Paul Suttor
20 September 2025, 11:00 PM
Katelin McInerney has identified housing, infrastructure, early childhood, public education as her big ticket items in her 500-day mission to convince the Kiama electorate that she deserves to be their long-term state MP.
McInerney became the first female state member for Kiama with her resounding by-election win on the weekend and will formally begin official duties next month after she is sworn in at NSW Parliament.
Not one to rest on her laurels, the Kiama member-elect has touched base with the three mayors in the electorate - Cameron McDonald (Kiama), Chris Homer (Shellharbour) and Patricia White (Shoalhaven).
“Working with councils will be a very big priority of mine. I've already reached out to the three mayors across the area and made it really clear that I am in their corner and ready to advocate for what they need,” she told The Bugle.
“They're on the ground, they understand the needs of our community and are not afraid to tell me. And I think it's really important that we have an honest and open relationship.
“One that's built on a drive to get what's best for our community.
“I consider all three of those advocacy plans now my focus. Some of them are very big long-term projects, some of them are a bit easier to look at in the medium and short term.
“I'm really keen to talk to councils about how we bring genuinely affordable housing here, how we look to build housing in our communities for our essential workers and frontline health care staff.
“I'm also really keen to keep talking about how we get social and community housing up and going as quickly as possible because they are three areas we know our community really needs to have someone championing.”
McInerney said development was a hugely important issue because the region is growing but also has an ageing demographic.
“Our health care and aged care sector workforces alone are going to have to grow quite considerably to cope with the care that will be needed for our older people in our community,” she said.
“That means we have to think about housing for those workers and how we're going to continue bringing people into our community.
“What can't happen is chucking more houses up. We have to build the communities. That has to be done in conjunction with local councils and communities.”
McInerney said her campaign had gained momentum due to projects “which people felt very justifiably angry about not already having in place” like the extension of Tripoli Way in Albion Park, the new Calderwood Public School, upgrades to Bomaderry High School and a new pre-school for the town.
“We do see that the independent vote was still pretty high. So I think we have a long way to go before I prove to the community that we’ve got a formula that succeeds,” she said.
“I think we need to listen to that message as a government and really knuckle down and get on with the work.
“I look at it that we've got about 500 days until the next election. And in that time we've got to deliver those big pieces of infrastructure that we've promised, that are in the process of coming out of the ground.”
McInerney said that a frequent piece of feedback she received from the voters was the urgent need to repair the local road infrastructure
“It is very badly damaged and in need of repair. That will be an ongoing problem, in an area that's natural disaster prone, that we need to focus on,” she added.
“Working with councils to make sure they have the support they need and funding to access so they can do those repairs.”
Her predecessor, Gareth Ward, who resigned after he was convicted of four counts of sexual assault, will return to court on Friday for sentencing.
NEWS