say it’s been a disaster to Manly is simply not true,” he recently told a community forum.
Instead, he has characterised the network’s ailing capacity as being primarily a post-COVID labour issue. As such, he proposes alleviating stress on the system in the short-term with express B1-like services from Brookvale and subsidised in-demand buses similar to those operated by Keoride in Pittwater. To attract more drivers in the longer-term, he supports entirely covering the cost of training drivers and their transport into the area.
Griffin supports the Northern Beaches Tunnel, pending the delivery of the environmental impact statement, and pointed to the North Sydney Metro, Western Harbour Tunnel and Warringah Freeway upgrade as infrastructure projects underway that will “bring more capacity onto the road network.”
He supports the introduction of a cashless gaming card, being one of the recommendations of the Crime Commission’s report into money laundering he received in Cabinet, and has committed to implementing the others in full.
On housing affordability, he pointed to the government’s outlawing of rental bidding earlier this year and their scheme allowing first home buyers to elect an annual property tax instead of upfront stamp duty, which he says, “took 2 years off the time [of saving] to purchase a property.”
Griffin points to securing government support for local projects including the Brookvale Community Health Centre, Manly Youth Hospice, and $96.5 million worth of redevelopments that added 98 new classrooms to schools in the area as being his case for re-election.
Looking for Wakehurst electorate instead?
A profile on Wakehurst candidates is in the pipeline, but if you are looking for practical information now we suggest you visit the Wakehurst electoral page here.
Candidates for Wakehurst and Pittwater are as follows:
Wakehurst
1. Sue Wright (Labor)
2. Greg Mawson (Sustainable Australia)
3. Susan Sorensen (Animal Justice Party)
4. Ethan Hrnjak (The Greens)
5. Toby Williams (Liberal)
6. Michael Regan (Independent)
Pittwater
1. Rory Amon (Liberal)
2. Jacqui Scruby (Independent)
3. Hilary Green (The Greens)
4. Craig Law (Sustainable Australia – Stop Overdevelopment/Corruption)
5 Jeffrey Quinn (Labor)
