It was an awkward position for Kerryn Phelps to defend.

“I am here because Malcolm Turnbull was deposed,” the independent candidate told a Wentworth byelection forum in Bondi on Monday night.

“I was not thinking for a million years about running for federal politics. But we are good-hearted people who are being led by a heartless people.”

“Then why are you preferencing them?” several people in the audience yelled.

Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps at the Bondi forum. Photograph: Nizza Siano

Phelps faced sustained questioning over her decision to preference the Liberals ahead of Labor, as 14 of the 16 candidates faced off in the heartland of the progressive end of the Sydney electorate. Their platforms ranged from ending the live sheep trade and tackling climate change through to advocating a plant-based diet (the Animal Justice party), putting science into political decision-making (the Science party) and getting more funding for the arts (the Arts party).

Phelps stressed that voters had the right to number the ballot paper however they liked, regardless of her preferences.

“I am here to win this election,” she said. “The best chance of not electing a Liberal is to vote for me. I will be a safe pair of hands.”

She pledged to take on the Liberals on climate change and to get refugees off Manus Island and Nauru if elected.

The elephant in the High Tide room, along with 250-odd locals, was the absence of the Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma, who sent apologies, as did the Liberty Alliance party.

It was never going to be an easy crowd for Sharma. The Bondi precinct committee has a reputation for favouring forthright, even raucus, public engagement – it is a strong community group that successfully fought commercial redevelopment of the Bondi Pavilion.

Sharma’s apology – no reason was given – was greeted with jeers and then provided the gags throughout the evening.

“Why do you think he’s not here? asked small business independent Angela Vithoulkas at one point.

“He couldn’t find it!” yelled one member of the audience. “He doesn’t know the way here!” yelled another, referring to the fact that Sharma was from outside the electorate.

“The Liberals have given us a man from Turramurra, instead of selecting a woman from Wentworth,” said independent Licia Heath, who also campaigns for more women in politics. “You can’t continue to reward bad behaviour [by the Liberal party] because it is getting worse.”

Labor’s Tim Murray said Sharma was most likely to win.

“He will have been in this electorate for 30 days before he moves to Canberra. He will represent the Liberal party, not Wentworth,” he said.

“The former prime minister has abandoned the country, while the candidate has abandoned us,” chimed in the Greens candidate, Dominic Wy Kanak.

“I just wanted to ask him where my political signs went,” Ben Forsythe from Derryn Hinch’s Justice party joked. Campaigning in Wentworth has been marred by widespread removal of corflute posters, prompting the Labor candidate, Tim Murray, to lodge a complaint with the Waverley police.

A spokesman for Sharma has said his campaign became aware of the poster theft though social media. “We do not condone those activities,” he said.

Murray made much of his local credentials. He ran through every house he had lived in within Wentworth and then focused on the local issues: a new high school, preventing the buildings on South Head being redeveloped as a wedding venue and the sale of the Bondi post office.

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But he said climate change was the No 1 issue in the electorate – and it was the issue that dominated most candidates’ presentations.

There was also a lot of talk about strategic use of preferences. A number of the minor candidates urged the crowd to use their votes to signal their support for issues like voluntary euthanasia or funding for the arts.

After nearly three hours, it was over.

“It’s been a sort-of fun night, and I think we would have had fun with him here,” said Kay Dunne of the the Sustainable Australia party. “But I don’t know Dave Sharma.”

“We don’t know him either,” called out one of the audience.

Sharma is appearing at a Sydney Morning Herald forum next Monday.