Sitting down in Warringah MP Zali Steggall’s new office on the Manly Corso, I kick off our first face-to-face interview in four years with a confession: I am reluctant to publish a story about her and post to our social media.
It’s the vitriol in the comments, see. It’s exhausting and, quite frankly, a bit irritating to moderate. “What she ever done for the electorate? Nothing!” “Put some wind turbines on North Head”, “Useless”. That’s the gist. This being the first formal chat in so long, I wonder if our coverage gap is partly to blame.
It’s just…. Ms Steggall has been fighting a lot of the BIG PICTURE stuff, and we tend to focus more on the Beaches minutiae. Also, a lot of the conversation points on the Northern Beaches first fall on to state and local authorities to answer – buses, potholes, police, hospitals, big swells and ‘what’s with that helicopter?’.
Ms Steggall is a federal MP – her big policy moves are tackling climate risks (growing uninsurability), integrity in government (it’s still legal to lie in political ads), and matters involving diplomatic assistance or connecting to help with human services.
We leave a lot of that reporting to the national broadcasters.
As to the vitriol in the comments, it can be as marked and predictable as posting a story about e-bikes, council rates or off-leash dogs – a real love or hate response.
Comment sections aside, however, it’s clear that ‘love wins’ thus far.
The Teal Independent – the first to ever use the trademark colour in promotions by the way – has proven extremely popular both times the votes have been tallied (2019 and 2022) for the seat of Warringah.
Ms Steggall wiped the floor with 60 per cent of the vote against Liberal Katherine Deves last election and ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott in her inaugural bid.
“The feedback I get is the community feels we are actually reflecting their concerns and chipping away at the issues that matter to them. Whereas if you look at it from the two major parties, they tend to spend a lot of time blaming each other,” Ms Steggall says during our sit down.
An Olympic skier, parent to five kids in a blended family, and a barrister in profession, Ms Steggall’s achievements command respect. Online, however, the Facebook commentators, in particular, repeatedly lament her supposed uselessness.
So, here in her office, I repeat the accusation. “You’ve been in office since 2019, you are now at the end of this term. What have you done?”
She draws a long breath.
“To give an idea, that little team out there (pointing to a well-staffed office of women) have handled 42,000 emails over the last six years of stuff coming and going, cases that you open, that you close, helping people, NDIS, aged care, visas, you name it, we go to bat,” she explains.
“So I would say we have genuinely been here for the community.”
Steggall highlights grant funding successes: “We’ve actually had about a 320 per cent increase in grants money coming into the electorate since 2019 which is ironic when you think our previous member was Prime Minister.”
“By being diligent and making sure we do [grant applications] properly, there’s been a huge increase in funds coming to things. And, you know, some people might say, Oh, it’s not a road or a hospital, but there’s money for the surf club (Manly Lifesaving Club), and recently $5 million for a gymnastics centre on the Northern Beaches, and a recent grant for upgrading the batteries at the Manly (ABC/Aquatic) pool.”
On policy achievements: “Well, I’ve moved about 360 amendments to legislation, which has seen about 20 passed amendments,” she says, noting her work on improving legislation quality.
“Then there’s the big legislation like, it’s not by accident that the first thing the government did was legislate net zero by 2050, right? I spent the whole first term advocating for us to legislate it. The Coalition only wanted to commit to it without legislating. Labor came out and said, yes, they would legislate it, and that was the first thing they legislated. You know, would they have done it without the pressure from me and the cross bench? Questionable.”
Steggall credits cross-bench pressure for policy wins like increased single parent payments and HECS debt indexation changes. She maintains that a strong cross-bench delivers better outcomes for Australians.
Getting some of her policy ideas – such those that were in her Stop the Lie Bill – have proven harder to bring to fruition, though elements of it are still in the pipeline.
I tell her it does seem absurd that it is legal to tell a lie in a political ad. I ask: “Why would major parties ignore such an oversight – do they want to tell lies?”
She responds wryly. “You just said the quiet part out loud.”
She responds wryly. “You just said the quiet part out loud.”
The plan was to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to “prohibit misleading or deceptive electoral or referendum matter; prohibit persons or bodies corporate from deceptively impersonating, or falsely attributing material to, a person, candidate, campaigner, political party or entity; and give the Australian Electoral Commissioner the power to investigate possible breaches, order retractions, publish corrections, and pursue complaints through the courts.”
It reminds me of some of the slogans dished out: A vote for Zali Steggall is a vote for the Greens. A vote for Zali is a vote for Labor. And so on. (View the voting record here).
Labor doesn’t tend to do well in Northern Beaches electorates, so linking Teals with Labor is a call to their former base: you wouldn’t vote for Labor, so why vote for Teal?
With independents increasingly targeting and ousting traditionally safe Liberal seats, the Liberal Party does not see Teal as an ally. But would they, if it meant they could form government?
A refocus from Climate Change to Climate Risk
Steggall’s push for the next election will include the continued focus on managing Australia’s increasing uninsurability as natural disasters progress in frequency and intensity.
Australians are being forced to gamble with their future because escalating climate risk is making insurance unaffordable, she says.
“Families, businesses and our entire economy are all at risk.”
The Australia Institute’s latest research shows 19% say their house is either underinsured or uninsured.
“Climate resilience is a massive gap in federal policy and must be an urgent national priority.”
”The soaring cost of insurance and rising levels of underinsurance is a direct consequence of worsening climate change. Yet not enough is being done by our governments to address climate risk. Climate resilience is a massive gap in federal policy and must be an urgent national priority.
Ms Steggall says we need to legislate regular, independent National Climate Risk Assessments and Adaptation Plans to lock in long-term resilience planning and preparation, plus lay the framework for billions of dollars of investment in climate resilient infrastructure funding.
Steggall says the backing of her Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation) Bill will be critical to her support in the case of a minority government after the next election
“Whichever party forms the next government has a clear choice – invest in building climate resilience now, or risk a future where Australian families, businesses and our economy face climate-fuelled devastation.”
Upcoming election
At the time of going to print, no election date had been set, but it was expected to be around early May. I asked Ms Steggall what, other than being re-elected against Liberal challenger Jaimee Rogers, was her ideal election outcome.
“The best-case scenario is a minority government, because then whoever is in government has to work for it, and has to come to the table with sensible legislation.”
By now she is packing her bags as staff try to usher her out the door to get to a citizenship ceremony on time.
I throw in one more question: “And who would you prefer to form a government with?”
Steggall retorts:
“Who advertises what they are going to do before they go into a negotiation?”
