“The question is, what are you going to stand for?” Zali Steggall on climate, Labor, and her third term in parliament.

For the third time in a row, Independent MP Zali Steggall has been elected to parliament representing the seat of Warringah. 

We made our way out to her new digs in Neutral Bay — a recently opened community hub — to ask how she plans to represent her new constituents in North Sydney and Crows Nest, how the fight for climate justice will continue under a Labor majority government, and what she’s expecting from her third parliamentary term.

Climate justice and the Labor party

One of our first questions to Steggall was about newly appointed Environmental Minister Murray Watt’s decision to extend the Woodside gas project in Northern WA to 2070. 

While Steggall’s position on climate change is clear, we were more interested in whether this decision by Labor surprised her. The answer? Not a bit.

“I have to be honest. Am I surprised: no. Am I disappointed: yes. Am I frustrated: yes,” she told us. 

“With such a big landslide victory, there's a real question for Albanese … The question is: what are you going to stand for, right?”

“I do think it's kind of telling that the first action of the 48th parliament government under Albanese is to approve a carbon bomb of some 4.4 billion tonnes over the life of the project. Which is absolutely putting corporate interest ahead of community interest.”

Steggall was also critical of the justification given by Labor that domestic gas programs are necessary to support renewable energy. 

“90 percent of WA's gas goes to exports. The vast majority of it goes to Japan, and doesn't go to Japan's [clean energy] transition. Japan on-sells it as a profit, right? 
So this is purely commercial.”

What does a diminished Greens presence mean for policy?

When asked how a diminished presence of The Greens in the lower house would affect the climate justice movement, Steggall argued that “a huge amount of climate advocacy has come from the crossbench, but not automatically the Greens.” 

She stated that while independent crossbenchers often align with the Greens “from a ‘protecting the environment and climate’ point of view” they don’t necessarily agree on the methods through which these changes are achieved.

Working in a Labor majority parliament 

Steggall said the jury was still out on how the 48th parliament would operate, with its increased Labor majority.

It was too soon to tell, Steggall said “whether there will be a continued focus on working collaboratively on issues with the crossbench by the government, or whether they will become very confident or overconfident as a result of the election outcome and the numbers that they have.”

She warned Labor, too, of arrogance in their large majority. 

“The vote for independents was 13 percent, it didn't succeed in gaining more seats, but it is still a very solid proportion of votes. I think the swing of just two, three percent, which has delivered a whole lot of new seats to labor … it can swing around the other way. 

“So I think it would be a mistake to be too arrogant and too complacent, just because you're looking at the decimation of the Coalition.”

We asked whether she saw a connection between this complacency and that shown in supposedly safe Liberal seats that were claimed by independents.

“Absolutely,” Steggall answered. 

“I think that complacency and arrogance is your first step to your downfall, right? You only have to look at the votes in communities like Fremantle, Bean, Flinders, Franklin down in Tasmania”

“Old-school legacy political parties are being shown to be really out of touch with modern communities. 
And I think that can apply to Labor just as much as the Coalition. You only have to look at Dai Le in Fowler. She increased her margin and Labor threw everything at it this term to try and win it back.”

Gender-based violence and the government’s response 

Asked about whether the current government is doing enough for women in Australia — specifically with regard to gender-based violence, Steggall said it was an issue “across the political spectrum.”

“The government last term made a big deal of its 10-year action plan, right? But it didn't put any KPI’s, didn't put any underpinning policies.

“It was a very grandstated aim — no one could really criticize it for its goal — but it had nothing that really underpinned it that would achieve that. 

“So we still don't have significant funding for crisis accommodation, for frontline services who ultimately have to be that first line of defense around dealing with domestic violence.

“I've been in parliament for six years now... we have candle vigils and we have moments of silence, and we have motions, condolence motions, and a lot of hearts and prayers. Not enough change to policy.”

Policy plans

With regard to her own plans for policy, Steggall emphasised the necessity of more funding for crisis accommodation and legal services. “If we can't change the laws, we've at least got to help people engage with the laws and get the help from the law.”

She also expressed a desire to push for reform in sentencing laws for intimate partner violence. 

“We all talk a lot about how New South Wales acted really quickly on the one punch attacks… 
Two young men lost their lives, which was incredibly tragic. We changed the laws and locked down a whole city. I know the jury's out on how much the mandatory sentencing worked, but there was a strong public message of deterrence and serious consequences.”

The biggest issues for Warringah

While the boundaries of Warringah were redrawn last year, bringing in areas like Crows Nest and North Sydney, Steggall said many of the biggest issues in the electorate remain unchanged.

Steggall pointed to escalating costs, the cost of living, and inflation, however specifically spoke to the impact of rising insurance fees.

“Insurance is a massive, massive problem,” she said. “We know housing affordability and availability is an issue. But so much of our system relies on you being able to insure your way out of risk so that you can work hard for your life towards accumulating assets and then they are protected in the event bad things happen. But that’s not going to be possible.”

Referencing the recent floods in Northern NSW, in which climate change played a role in worsening conditions, Steggall stated that many people living in disaster zones and high risk areas are simply not covered by insurance policies. 

“Sure, there are instances where insurance companies have been too slow in paying out policies, but there is a huge proportion that don't have policies, they're not covered.”

“I think we should have a process to do risk assessments around the country. 
Where are we most exposed and what is the government going to do to adapt to that and invest in that? Because it's like an iceberg. 
It's way bigger under the surface than anyone's willing to acknowledge.”

Favorite North Shore bus line? 

After a long and thoughtful discussion about public transport, the ongoing effects of privatisation and driver shortages, Zali confirmed to us that her favourite North Shore bus route is the 144.

Image credit: AAP