Last Tuesday, I sat down for a virtual chat and cup of tea with the recently announced North Sydney’s Independent, Kylea Tink
Although the interview unfortunately didn’t make it to Tink’s self-described ‘Cuppa K-Tea’ IGTV live stream, I still enjoyed quite a lengthy conversation with the social media enthusiast and Northbridge mum.
On using social media to kickstart her campaign amidst COVID-19 restrictions, Tink said that it had suited her character well.
“The easiest way to connect to the community is to be authentic and to use the channels that the community is using to communicate,” she tells me.
“Can I imagine Trent Zimmerman sitting down and having a … I don’t know… cup of Zimmer? Probably not because that’s not politically au fait.”
At a press conference last month, the Indys finally let the cat out of the bag, naming Tink as the candidate to give Liberal MP Zimmerman a run for his money at the next election.
The pressure is already being felt by the NSW Coalition, with the state government quick to commit to a halving of emissions by 2030 just 10 days after Tink set the pace with her own 50 per cent reduction target; this policy being the centrepiece of her campaign.
Tinks September 22 launch event amassed 800 viewers from across the country. NSI has already attracted 200 volunteers and over $100,000 in donations from the residents of Australia’s fourth-richest electorate. This amount has been matched by Climate 200, a non-profit group supporting the climate-focused ‘Voices Of’ movement with generous funding
Evidently, the Indys cherry-picking has served them well so far.
The funny thing about me is that I’m the least political person you’ll ever meet… I don’t do politics well, with me what you see is what you get and actually playing politics does my head in.
The mother of three has lived in the electorate for 15 years and appears to be an all-round textbook candidate. She was born and bred in Coonabarabran. In the first North Sydney Town Hall hosted on October 5, Tink claimed she could bring knowledge of political sentiments from both the city and country to the parliamentary table.
Most notably, she has headed some of Australia’s biggest not-for-profits, including the McGrath Foundation and Camp Quality.
Asked whether the selection of the campaign’s ‘Tink Pink’ colour scheme had any relation to the creation and development of Sydney’s Pink Test under her lead at the McGrath Foundation, Tink admitted that this was not the case.
“While it is a shade of pink, it is actually a very different pink to what I worked with when I was at the McGrath Foundation,” she says.
“But maybe it was a sign that it was meant to be.”
It may be hard to believe, given the standing of the Pink Test now, but when Tink first pitched the idea she was told that pink and cricket just wouldn’t work.
Kylea Tink. Photo: Supplied
“That first Sydney Pink Test in January 2009 there were literally four of us working at the McGrath Foundation that year… but by Day 3 the whole ground had changed pink and Channel 9 were changing the colour around their score screens,” she says.
Tink tells how her experiences with resilience at the McGrath Foundation had informed her current political drive.
“It’s very consistent with my whole life experience of campaigning and advocacy,”she says.
The pocket rocket businesswoman and activist said she didn’t find the Indys; the Indys found her. Tink credited her friend’s referral to the Independent group as the catalyst for her application.
“The funny thing about me is that I’m the least political person you’ll ever meet… I don’t do politics well, with me what you see is what you get and actually playing politics does my head in,” she adds, candidly.
Being just two weeks into Tink’s campaign, there’s not much to know about her policies so far. Responding to recent criticism from Senator Bragg on independent candidates’ failure to provide ample detail on their policies, Tink says that predetermined policy without consulting her community “would’ve been no better than a political party dictating what direction the electorate is going to.
Despite this, she has set four policies in stone, consistent with those of the ‘Voices Of’ movement, which she is ‘loosely’ associated with. At the top of the list is climate action, while a forward-focused economy, creation of a strong Federal ICAC and gender and racial equality in Canberra are also priorities.
Tink’s campaign has so far appealed to an electorate which traditionally votes Liberal. The last time a non-Liberal MP held the North Sydney seat was in 1996. In Tink’s first virtual North Sydney Town Hall event held via Zoom on October 5, a participant criticised her for doing little to attract the interest of left leaning residents in the hopes of potentially swinging their votes.
In light of the recent announcement from the NSW Liberals on reducing emissions, Tink was quick to level the playing field.
“Words are cheap… there’s no track record to show that what they say will actually turn into tangible legislative change,” she says.
The Liberal party has now developed this much watered down, completely inappropriate version of what an integrity commission should look like.
Tink’s emissions target falls short of that set by the Climate Council – Australia’s chief climate change advisory organisation – which recommends cutting emissions by 75 per cent by 2030. Asked why her policy was 25 per cent less ambitious, Tink argued for a more realistic goal.
“I applaud that target of 75 per cent, you know I would love to see Australia commit to that,” she says. “But given that we’re currently at 28 per cent for myself I think pragmatically if we can get it up to 50 per cent, we’ve doubled the ask without tipping them way out of the cot.”
A major consideration for LNP voters looking to make the switch will be whether Tink can force any decisive change in Parliament. While a strong cross bench is possible, it will only be of much use in the case of a minority government.
To this point, Tink retorts that changes – although relatively minor – have been driven by Independents, even in our current political context of a majority government.
Speaking on Helen Haines’ bill for a Federal ICAC, Tink says “the Liberal party has now developed this much watered down, completely inappropriate version of what an integrity commission should look like. Even though it’s watered down, at least they started to address it, prompted by an Independents action”.
Images supplied by The Indys.
