A teal campaign to defeat NSW Environment Minister James Griffin in the plum seat of Manly has the support of the last person to usurp a Liberal in the Sydney beachside electorate.
Manly doctor Peter Macdonald, who tore Manly from Liberal hands in 1991, sparking a 16-year run for independents, says conditions are ripe for another switch away from the major parties.
He helped launch the election campaign of marketing consultant and charity founder Joeline Hackman on Wednesday night.
"The time has arrived where independents aren't seen as oddities, they're seen as mainstream," Dr Macdonald told about 100 campaign supporters.
Ms Hackman, who has the backing of environment-focused political action group Climate 200 and local group Manly Independent, faces an uphill battle to unseat Mr Griffin in March.
The sitting member won on first preferences in 2019, and NSW's optional preferential voting system means challengers can't rely on indirect support from campaigns to put major parties last on ballots.
But Dr Macdonald said the teal wave federally showed voters wanted more local representation, something an independent MP could do "unfettered and unhindered".
He said Liberal and Labor MPs' "divided loyalty" meant they couldn't really represent their electorate.
"We can't be a servant to two masters, and that's where they let the community down, and that's the reason we need an independent elected here in March," Dr Macdonald said.
Ms Hackman, who lives locally with her doctor husband and their two children, spruiked her credentials as the founder of a local "war on waste" group and the Feed Our Medics charity that provided meals to front-line health care workers during the pandemic.
"I've such a long experience advocating on environmental, health-care and community issues," she said.
"But I realise we cannot continue advocating, we actually have to push to change legislation."
Ms Hackman believes Mr Griffin is beholden to Liberal, National and corporate interests, and criticised the state's lack of legislation backing its emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050.
She also underlined the lack of women in the Perrottet government's cabinet.
Six women make up the 24-person cabinet, including three of the eight Nationals members.
Mr Griffin was contacted for comment.
The father-of-two, a former KPMG consultant, served as a Liberal local councillor alongside his Greens councillor mother, before taking Manly at a 2017 by-election.
He has backed the creation of Australia's first hospice for adolescents and young adults, released the state's $190 million koala strategy, and overseen the return of 10 locally extinct animals to their native habitats in the state's rewilding sites.
Liberals in blue-ribbon seats face several threats from teal candidates at the March election, including in Vaucluse, where former journalist Karen Freyer is running as an independent.
Political analyst Kos Samaras told AAP in October that his focus groups were picking up a lot of disaffection towards the government.
Treasurer Matt Kean has urged better female representation in his party, while questioning why voters would vote "teal when they can get the real deal" in a party of government.