Last week former journalist and mum of two, Jaimee Rogers, kept her nerve as she swam past a shark on a very choppy 10km charity swim from Manly to Milsons Point. Her next challenge? Taking on the Teal Independent, Zali Steggall, who has held the seat for the last five years.
Ms Rogers, who lives in the newly added section of the Warringah electoral boundary in Cammeray, has been endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate ahead of next year’s Federal election.
While the date for next year’s election has yet to be announced by the Albanese government, Ms Rogers has hit the campaign trail early, with the Opposition Leader coming to town just recently to provide an early push to both Jaimee and new Pittwater contender James Brown.
More on Mr Brown another time. For now, we begin with Ms Rogers, who says her former career as a journalist is one reason she put her hand up for the job.
“When you’re a journalist, you’re out there listening to people’s stories, to their grievances or things that are happening to them, and as a journalist, it stops there,” she told Manly Observer.
“You write your story, or you broadcast it, and then that’s the end. Going into politics, you can take the next step and do something about those issues the community is facing.”
As a mum to two young boys, Ms Rogers said she sees firsthand how tough people are doing it.
“I’m the one that’s buying the groceries, filling up my car, paying soaring insurance rates. I see my friends, family, colleagues all doing it tough, too. I put my hand up because I think I represent my community and I love my community, and I want to help them in the best way that I can.”
Ms Rogers says she ensures she always has a pen and notebook with her to jot down the issues community members discuss with her.
Talking about cash… what about the gambling career history?
As the tide is turning against the gambling industry, Ms Rogers has faced criticism over her former career. She was the marketing co-ordinator at Tabcorp, the marketing manager of Sky Racing and Sky Sports, a member of the Big Sports Breakfast team and regularly covered horse racing broadcasts.
In 2022, she partnered with Greyhound Racing NSW along with Gotcha 4 Life Foundation (a Northern Beaches based charity, which was also the beneficiary of her recent swim) to deliver mental fitness programs across the state.
With Northern Beaches residents losing $2.8 million a week to pokies and her opposition, MP Zali Steggall endorsing a ban on gambling ads, where does Ms Rogers sit now?
With her party’s policy, she explained, which was announced in Peter Dutton’s 2023 budget reply speech.
“A Coalition Government will move to ban sports betting advertising during the broadcasting of games. Ads would be banned for an hour each side of a sporting game. I encourage the Prime Minister to work with us on this initiative – to get it implemented now,” Mr Dutton, leader of the opposition, said in 2023.
“We need to go through a gambling reform process to remove gambling advertising on television and we don’t want our kids exposed to it,” Ms Rogers added.
“But it’s about working with the sporting codes and free-to-air networks to ensure they can phase out their reliability on gambling ads in their business model.”
Just last month, the Albanese government confirmed it was shelving the discussion on gambling ads reforms to a later date (potentially February, however, this could be delayed further depending on the election and government entering caretaker mode).
Bringing blue back to Warringah?
The seat of Warringah, and more broadly the Northern Beaches, was once a safe Liberal seat. However, over the last few years voters have swayed away from the big political parties and backed independents. Both Federal seats, Mackellar and Warringah, are now held by independents. At a state level, Independents now also represent Wakehurst and Pittwater (after Liberal MP Rory Amon resigned from parliament due to facing criminal charges and Independent Jacqui Scruby won against Liberal Georgia Ryburn).
As for the Northern Beaches Council, after the Liberals failed to get their paperwork in order, there is only one Liberal affiliate – the majority of councillors are from Your Northern Beaches Independent Team (YNBIT) including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Have Northern Beachers voters lost faith in the Liberals?
“While we acknowledge the issues around the local government elections, as a result, we are seeing no Liberals on the Council and residents are being told their rates are going up by 46 per cent over the next three years,” Ms Rogers said.
“It demonstrates the mismanagement of the budget when Liberals aren’t there. And then when you look at the community and the cost-of-living crisis and people’s quality of life, they’re all saying it’s going in the wrong direction.”
Ms Rogers attributed these issues to budget mismanagement and said that Liberals, known for budget management, would rein in inflation and ease the cost-of-living crisis.
“Is our community better off than what we were a few years ago?” she asked.
“A lot of people are saying no and that’s where you’ll see people coming back to the Liberals because we know Liberals will come in and get Australia back on track.”
What Northern Beaches voters want
Ms Rogers lives in the suburb of Cammeray, and it was only in October this year, when the boundaries of Warringah were expanded, she became a resident of the electorate she may represent. While the electorate covers parts of three council areas (Mosman, North Sydney and Northern Beaches), what does Ms Rogers know about this side of the Spit bridge?
“The Northern Beaches is one of the most beautiful parts of, not just Sydney, but New South Wales and even Australia and we spend most of our weekends here,” she said.
Her eldest son attends Nippers on the Beaches (with her youngest eager to be old enough to join his big brother but contends with playing soccer for a local team). Ms Rogers is also part of Manly’s Bold and Beautiful Swim Squad.
“I swam across the English channel and for me, being out in the ocean is the best way to start your day and you’d struggle to find a nicer, more welcoming group of people,” she added.
As for what matters to local voters, Ms Rogers has already been hitting the streets to find out what we want from our politicians.
“I’m making sure that I’m addressing and listening to voters across the electorate, but for the Northern Beaches we need to address the red tape small businesses are facing,” she said.
“Small business owners are really important to our local community and they represent a family who are going to bed concerned with how they’re going to keep their doors open with high rent or high energy prices.”
Ms Rogers said that the cost-of-living crisis and affordable housing repeatedly come up in her discussions with community members. So does infrastructure, with particular focus on the Spit Bridge and Military Road.
“I’m also quite passionate about mental health, and I’ve worked with Gotcha 4 Life for a long time,” she added.
“It’s about ensuring that we have funding to keep mental health beds available. We used to have 20 Medicare subsidised sessions with a psychologist, and that’s been cut to 10. It’s about addressing those sorts of issues because mental health is obviously also going to be tied into cost-of-living struggles.”
Manly Observer will be interviewing Warringah incumbent on her most recent term early in the new year. If you are seeking election in the 2025 federal election on the Northern Beaches we would love to hear from you, so we can fairly provide profiles to all candidates. Get in touch : editor@manlyobserver.com.au
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