Gay voters are poised to play a bigger role than ever in the battle for Wentworth, after new boundaries pulled some of Sydney’s most notable LGBTQIA+ suburbs into the electorate ahead of the federal election.
Last year, the federal seat of Wentworth was expanded to include Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Woolloomooloo – three of the four suburbs that make up Sydney’s famed “gaybourhood”.
“The redistribution has brought in about 20,000 new voters, and I’m thrilled that many of them identify within the LGBTQ community,” incumbent independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender told GSN
“This area has always been a passionate advocate for equality, and now I have the privilege of representing an even larger part of this community.”
Spender, elected in 2022 as part of the “teal” independent wave, has since built a record of campaigning for LGBTQIA+ issues – pushing for the community’s inclusion in the 2026 census and backing proposed law changes to the Sex Discrimination Act to better protect queer teachers and students at faith-based schools.
“The government has a pathway for … [changes to the Sex Discrimination Act] through the parliament without the Coalition,” she said. “They chose not to take it, and that is a significant mistake.
“If I get re-elected I will continue to push for these changes because it is unacceptable.”
Greens Wentworth candidate Nick Ward, an openly gay man, echoed that call, arguing that laws around discrimination need broader reform.
“Staff can lose their livelihoods and kids can get kicked out of schools. These are very, very real things that are happening as we speak and there’s no protection for them,” he said.
The Labor government shelved its proposed Sex Discrimination Act reforms, arguing it needed bipartisan support before introducing them to parliament.
Both Labor’s Wentworth candidate Savanna Peake and Liberal candidate Ro Knox agree: any changes to discrimination laws must be backed by both major parties to last.
Peake, a lesbian and co-convenor of Rainbow Labor NSW, said her personal experience during the marriage equality debate showed the need for national unity.
“We don’t need a divisive debate, everyone should have the right to feel like they’re not going to be discriminated against, and my priority is making sure there is lasting reform,” she said.
“We wouldn’t want those laws to have been repealed if a Liberal government were to come into power.”
Knox said the legislation needed to balance protections for LGBTQIA+ students and staff with school autonomy.
“It’s about getting that piece of legislation right, so it balances the independence of certain schools as well as obviously ensuring that we’re protecting our kids and our students,” she said.
However, Knox acknowledged that for a Liberal government, cost-of-living issues would take priority over discrimination law reform.
“It wouldn’t be a priority for the first term, our priorities are primarily around economics,” she said.
Cost-of-living pressures are dominating the campaign for all four major candidates.
The Labor government recently announced tax cuts set to take effect next year, reducing the 16 per cent tax rate for the lowest income tax bracket to 15 per cent, and then to 14 per cent the following year.
The Coalition opposed the move, instead promising its own cost-of-living measures: a 25 per cent cut to the fuel excise and a one-off $1200 tax relief payment.
“The fuel excise is really tactical because it will mean people will save about $14 a tank, which does add up over the month,” Knox said.
Spender, who authored a tax green paper calling for broader economic reform, argued that both major parties were falling short.
“In my view we need a proper tax reform process in the first year of the new parliament and one of the aims of that process should be to see how we can eliminate bracket creep, or how can we index the brackets, because that will make a huge difference in terms of cost of living,” she said.
For the Greens, cost-of-living relief is also about improving healthcare access.
“Healthcare is a concern for a lot of people, and ensuring that there are options where they can get bulk billed is a significant challenge,” Ward said.
Peake said she shared local concerns about skyrocketing rents.
The typical rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Wentworth now sits between $800 and $1000 a week – far above the national average of $550–$600.
“I have skin in the game, as I am a transient renter. I don’t have the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, I don’t own my own home and I’ve faced a lot of these cost-of-living challenges head-on myself,” Peake said.
For some LGBTQIA+ voters, the larger fear is how a potential Peter Dutton-led Liberal government would treat the community.
Dutton backed the “No” campaigns for both marriage equality and the Voice to parliament. More recently, he has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump over his pledge to stamp out “woke” ideology in schools and his stance on trans athletes.
Knox said she understood those concerns but insisted that Dutton was not as hostile as many feared.
“My personal experience of Peter Dutton – and I know this is not a popular one – is that I get along with him really well, he’s a straight shooter,” Knox said.
Knox, who has frequently praised Darlinghurst queer museum Qtopia, said it was important for Wentworth to elect a Liberal moderate who could advocate for the community from inside a major party.
“We’ve got to ensure that at the table where policies are being decided – so that’s not independents, but actually part of major parties – that we have moderate voices that are advocates for this community and that’s why I’m really passionate about ensuring that we get a Liberal into Wentworth who will be an advocate for that,” she said.
Peake agreed that Knox’s support of Qtopia was a positive sign but argued that lived experience matters most.
“I think that it’s important in parliament we have more representation from the queer community, which is why I’m running because I want to see our concerns being heard loudly and clearly,” Peake said.
Ward said having LGBTQIA+ voices in parliament was crucial, particularly for rainbow families.
“I myself am a gay dad,” he said. “I have a 10-year-old daughter … and all of these areas where the community is disadvantaged are key priorities for me.”
Spender, who is not queer, said she is an ally of the community and pointed to her successful push for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the census during the last term of parliament as proof.
“I was proud to be part of that public push that … got the government to change their mind,” she said, referring to the Albanese government’s decision to initially drop, then reinstate, questions about sexual orientation in the next census.
“I think that’s what you can do as an independent. You can stand up on the issues and don’t have to be bound by party lines,” she said.
Also contesting the seat of Wentworth are independent Michael Richmond and One Nation candidate James Sternhell.
Richmond is campaigning on a platform focused on affordable housing and climate change, with a particular emphasis on including nuclear energy in the power grid.
Sternhell, meanwhile, says he is passionate about countering what he describes as the “exaggerated climate agenda” and the “weaponisation of political correctness”.
Pre-polling for the May 3 federal election opened last week.
Gay Sydney News reporter