Inaugural Speech: Jacqui Scruby, MP for Pittwater
Jacqui Scruby, MP for Pittwater, gave her inaugural speech to the Parliament of NSW this week - February 12.
The record of that address runs in full below.
The SPEAKER:
Before I call the member for Pittwater, I acknowledge that we have numerous visitors joining us. I recognise you and welcome you all. I acknowledge just a few guests who are in the gallery—there are so many. I welcome Jacqui's father, John Taylor, who is in the seat of honour, dead‑centre at the front of the gallery. I welcome Jacqui's parents-in-law, Cathy and Harold Scruby. I certainly know Harold. Cathy, it is nice to meet you. I welcome Jacqui's children, Sienna and Saskia—don't say anything; we will have to throw you out if you speak. And, of course, I welcome the member's husband. We cannot forget Michael, the father of the member's children. I also acknowledge the former member for Parramatta, Tanya Gadiel, whom I remember. Nobody puts Tanya in a corner. Tanya, it is lovely to see you here again today. With those introductory comments, I call the member for Pittwater.
Ms JACQUI SCRUBY:
It is an incredible honour to have been elected to this Parliament, the oldest in Australia. I am not the first member to stand here and claim their electorate to be the best in New South Wales. But maybe those members had not visited the northern tip of Greater Sydney, my electorate of Pittwater. It is Garigal land of the Eora nation, rich with Aboriginal heritage, with rock platforms still covered in ancient engravings. I pay my respects to the Garigal people and First Nations people across New South Wales and Australia.
Nearly the entire western foreshore remains as it has been for millennia, protected within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. It is a natural wonderland, with its sandy coves that vanish at high tide, mangrove forests, waterfalls, rock pools, gum-lined escarpments and rainforest gullies. In 1788, six weeks after landing at Sydney Cove, Governor Phillip rounded Barrenjoey Headland and sailed into Pittwater, which he called "the finest piece of water he ever saw"—high praise from a man who had navigated the world. As a peninsula we have not only Pittwater but also the beautiful Narrabeen Lagoon and stunning surf beaches, arguably Sydney's best and seemingly free of the plastic pollution that plagues beaches worldwide.
We are a unique electorate. We are home to offshore communities like Scotland Island and Mackerel Beach, where people choose nature and community over convenience. We have semi-rural properties in Terrey Hills, Duffys Forest and Ingleside. Maybe our greatest triumph is that, despite being in a major city, we are homes nestled in trees rather than trees amongst homes. When I think about what I love about Pittwater, clear themes emerge: natural beauty; a healthy, active lifestyle; and the enterprising spirit of our people, whether it is in business, volunteering or civic engagement. This is the spirit of Pittwater.
Ours is an active, community-minded electorate. Our kids surf before school—sometimes—and it is not uncommon to see an 85-year-old doing a morning sunrise swim or having a run on the beach. We are engaged and informed, with over 20 residents' groups. This engagement, whilst making my electorate office inbox a bit daunting at times, is something that I deeply respect. Whether it was forming Pittwater Council in 1993, keeping Currawong Beach in public hands, expanding conservation zones or the recent triumph against PEP11, people in Pittwater have stepped up time after time.
It is Westminster tradition to acknowledge former members for one's electorate. I respect the strong Liberal history Pittwater has, and pay tribute to its leadership. Pittwater's first member, Robert Askin, was also one of New South Wales's longest serving Premiers. His successors were Bruce Webster, Max Smith, Jim Longley, John Brogden—who recently co‑chaired the NSW Drug Summit—Independent Alex McTaggart, Rob Stokes and Rory Amon. Each has shaped this electorate. I share many values and policy positions with Rob Stokes. In fact, his inaugural speech could have well been my own. Pittwater is also home to the wry Barrie Unsworth, one of New South Wales's oldest living Premiers. I thank them and local government representatives for their leadership—including the member for Wakehurst, who is present—and especially Robert Dunn, whose activism, alongside the people of Pittwater, has shaped the remarkable community that we have today.
