Earlier today, the Daily Telegraph reported that University of Sydney student Freya Leach has been selected to run for the electoral district of Balmain, representing the Liberal Party in March’s state election. This follows the release of a podcast created by Leach and fellow USyd student, Aceda Rose, where Rose stated that Leach would run for the district.
The Telegraph also claimed that an unnamed Liberal Party source confirmed Leach’s candidacy.
At time of writing, however, the NSW Liberal Party website indicates that current Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Chris Rath, is the candidate for Balmain — and for Sydney, Newtown, Heffron, and any other division where the Liberals have not yet selected a candidate. Honi has been informed that this is a known error currently being investigated. It remains unclear whether Leach is the Liberal candidate for Balmain.
In November 2022, Leach was embroiled in the controversial retraction of the Sydney University Law School’s criminal law exam, alleging that the original paper mocked her conservative political views. When the Sydney Morning Herald published the entire paper online, the original exam was replaced with several replacement exams, all of which occurred outside of the University’s formal exam period.
Leach is active in student politics, and is the current Social Media Officer of the University of Sydney Conservative Club. She has also campaigned for the Liberal Party at both State and Federal levels, including for former Federal MP Trent Zimmerman.
Balmain is currently held by Greens MP Jamie Parker, who won the seat in 2019 with 42.73% of primary votes. Parker has held the seat for twelve years, and announced his retirement from politics last year. The Liberals have never won the safe Greens seat.
The eventual Liberal candidate will run against Labor candidate Philippa Scott, and Greens candidate Kobi Shetty.
Honi Soit has approached Leach for comment.
Update: This article was amended to include further detail concerning Chris Rath’s appearance on the NSW Liberal Party’s website.
