NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane heckled during visit to Parramatta

3 months ago 17

New NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane has been heckled during a visit to western Sydney as she signalled her intent to be an opposition leader “for all people, no matter where your postcode is”.

In her first public outing in the new role, Sloane, the member for Vaucluse, made her pitch to Parramatta and Harris Park voters in the “demographic and geographic heart of our city”. In 18 months, she takes on Labor Premier Chris Minns in the next state election.

Sloane visited Harris Park on her first full day as NSW Liberal leader. She had been “super chuffed” to receive supportive messages from former premiers Gladys Berejiklian and Mike Baird, and Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

“I want people to know that I want to be a premier, not just for the state, but one who is very, very focused on western Sydney as well,” Sloane said.

A first-term MP, Sloane was elected unopposed as Liberal leader on Friday after Mark Speakman said he would stand down following weeks of speculation.

Sloane said while she “loved her community” in Sydney’s east, she grew up in rural South Australia, spent four years working in Colyton, near St Marys, and had a “deep focus” on western Sydney as opposition health spokeswoman. She cited the former NSW Coalition government’s multibillion-dollar investments in infrastructure, including the WestConnex motorway and Parramatta light rail.

“If the Coalition is re-elected in 2027, we will continue that passion for Parramatta.”

Amid debate about whether a leader from the city’s affluent east could address the problems of communities statewide, Sloane said she planned to be a “frequent flyer” to Parramatta –describing it as a “microcosm of the best parts of our state” – and western Sydney and beyond to meet voters.

Several people interrupted Sloane’s press conference in Parramatta Square on Saturday morning to shout,“you don’t represent Western Sydney”, and “go on back to Vaucluse, you don’t belong here”.

Their remarks prompted Sloane to pause and approach the group, who refused to give their names, as she told them she was “really happy to have a chat”.

“No one ruffles my feathers very easily,” Sloane said later when asked about the disruption.

“If I’m in a position of leadership, I have to be able to have those difficult conversations.”

The state seat of Parramatta, held by the Liberals for 12 years, was won by Labor’s Donna Davis, a former mayor, at the 2023 election.

Sloane said she thought Parramatta residents were “Liberal Party people, whether they voted for us or not”, when she was asked what it might take for the NSW Liberals to claw votes from the ALP after the Coalition’s further drubbing in May’s national poll.

“I don’t blame the people who didn’t vote for us. We didn’t do our job selling our message.

“We have a story to tell to those people. If they haven’t voted for us before, it’s incumbent on us to do a better job of explaining why we will better serve them, why we will give them a better future.”

Sloane has said she wants to put families at the centre of all policies, calling western Sydney voters hard-working, aspirational, enterprising, and family and community-focused.

She also has said she supports reopening Woollahra train station in her electorate and would pursue a “pro-housing” agenda, as NSW faces an uphill task to deliver 377,000 new homes by mid-2029.

She told the Herald that while debates about increasing residential density often revolved around “housing, planning and development”, her focus would be on “homes and communities”.

“We need more homes, but people have to be connected and have places to live and learn and play.

Opposition leader Kellie Sloane cited the former Coalition government’s multibillion-dollar spend on infrastructure during a trip to Parramatta.

“When the Coalition comes up with announcements around planning and development and where that might be, we will also provide a plan for how infrastructure will be provided to support it.”

Sloane said, if elected, she would support Speakman’s ambition to build new metro rail lines, and to revive the Camellia-Rosehill plan to rezone a former industrial site for up to 10,000 dwellings.

She said the NSW Coalition had taken a bipartisan approach to recent planning reforms designed to deliver more housing, but she didn’t believe in “name-calling” and “badging people a NIMBY” if they raised “legitimate concerns around community facilities and support and planning”.

“We need to bring everyone on this journey together, and I think that means respecting the pain points in communities, and working through that with them.

“You can’t let every community concern be a barrier to progress because otherwise you’ll never get anything done. [Name-calling and badging] divides communities.

“In the most important policy area of our moment, we need to be pulling people together to be constructive.”

Sloane’s visit to Harris Park, which is home to Little India, came months after Speakman apologised to Indian leaders on behalf of the NSW Coalition for Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments suggesting Labor focused on Indian migration to stack votes.

Sloane said she looked forward to “a lot of engagement” with the Indian community, who she described as “business-minded, ambitious, community-minded, family-focused – as are many multicultural communities in our state”.

Parramatta Liberal councillor Tanya Raffoul said western Sydney voters were “not concerned where their leader lives. They want outcomes.”

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