My connection to the northern beaches spans generations. My great-grandfather co‑founded Dee Why Surf Life Saving Club, competing in the same surf carnivals as Duke Kahanamoku—which is somewhat ironic, given my surfing ability, or inability, if you ask my kids. My graceful and kind grandmother, Moya Maloney, was a principal at St Ives High School and my grandfather, Jack Moloney, was a principal at Pittwater High School during the famed Binishell infrastructure revolution. Although the Pittwater High School Binishell collapsed, two still remain at Narrabeen North Public School.
I really hope to continue their legacy and advocate for public education by fighting for New South Wales public schools to get their long overdue full school resourcing standard. Knowledge, science and evidence‑based reasoning were deeply instilled in me. My grandparents' home was made up of mini Jubilee Rooms. Nearly every spare dollar of their public high school teaching salaries was invested in leather‑bound books, many of which are now at home in university libraries. I can still remember, as a little girl, being made to recite Shakespeare verses—a very different upbringing to the one my children have—learning the Greek and Latin origins of words, and other premature lessons taught by my eccentric grandfather.
Today, despite the internet bringing the explosion of academic accessibility—well beyond my grandfather's wildest dreams—I think he would be horrified at the irony that we live in a world where people consume over two hours a day of dopamine‑driven content that is turbocharging mental health issues in our children and driving populist politics. I support a social media ban for under 16s—again, sorry kids—but I am sure he would have been calling for a social media ban for everyone. It was he who taught me about the environmental impact of the industrial revolution, from climate change to loss of top soil, acid rain and plastic pollution. With childhood innocence I remember thinking: If we know what we know, why do we continue to do what we do? It is my hope that in this place I can somewhat shift that cognitive dissonance in my time.
I am honoured to serve Pittwater's community, one where service is ingrained. We have New South Wales's highest volunteering rates, from surf lifesaving to the SES, the Rural Fire Service and numerous community organisations, some of whom I have spotted here today. The motto of one of the local schools is Happiness Through Helping, and that really captures our ethos. My mother, Cathy Taylor, and mother-in-law, Cathy Scruby, have modelled service and creativity—my mother‑in-law is a wonderful artist—and I am indebted to them both because they have helped me greatly at different times in my life.
My parents divorced when I was five in a War of the Roses fashion, which seemed standard at the time and seemed to last a lifetime. My mother, ever glamorous, had creativity and resourcefulness, which meant we moved houses quite frequently as she made cosmetic changes to improve each house, each one a little better, a little bigger. She was resilient and fought to give me my education, always putting her children first. For many years she cared for both my sick sister and my ageing grandmother, keeping my grandmother independent and at home for as long as possible. My mother instilled social justice values that my Catholic education reinforced: With privilege comes a duty to serve and improve the world. I am also indebted to my grandmother, Gwen, who has been our family's rock.
Like many firstborns of divorced parents, I am a fixer. However, my brave and triumphant sister Phoebe's battle with anorexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder has taught me, somewhat slowly, that we cannot fix everything, but we can always help. I am amazed at the life, business and family she has created with her partner, Seddy, despite her challenges. We must do more to reverse the mental health crisis and address potential triggers, including social media and bullying. I also want to acknowledge my extraordinary brother and sister‑in‑law, Kate—both successful United States film editors—and my magnanimous brother-in-law, James.
As we all know, business is the backbone of Pittwater and we really value individual agency, hard work and efficiency, especially in our public institutions. I have always worked hard. My first job was at 13. I worked throughout school, also during a gap year overseas, and then full‑time in hospitality whilst also studying medical science and law at the University of Technology Sydney. Work ethic is so ingrained in me that I struggle with what it means to relax—or, as I see it, be unproductive—so the people of Pittwater can rest assured that I will work hard for them every single day. I then practised as a planning and environment lawyer at DLA Piper before joining Energetics, advising ASX 200 companies on net zero strategy and climate risk. It was not surprising that at 28—well, it was a surprise at the time—whilst planning a wedding with my soon‑to‑be husband, who was starting his own business, a blood test revealed that I was not only having a beautiful baby but was also suffering from Hashimoto's, one of the most common autoimmune diseases that is on a steady rise.
