NSW Liberals to fight to hold Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater in triple by-election

The NSW Liberals will fight to hold onto three blue-ribbon Sydney electorates on Saturday’s by-election, with one seat facing a second attack from a Teals candidate who nearly won the vote just 19 months ago.

While voters in the state seats of Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater will head to the polling booths this weekend, all three seats have only ever been held by Liberal candidates.

NSW Labor has also skipped running candidates in the by-election, with Premier Chris Minns saying he didn’t believe it would have been a good use of the party’s “time and resources”.

While Hornsby and Epping will likely remain blue, formerly held by the former NSW treasure turned climate tsar Matt Kean and ex NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, the northern beaches electorate of Pittwater could be toppled by Teal candidate Jacqui Scruby.

Ms Scruby narrowly lost against ex-MP Rory Amon in the 2023 state election, needling the Liberal margin to 0.7 per cent, however the seat was placed back in play after the family law solicitor resigned from parliament after he was charged with multiple child sex offences.

Mr Amon has denied all the charges and the case remains before the courts.

Ms Scruby, a climate activist and former staff to federal Teal MPs Sophie Scamps and Zalli Steggal will contest Pittwater against Liberal candidate and former Northern Beaches Council deputy mayor Georgia Ryburn.

The northwest seat of Epping will be contested in a five-person race, with Liberal candidate Monica Tudehope the frontrunner.

Ms Tudehope was a former staffer to Mr Perrottet, and is the daughter of former Epping MP, now NSW upper house MP, Damien Tudehope, and recently missed out on winning a Senate vacancy which was claimed by Dave Sharma.

She will run against Greens candidate Duncan Voyage, Libertarian Party hopeful Rob Cribb and independents Edgar Lu and Dezhong (Jerry) Wang.

Further north, Hornsby remains the safest Liberal seat out of the three by-election, where the party holds an 8 per cent margin.

Eight other candidates from The Greens, Sustainable Australia Party, Animal Justice Party, One Nation, and the Libertarian Party will run against moderate Liberal James Wallace.