Outgoing Northern Beaches deputy mayor Georgia Ryburn is being backed for the seat of Pittwater, as replacement for state MP Rory Amon who resigned last week after he was charged with child sex offenses.
This is the latest development in a series of Liberal party fallouts in Sydney’s northern beaches, where last month, the party failed to nominate a single candidate to run for the Northern Beaches Council on September 14.
Despite having a very good chance of being the next Mayor of the Northern Beaches, the Liberal administrative debacle meant Ryburn would be out of a job post-election. At the time, she shared on social media that she was “gutted” by the blunder, which is being blamed on the (now former) NSW Liberal Party director Richard Shields.
“To say I’m saddened, disappointed and embarrassed by this outcome is an understatement,” she said.
She also said that to those who are not Liberal voters, it’s still a “devastating outcome for our democratic process.
Now, Ryburn could have a chance at filling the seat of Pittwater, whose MP, Amon, quit parliament on Friday hours after police charged him with offenses including five counts of having sexual intercourse in 2017 with a child between the ages of 10 and 14. Amon has denied wrongdoing and will fight the allegations.
With the seat yet to be filled, Former NSW Coalition minister Rob Stokes has ruled out his return to his old position, which he held from 2007 to 2023. Stokes is throwing his support behind Ryburn.
“When I decided to leave parliament, she was the first person I reached out to and encouraged to consider nominating,” Stokes told SMH.
While Senior Liberal Party members were hoping that Stokes would nominate for the one-time seat, he has said he hopes Ryburn puts her hand up for pre-selection, as he will “back her every step of the way” if she did so.
“Yes, she’s a woman, but it’s not because she’s a woman, it’s because she’s a talented, capable person. She’s northern beaches through and through,” he said, as well as noting he would encourage many people to put their hand up for pre-selection.
Women are underrepresented in the Liberal Party, with just 28 per cent of Liberal parliamentarians in the House of Reps and Senate being women. And at the last election, just 20 per cent of female candidates in the Coalition were contesting winnable seats.
The Liberal Party has opened nominations for the byelection in the Pittwater seat, which is likely to be scheduled alongside byelections in Epping and Hornsby on 19 October.