Since then, I have developed two other chronic diseases: premature ovarian failure and lipoedema, suffered only by women and largely unheard of, even by doctors. We have much research and education to do to overcome a history of medical gender bias and to understand the pathogenesis of chronic disease, particularly—and interestingly—the links to pollutants and chemicals in our environment. Health is everything. A well person has a thousand wishes but a sick person has only one. It may be that I get my entrepreneurial spirit and dry humour from my British father, John, who has only ever door-knocked for two political candidates: Margaret Thatcher and me. A commodity trader turned disrupter of the legal industry, as he pioneered flat rate conveyancing, he instilled fiscal discipline, requiring me to produce receipts for every purchase until my eighteenth birthday, when the card simply read, "Happy Birthday. You're on your own now."
At 85, he is now my quasi‑media adviser, who inundates me with newspaper clippings, instructing me to "be informed", and competes with fellow constituents to meet with me to discuss e‑bike regulation. I think the report comes out tomorrow. I would like also to acknowledge and thank my stepmum, Ali Taylor. Taking a break from corporate life to have children, I co-founded an online homewares business—overcoming industry resistance to e‑commerce at the time—with my friend Zoe Dent, who is here today. We loved The Wedding Nest, but we felt every one of those thousand cuts endured as small business owners. That experience fuels my advocacy for small and medium-sized businesses, ensuring they get their fair share of concessions and subsidies. From my time in Federal Parliament it has become clear that those benefits seem reserved only for large, often multinational companies, many of which do not even pay tax in Australia. This needs to change.
Despite my education and work, travel has been my greatest educator. Living overseas has shaped my values and exposed me to different cultures and different policies. I know much of my children's strong sense of social justice and environmental stewardship has come from when we lived overseas when they were younger, and our stint at world schooling as we made our way home. I am so incredibly proud of both Sienna and Saskia, who are wise beyond their years and abound with kindness and humour, whilst also being delightfully free from precociousness. May that last. They are the future generation that we all have a duty to. I could not have pursued this path without my husband, Michael, and his tenacity, spontaneity, and love and support—especially in the last six months—as well as his outstanding performance on the polling booths. I also want to thank my closest friends, who are here today, as well as the marvellous Ishbel Cullen, a true friend.
I have just half a term to prove that an Independent can deliver real results. I am not only the member for Pittwater but also the member for Mona Vale Road. It's true! Whilst not wanting to let this Government, nor myself, off the hook, a few days after I was elected—I was with the member for Wakehurst—a constituent stopped me and said he would send a newspaper clipping from Pittwater News. He did. It was Pittwater News, 1966. At a time when houses in Narrabeen were £6,000, and with Liberal Pittwater MP Askin as Premier, we were promised, "The Department of Roads is acutely conscious that we are entirely dependent on road transport, and in the next two or three years Mona Vale Road will be a four-lane highway right through, and will later increase to six lanes"! It's been a 60-year wait, and I am committed to making sure this becomes a reality.
I am committed to delivering for our public schools, to getting our athletes back running on the Narrabeen track, to improving our privatised bus services and health care, including advocating for increasing pay for our nurses and our psychiatrists, and to ensuring long-promised footpaths, particularly on coast roads. We must also meet our northern beaches housing targets and support housing for essential workers who serve our community with appropriate planning where community also has a voice. But this must be done in sympathy with our beautiful natural environment, and I will fight to protect Pittwater's biodiversity and beauty.
If the colour teal—a mix of blue with a touch of green—carries any political meaning, it is this: a fusion of economic responsibility and environmental stewardship, of fiscal prudence and social progress. Despite our reputation, when it comes to policy, Pittwater is not the insular peninsula. Our community is deeply invested in New South Wales policy issues, from support for strong gambling reform and reducing pollution from plastics and forever chemicals, to supporting orderly transition to a low-carbon economy, including not approving coal mining expansions that threaten net zero targets. As fierce protectors of our own tree canopy, so too are we calling for the establishment of the long overdue Great Koala National Park and an end to native forest logging. It does not make financial sense, subsidised by the taxpayer, and it does not make environmental sense either. We care about this because we still mourn the extinction of our local koalas, reminders of which remain in signs scattered across our electorate.
