If enthusiasm and grassroots support are the keys to a successful political campaign, Zali Steggall got off to a flying start in her quest to wrest Warringah from former prime minister Tony Abbott and the Liberal party.

More than 400 supporters wearing striking turquoise “Vote 1 Zali Steggall” T-shirts assembled under a Moreton Bay fig in a park in Balgowlah on Sunday morning as the athlete-turned-barrister launched her campaign as an independent.

“Zali, Zali,” they chanted as kids and dogs milled around the large media pack.

The former alpine skiing Olympian is taking on one of Australia’s toughest politicians who has held the seat of Warringah for 25 years, something she acknowledged in her launch speech.

But Steggall is also Abbott’s worst fear: a photogenic woman with a strong public profile and deep roots in the electorate – she was born and grew up in Manly, went to school at Queenwood in Mosman (she now serves on its board) and lives in Balgowlah in the heart of the electorate.

As one attendee put it: “You needed to have been wheeled in a pram down the Corso to qualify as local – and she was.”

Steggall’s father was a solicitor in Manly for 30 years and a member of the Manly rugby club – a bastion of Liberal party support.

And as Steggall quipped: she drives the bridge (that’s the Spit bridge for non-locals) and knows the traffic problems facing her electorate.

Zali Steggall talks to volunteers and a local at the launch of her independent candidacy. Photograph: Georgia Platias

With a high profile already established, Steggall’s task now is to define what she stands for and to differentiate herself from Abbott without breaking her own promise of a respectful campaign and new-style politics.

“I certainly never started a race at the Olympics thinking I had a sure thing won. [Abbott is] a wily and seasoned politician. He’s been there for many years,” she said.

Warringah has for too long had someone who is set in his ways, unwilling and unable to change Zali Steggall

Is Abbott an embarrassment? “Ask the voters,” Steggall said, as the crowd erupted into shouts of “yes”.

Rather, Steggall pointed out that many constituents see Abbott as out of step with their concerns.

Climate change policy provides the starkest contrast, and is a potent issue with progressives in this northern beaches and harbourside electorate.

Steggall said it would be a focus of her campaign. She has enlisted well-known climate change campaigner Tim Flannery as a policy adviser, and he was by her side at Sunday morning’s launch.

“We do not want to be remembered as the generation who had all the facts but failed to act. Climate change is not a political football,” she said.

“Warringah has for too long had someone who is set in his ways, unwilling and unable to change. He does not represent who we are and what we stand for.”

Steggall also promised to tackle mental health issues, and expressed support for Kerryn Phelps’s campaign to bring children to Australia from Nauru and for the humane treatment of refugees.

Phelps is already acting as a sounding board, but the other worry for Abbott is the Manly end of his electorate, which has dallied with independents in the past by electing David Barr and Peter McDonald to state parliament.

There are still shoals to be negotiated. In this wealthy electorate, Steggall was quick to rule out supporting Labor’s changes to negative gearing or its plans to stop people being able to claim back franking credits in excess of the tax paid by companies.

Steggall said she would support stability in the superannuation system and would not back changes where people have put in place investment strategies.

But further announcements from Liberal and Labor during the election campaign, including possible tax cuts, will call into question where she stands on economic issues.

Steggall said she will support tax cuts for small and medium businesses, and appeared to rule out a carbon tax, saying the debate had “moved on” .

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has held Warringah for 25 years. Photograph: David Moir/AAP

There will be constant attempts to either paint Steggall as a Labor plant or a tool of the Liberal moderate faction, which in New South Wales is locked in a vicious war for control of the heart and soul of the party.

Her campaign has signed on Anthony Reed, the former chief of staff to former NSW Labor politician Phil Costa, and she is already being asked about who is funding it.

The former Liberal moderate convener Michael Photios and other former Liberal party members were sighted at anti-Abbott and climate change events in the electorate almost a year ago. Alex Turnbull, the son of Abbott’s bitter rival, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, has also offered support for the Vote Tony Out campaign.

Steggall said she hoped to attract the support of moderate Liberals – but it was clear she was talking voters, not apparatchiks.

“We have a website – zalisteggall.com.au; there is a donate button, please click on it,” she said.

So far Steggall’s campaign has been powered by local groups with a uniting goal of just getting rid of Abbott. Now they have a candidate, the campaign could get more willing.

Abbott responded to the day’s events on Twitter, going hyper-local: “I’m going to keep pushing for the northern beaches tunnel to beat the traffic jams and for a safe and prosperous Australia as part of a good government,” he tweeted on Sunday.

The Australia Day weekend is not one for heavy politics but I’m going to keep pushing for the northern beaches tunnel to beat the traffic jams and for a safe and prosperous Australia as part of a good government. — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) January 26, 2019

Later in the day, asked about Steggall’s attack on his record on climate change, Abbott said he would “not get into tit-for-tat arguments with any particular candidate”, but argued Australia only contributed 1.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“We could close our economy down tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a scrap of difference,” he said.



