Willoughby Votes is looking for a community independent to run in the next State Election
With the rise in the community independent movement on the North Shore, a new group called Willoughby Votes is looking for a candidate to run against sitting Liberal Tim James in the 2027 State Election. Mr James holds the seat by a 2.6% margin, beating Independent Larissa Penn back in 2023.
Willoughby Votes spokesperson Claire Finch was behind the successful campaign of former North Sydney MP Kylea Tink, whose seat was then abolished in 2025. She also helped Nicolette Boele narrowly win the seat of Bradfield from the Liberals in the 2025 Federal Election. Ms Finch said the main requirement for a potential candidate was to have someone willing to reflect community issues. “To move away from a political party that reflects party issues and votes on party lines.”
The group, backed by Northern Sydney’s Independents, formed in October last year, and has a group of at least 100 volunteers who have been holding ‘listening posts’ in shopping centres and the streets of Willoughby. “It’s very much about going out and listening to the community and then bringing that back,” Ms Finch explained.
Cost of living and access to affordable housing were top of the list of people’s concerns, followed by climate change, Ms Finch said. “A local nurse I spoke to last week said she’s got someone in her team who actually slept in the car overnight in the hospital car park, rather than doing the long commute out to her cheaper housing for the shift the next morning. That is the epitome of what (access to) affordable housing is all about.”
The group was running ‘on the smell of an oily rag,’ with fundraising to follow once a candidate was selected. The volunteers backing their campaign were signing up because they had lost confidence in the major parties, Ms Finch stated. “And we really want to bring it back to community. We feel that MPs (should) represent the community. And that’s been lost sight of.”
In the last few years, Willoughby local Larissa Penn has twice come close to winning the seat, at the 2022 Willoughby by-election and the 2023 State Election. Tim James told NL he was ‘as committed as ever and even more determined to work hard for the people of Willoughby and win their support.’
Mr James said the biggest issue for Willoughby he would campaign on was the lack of infrastructure to match the huge influx of new homes in the area – with 9,500 in the pipeline. “We are not seeing the accompanying investment in infrastructure, schools, roads, health care, public transport and open spaces.
“We are happy to grow and we need the housing. (But) we are not seeing the investment to make that housing work to optimise the way in which we should accommodate people in our area.”
Waiting times at Royal North Shore Hospital were already ‘blown out…but under this government, there is no plan to build, extend or improve that hospital. And with 9,500 homes coming into Willoughby and the many other areas that that hospital serves, we need to cater for the people coming to our area.”
Ms Finch says the narrow margin of 2.6% showed an independent candidate was ‘in with a chance.’ “There’s already been a large swing. The community’s ready for something different. And now’s the time to stand up.”