We currently face a 40 per cent rate hike on the northern beaches during a cost-of-living crisis, and residents are rightly calling for cost cuts, efficiency improvements and independent audits. I have also. However, with over 25 councils across New South Wales set to raise rates or raising rates in the past three years—many of them previously forced into amalgamations with false promises of lower rates—there is also an expectation that State and Federal governments will step up and deliver the structural reforms needed. We must not allow populist politics to erode our confidence in public institutions but instead focus on finding solutions to the complex underlying problems facing them in order to strengthen them.
People in Pittwater also advocate for preventative health reform to relieve the strain on hospitals from chronic illness and ensure our seniors have not only a long life span but a long health span. The Fletcher family, represented today by Nicky and Pat, along with my constituents and dedicated volunteers Gay and Paul Verco remind me of the profound impact a local representative can have on people's lives. While working with Zali Steggall, we successfully advocated for a groundbreaking drug to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—one that significantly improves the outcome for those with Von Hippel-Lindau, a really devastating genetic illness. The drug halts the proliferation of tumours that can damage multiple organs and often become malignant, and it impacts whole families. For affected families this is, obviously, life changing. Their families' resilience and strength continue to inspire me and the broader northern beaches community.
We have reached a point where environmental sense makes economic sense. Globally, we are facing a climate emergency. Last year was the hottest on record. And as we fast approach irreversible tipping points that cannot be avoided by just deleting climate change references from websites, as seems to be happening in the United States, we must also acknowledge that it is costing us. Generally, insurance premiums are up 32 per cent in two years, and that further fuels inflation in the cost-of-living crisis. Parts of Pittwater have even higher home insurance rises, some in the double digits. The northern beaches has been identified by the New South Wales Government as going to have the highest cost impact from extreme weather across New South Wales by 2060.
This is an area where the New South Wales Government has the ability to make reforms that mitigate risk and put downward pressure on these costs in the long term. Following the devastating fires in Los Angeles, we must remember that, in our haste to address the housing crisis, we must not allow homes to be built in flood- and bushfire-prone areas, and building codes must be updated to ensure that the homes we build today can withstand the weather of the future and deliver not only net zero emissions but close to net zero electricity costs for those families who live in them.
We also need reforms that support families and small business, not strangle them. Whether its stamp duty on already unaffordable home insurance, special variation rate hikes or payroll tax, we need to rethink revenue generation in New South Wales, including the $60.5 million supporting fossil fuel subsidies in this State. New South Wales should look to Queensland, where coal royalties deliver $10 billion in revenue, funding cost‑of‑living relief. New South Wales' reform was just not as ambitious. As families struggle, Queenslanders have enjoyed $1,000 off energy bills, 50ȼ public transport and lower rego fees.
When it comes to being inspired to drive policy reform and achieve great change, I need not look further than my father-in-law, Harold Scruby, whom many, many of you well know from working with him to deliver groundbreaking road safety reforms, including school zones. I may regularly debate him on policy issues, but I always admire his conviction for what he believes. He is a disrupter, a changemaker and has saved lives because of his advocacy.
I am honoured to stand here as Pittwater's first female MP in the New South Wales Parliament. A diverse Parliament is a strong Parliament. Although New South Wales elected its first woman in 1925, there was a 23‑year hiatus from 1950. But today I join the most female-represented Parliament in the State's history. I entered politics in 2022, not as a career politician—although I did attend Youth Parliament at 15—but because I saw the need for change. I was inspired by Zali Steggall's leadership and joined a group of politically engaged women—Sophie Scamps, Anyo Geddes, Rebecca Clarke, Louise Hislop and Leonie Scarlett—listening to community and engaging them in their democracy. What we heard aligned with our values.
I ran Sophie Scamps' campaign. She won. I became her policy adviser and then later Zali Steggall's. Although I narrowly lost the 2023 New South Wales general election—I would argue a great case for mandatory preferential voting—Pittwater and I got a second chance. As we know, elections are not won by chance. It was because of the dedication of my team and hundreds of volunteers. Some dropped everything and jumped on planes to support a by-election campaign that came out of nowhere. To them, and those who helped set up my office, thank you. I will not list you all now, but I especially thank those here today who helped set up the office and helped in the office: Emma, Les, Dylan, Jack, Sharon, Matt, Trudy and my campaign manager, Max.
