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HEARD THIS WEEK👂

🪩 Are North Shore Independents ready to party?

Independent members of the crossbench — including three northern suburbs MPs — are split on the question of forming a political party.

Warringah MP Zali Steggall told the Lorikeet she was “open to exploring new ways for the [community independent] movement to evolve”, while North Shore MPs Nicolette Boele and Sophie Scamps have left the option on the table. However, Victoria’s Monique Ryan and Western Australia’s Kate Chaney have ruled out joining any political party.

Phoebe Hayman is an academic at La Trobe University who is currently finishing a PhD analysing the campaigns of Independent candidates in Australia.

She says much of the support for community Independent candidates has been on the basis of their freedom from the party structure and connection to local communities.

“Community independent” is a broad label applied to independent candidates — at the state and federal level — who are endorsed by organisations such as the “Voices Of” groups (Voices of Bradfield, Voices of Berowra), the Community Independents Project and the Regional Voices Fund.

Several MPs and senators, including Dai Le, Bob Katter and Lidia Thorpe, are independent from major parties but not part of this movement.

A party against parties: If independents were to form an official political alliance, Hayman said they would need a strong argument to convince local voters that they wouldn't be compromised by having to follow a party line.

“Most voters in Australia are used to the way Australian parties work, which is through a very, very strict form of party discipline — we are kind of unusual, internationally, in how strict our party discipline is.”

Read the full story below.

🚪 Behind closed doors, North Sydney Council writes off a 150k debt

On Monday night North Sydney councillors voted in a closed door session to write off $195,392 in two outstanding debts from the January to March 2026 quarter.

One bill was for $150,864 and the other for $44,528.

What happened: At their May meeting, North Sydney councillors received a quarterly report on council’s property portfolio. While the public are able to read a brief summary, the actual report is confidential, as is typical with documents relating to a council's commercial dealings.

Within this report are the details of nearly $200,000 owed to the council. On the recommendation of the council’s Chief Financial Officer, councillors voted on Monday to write these losses off.

A spokesperson for North Sydney Council told the Lorikeet the debts related to organisations that had since entered liquidation, and that there was “no reasonable prospect of recovery”.

How does that work: Given council’s wide remit and ownership of local buildings and other infrastructure, it conducts business with many entities, including as tenants and contractors. It also issues many parking fines.

On occasions, councils maintain it makes more financial sense to write off a debt than chase it.

Read the full story below.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

💰️ One Nation would use taxpayer money to fund riskier gas projects

🤷 What happened: Last week One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson unveiled her party’s new gas tax policy, which would see taxpayers take on some of the risk of developing new gas projects. 

📑 The policy: The cornerstone of Hanson's policy is a 30 percent rebate for “genuine” oil and gas exploration in Commonwealth waters, while giving the federal government the option to buy up to 30 percent equity stake in any production licence. 

Australia earns revenue from gas exports in three key ways: the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (or PRRT), corporate tax and royalties. Critics say the current system is not delivering value to Australian taxpayers.

One Nation would replace the PRRT with a new royalty, but only for new projects. Existing projects would stay with the current system. 

Hanson hasn’t given a figure for the new royalty, but it has been reported that her tax rate on gas exports would be 10 percent.

One Nation previously backed a 25 percent tax on gas exports. Josh Runciman, Lead Analyst for Australian Gas at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said the shift to this new policy is a “step back” for the party.

🔭 Exploration: He said when it comes to exploration the gas industry generally looks at the best options first and then works its way to less attractive alternatives. 

According to Runciman, a lot of Australia’s gas projects are already operating in our most abundant reserves, meaning new projects subsidised under Hanson’s policy would carry greater financial risk.

“The idea that taxpayers are on the hook or exposed to risk for funding exploration activity in those less prospective basins, that's a bit of a red flag for taxpayers.”

Runciman said the government was not well placed to determine which exploration activity made sense financially. 

“So what we effectively have is a transfer of risk onto taxpayers, where taxpayers have absolutely no ability to understand that risk or to manage it,” he said. 

Read the full story below.