Katherine Deves, the biological sex rights campaigner who hoped to enter the Australian parliament as the Liberal party’s candidate for the Sydney seat of Warringah, has suffered a crushing defeat to incumbent independent Zali Steggall.
Political analysts have called the seat as a win to Steggall as the trend on counting showed the independent member would increase her margin and end up with 60% of the votes of a two-party basis.
Deves was selected as a the Liberal candidate just weeks out from the election campaign, the decision to install her in the seat once held by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, was made by current PM Scott Morrison, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and former party president Chris McDiven.
Throughout the campaign there was a succession of news headlines highlighting comments Deves had made as a campaigner against transgender women participating in sport. The candidate issued a series of apologies but later walked them back – saying while her language was offensive to many people she had used appropriate medico-legal jargon.
On polling day Katherine Deves told reporters she was confident of winning the seat, noting that she’d had supporters fly in from around the country to join her campaign, but as the votes were tallied it quickly showed the votes had clearly gone in favour of the incumbent independent Zali Steggall.
OIP Staff
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