Liberal candidate expresses stance in contrast to party’s official policy as he comes under fire over climate change

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Liberal candidate for Wentworth, Dave Sharma, has said “he is open” to relocating Australia’s embassy to Jerusalem as the US has done, in contrast to the official policy of both the Liberals and Labor to leave it in Tel Aviv.

As the battle in the Wentworth byelection enters its final week, the votes of the large Jewish community that lives in Wentworth could be crucial to whether the Liberals hold the seat. There are around 20,000 Jewish people in Wentworth, according to the 2016 census, making up 12.5% of the population.

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The issue is highly contentious as Jerusalem is important to both the Palestinians and Israelis, and its future will be central to the two-state solution that Australia and others have backed.

Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, said at a candidates’ forum on Monday: “I think we should be open to considering it as Australians. The US has done it.” But he added: “We need to look at in context of a two-state solution.”

But on his Twitter feed and during his pitch to Liberal preselectors he has been more explicit.

Dave Sharma (@DaveSharma) Even if we don’t move Embassy, we shld at least consider recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (w/o prejudice to its final boundaries or potential status as capital of future Palestinian state). Where else do we disagree with a country about where its capital is? https://t.co/F30Dh1GOyN

Dave Sharma (@DaveSharma) Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem, though risky, carries with it an opportunity to advance peace. Will he take it? pic.twitter.com/hIioxWhA5n

The main candidates are due to participate in a panel at the Jewish Board of Deputies in Woollahra on Tuesday but the candidates faced questions on the embassy question on Monday when they participated in the Sydney Morning Herald’s candidate panel at Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.

The leading independent candidate and local GP, Kerryn Phelps, who is a convert to Judaism, said it was “a difficult issue” and that if elected, she would be seeking briefings on the impact moving it would have on achieving a two-state solution.

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But Labor’s Tim Murray said though he recognised how important the issue was to people in Israel (he referred to the views of Israel’s Labor leader), he said Australia should only consider such a move once a two-state solution was achieved.

“I would want a two-state solution first, and on basis of a strong peace consider moving to Jerusalem,” Murray said.

This was the first time Sharma had appeared on a panel with his main rivals: Phelps, Murray, the Greens’ Dominic Wy Kanak and independent Licia Heath.

Not surprisingly, climate change dominated as an issue. Outside the surf club in driving rain, GetUp staged a small protest. A number of activists dressed as prime minister Scott Morrison brandished lumps of coal, while another dressed as former prime minister Tony Abbott shivered in his budgie smugglers.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest GetUp demonstrators took aim at the Coalition’s record on climate change outside the candidate’s forum. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Sharma said he accepted the scientific evidence showing climate change was caused by human activity and said he supported Australia’s Paris commitments. He repeated the government’s assurances that the nation was on track to meet its pledged cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, even though several expert reports, including the World Bank, have cast doubt on this.

Sharma also said the nation needed to address energy affordability and security.

“Coal currently provides 60% of our energy and will be part of the energy mix for years to come, he said.

This brought a robust exchange from the other candidates.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dave Sharma is mobbed by protesters as he arrives at a candidates forum in Bondi on Monday. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

“You are in a party dominated by climate change sceptics and unless you cross the floor you will be part of a party with no climate change policy,” Phelps said.

If elected, Phelps said, she will work across the major parties to achieve policies that address climate change.

Murray said the Coalition had a complete lack of comprehensive policy on either climate change or energy and without it they were powerless to effect power prices.

“They are wrong that renewables are more expensive,” Murray said. He urged a vote for Labor, arguing it was the only party that could form government and actually deliver a climate change policy.

But Murray also came under pressure. He had pledged in his opening address to work within the Labor party to stop the giant Adani mine in Queensland’s Galilee basin going ahead.

But Phelps said unless he crossed the floor, which would result in expulsion from the Labor party, he was powerless to vote against Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest (L-R) Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, independent Kerryn Phelps, Labor’s Tim Murray, Greens candidate Dominic Wy Kanak and independent Licia Heath. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

On the question of the summary dismissal of the former member, Malcolm Turnbull, Sharma said he “shares that frustration of his electorate” of Wentworth over the infighting that led to Turnbull’s ousting as prime minister.

“I consider him a mentor and a friend and appalled at treatment meted out to him,” he said.

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But he warned the choice facing electors this Saturday was stability or instability: a one-seat majority or a hung parliament.

Turnbull held Wentworth with a 17% margin, two-party-preferred.

But the Liberals are bracing for a hit this Saturday, with Phelps and Murray both commanding significant slices of the vote in a field of 16 candidates.

Polls have indicated the Liberals’ primary vote has been slashed to the low 40s or even as low as 38.8%, according to a weekend Voter Choice Project poll of 723 people. Phelps, who is polling around 23% of the vote, could win if she comes in second and then gets over the line with Murray’s preferences and the preferences of others.

Phelps again faced questioning over why she had put the Liberals ahead of Labor on her how to vote, given she is so critical of their policies on climate change and refugees. She said it was only a “guide” and she believed Wentworth voters could make up their own minds.