Around the world, people are frustrated with major parties ignoring their priorities. While we see a rise in populist strongmen, here in Australia independent movement has seen many women committed to integrity and to nuanced and evidence-based policy. That is something to be proud of. Whilst much has been said in the media about me being the first teal MP in New South Wales Parliament, I really join a crossbench full of Independents who are absolutely loved by their communities, continuing to be re-elected, term after term. Teal is really a media construct, and it oversimplifies what the grassroots movement is all about. Inspired by Cathy McGowan, having kitchen table conversations, and leading community-led politics—it is as grassroots as it comes.
Climate 200, almost always misrepresented in the media, is not one single person. It is 11,000 donors from across Australia who believe in independent, community-led politics and action on climate change. Their donations supercharged my authentic community campaign. I am a true Independent. I write my own policies based on consultation with my community, businesses and public interest groups, and I look forward to working across the political spectrum.
Independents deliver. Pittwater has seen this firsthand. For years groups like Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches, Living Ocean and Surfers for Climate led the charge against the PEP 11 permit for drilling for oil and gas off our coastline. During the 2023 general election, realising there is nothing like an election to get parties doing good work, I approached then member of the Legislative Council Justin Field with the idea to draft a bill to ban offshore oil and gas in New South Wales waters which, to be fair, was Coalition policy but existed only in a PDF and not in statute. What ensued was a political race to the top. Two weeks later the Liberals announced a copycat version of that bill—subsequently introduced into this place by the former member for Pittwater—which, ultimately, with the current Government bringing its own legislation, passed as historic law, the first of its kind in Australia.
We have seen examples from the member for Sydney with the decriminalising of abortion and voluntary assisted dying and, at a Federal level, from Helen Haines' work on the National Anti-Corruption Commission and Zali Steggall's climate advocacy. However, the nuance of those policies often goes unnoticed by the media. In this place I will strive to move beyond the binaries of left and right to contribute to a politics that values ideas over ideology, collaboration over confrontation and the collective good over partisan gain. My commitment to Pittwater is to serve with integrity, to champion evidence-based policy and to ensure that our voice is not just heard, but acted upon.
I have a list of people I want to thank. I seek leave to incorporate the list in Hansard.
Leave granted.
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Billy Bragg Tanya Gadiel Susanne Weress
Tim Maguire Justin and Roxy Grunwald Simon Riddell
Rob Allaburton Iona Gamble Marita Macrae
Dick Clarke Michelle Ball Martin and Anne Roughley
Julia Tregaskis Harold and Sue Todd Min Bonwick
Eddy Stanley Sara Camier Graeme Jessup
Barbara Elkan Jim Gatenby Talat Uppal
Rob Steers Murray MacDonald Tim Buckley
Nigel Howard Robert Kitchen Jack Georgieff
Matt Haran Sharon Leifer Dylan Sampson
Rebecca Clarke Nikki Fletcher Pat Fletcher
Chloe Ferris Alexandra Walker-Kearns Henrietta Rowe
Tehani Legeay Georgina Renkert Elizabeth Renkert
Max Koslowski Emma Tonkin
Chris WilliamsB en Hornbrook Ian Millner
Michelle Millner Charlie Kent Les Burrows
Leonie Scarlett Louise Hislop Marty Jeffs
Simon Morgan Jenny Cullen Tina Butler
Tracy Walker Joy Nason Jan Proudfoot
Matthew Poole Joel Seaton Sebastien Hartog
Richard Proctor Eva Meland Ian White
Paul Boland Robyn Selge Bronte Forbes
Jenny and David Harris Cara Morgan Cheryl Nunn
Deb Rixon Graeme and Shelley Woodrow Gay and Paul Verco
Tessa Bell Andrei Charrett Ray Harding
Guy Glenny Ron Holmes Dianne and Stephen Perry
Karen and Simon Bond Urs and Elizabeth Wolfensberger Jonathan King
David and Fiona Collins Caroline Kades Peter Foster-Bunch
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Members and officers of the House stood and applauded.
