(Image: Private Media)

Way back in 2003 when NSW government-appointed administrator Dick Persson put his feet under the desk at the notorious thrice-sacked Warringah Council, above all he was struck by one thing.

“I’ve lived in the eastern suburbs of Sydney all my life and the difference between there and the northern beaches was stark,” he says.

“Similar demo and profile, you’d think, but the level of community engagement was extremely noticeable on the northern beaches. Retired teachers who’d write to me, put in submissions. All civil. The ratepayers were extremely well informed.”

He attributes that difference to the “local rag”, the Manly Daily. “It wasn’t the Wentworth Courier — a few stories and social pages stuck on the front of a real estate mag. Not much participation in local issues there.” He relished the to-and-fro, even if the debate in the Daily was “formidable at times”.

Fast-forward almost two decades and neither Warringah Council nor the Manly Daily are what they once were.

Warringah was amalgamated with Pittwater and Manly councils in 2016, rebirthed as the Northern Beaches Council. It’s now the fourth-largest LGA by population in NSW. And the Manly Daily (a News Corp publication), after more than a century in print, went online in 2020 and is now behind a paywall. No more copies in the mailbox or at the front desk of the surf club, the RSL, supermarket or… well… anywhere really. You couldn’t escape the damned thing!

So where did all that passionate debate go in the federal electorate of Mackellar in 2022, which takes in postcodes across the Daily’s old stomping ground? Answer: to start-up local news outlets, many doing tidy business in this part of the world.

After 73 years in Liberal Party hands, could Mackellar go independent?

It would take a 13.3% swing to unseat incumbent Jason Falinski, but a trio of local news editors I spoke to agreed it’s a close-run thing. Because despite appearances, Mackellar is more diverse than outsiders may think.

Retired teachers with time on their hands? Baby boomers with inherited wealth and ocean views? Sure. But there are also tradies, small-business owners, mid-level office employees, healthcare workers and their young families.

It’s a tale of two electorates in one. Cost of living v climate change? It’s why Mackellar is one to watch come election night.

A mere six months after the Manly Daily went behind a paywall, Kate Cox — former editor of The Sun-Herald (Fairfax/Nine) — was editing the Northern Beaches Review.

“As soon as we launched I realised this was a community that was engaged and passionate,” she says. “Most weeks we would receive more than 100 emailed letters a week — often more than we got at The Sun-Herald.

“There are many small-business owners here, including tradies and other service providers such as hospitality and beauty, and traditionally they have leaned Liberal and valued a focus on the economy. Jason Falinski talks and thinks like an economist, and there are many who are listening. He’s playing to that.

“Away from the coast, residents jokingly refer to themselves as ‘the western suburbs of the northern beaches’.” (And it’s worth noting that some of those booths to the “west” of the coast recorded massive votes for Falinski in 2019.)

“Although judging by the number of very passionate ‘Dr Sophie’ supporters who are everywhere in their bright-aqua T-shirts — straight from the Zali Steggall playbook — we can expect to hear more from her.”

Liam Carroll is the founder and editor of monthly print mag The Tawny Frogmouth. (It’s an Aussie bird, people!) “Independent and Free”; it started up in 2020. He hand-distributes to 47,000 homes and you’ll always find a copy at your fave café. The Tawny Frogmouth carries ads from local tradies and businesses.

“Many Mackellar residents are being pushed to the brink,” Carroll says. “There are gargantuan public transport challenges to get to work in the CBD, Ryde, Parramatta, Botany Bay or other distant industrial hubs around Sydney.

“Marginal electorates receive project after project while a blue-ribbon seat has its major arterial Wakehurst Parkway being almost constantly flooded.”

Many sole traders are caught in a trap, he says. Even though they’re “millionaires” on paper, they can’t afford to sell up and move.

“And where are the local jobs? There’s no economic vision! “I think Dr Sophie Scamps will win on May 21 and finish the Liberal Party’s stranglehold on Mackellar,” he says. “Mackellar is showing signs of wanting to give an independent woman a go.”

The Northern Beaches Advocate is another publication that started up “as a direct result of the Manly Daily ceasing print and going behind a paywall”, Dale Cohen, CEO and publisher, says.

He also sees Mackellar as a two-in-one. Climate change and federal ICAC may appeal to the wealthier residents, but tradies — Scott Morrison’s “new rich” — are facing uncertainty.

“Wealthier people seem to be more preoccupied with social causes than they used to be, where people who work for a living are more focused on economic issues,” Cohen says. “More than anyone else they’re exposed to having to deliver on contracts where cost uncertainty versus job estimates will be a big trading risk, and they’ll wear pain.

“In the wake of COVID, the balance sheets of small businesses are not strong and any kind of economic shock will have big consequences. That may get them to stick with the devil they know.

“The independent narrative is that momentum is with them and a sweeping desire for climate action. That’s wishful thinking to some degree.” His verdict? “Too close to call.” 

Like I’ve been saying here at Crikey: watch this space.