Today I want to write about someone I briefly encountered in about 1998, who springs to mind due to the Winter Olympics and current political “can’t get anywhere with Climate bills” catastrophe.
Zali Steggall OAM is a member of Australian parliament who has successfully navigated two vastly different high-pressure careers: first as an elite world-champion athlete and later as a trailblazing independent politician.
Early Life and the Manly Connection
I loved my youthful time in Manly, often boogie boarding on the lovely waves. But as a self-sustaining person, I noticed the divide between us renters and homeowners with asset wealth – which since the ’90s has strayed even further from the strugglers. Our half house rent was $140 per week in 1990 on the hill in Fairlight, near Manly.
Born in 1974 in the beachside suburb of Manly, Sydney, Zali and Zeke, her brother, had a life-changing catalyst. Her family relocated to the French Alps when she was just four years old. It was in the village of Morzine that she first strapped on a pair of skis, developing a natural affinity for the snow that would eventually lead her to high-level competition.
Zeke represented Australia in snowboarding in two winter Olympics. One day in the late 1990s I saw the pair come in for a chat about sponsorship at John Thatcher Sunglasses while I worked in administration there.
With the family, she returned to Australia for her secondary education at Queenwood School for Girls in Mosman, the same electorate she would one day represent. A private non-denom Christian school with very high annual fees, unlike my NZ high school!
A Pioneering Skiing Career
Steggall was an international success as an alpine skier. Specialising in the slalom, she competed in four Winter Olympics. At the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, she won a bronze medal — Australia’s first individual Winter Olympic medal. Now look at us!
She followed this success in 1999 by becoming the World Champion in slalom at the World Championships in Vail, Colorado. Her achievements were instrumental in changing the perception of Australia as a “summer sports only” nation. In recognition of her services to sport, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2007.
Transition to Law and Politics
After retiring from professional skiing in 2002, Steggall pivoted to a career in law. She was called to the NSW Bar in 2008, practising as a barrister with a focus on family law, sports law, and commercial litigation. This legal background provided the foundation for her eventual move into the political arena.
Her entry into politics was driven by a sense of frustration with the status quo.
In early 2019, she announced her candidacy as an independent for the seat of Warringah, challenging the long-term incumbent, former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Her campaign focused heavily on climate change, integrity in politics, and sensible economic management — issues she argued were being neglected by the major parties. She secured $1.1 million AUD in funding from 1349 donors for her 2019 campaign, the most of any independent at that election.
In a “climate election”, as it was known, Steggall achieved a historic victory, unseating Tony Abbott with a significant swing. She supported rebates and other supports for electric cars.
As an Independent Member of Parliament, she has since become a leading voice for legislative action on climate change, notably through her introduction of a Climate Change Bill, seeking to provide a framework for Australia to reach net-zero emissions.
The polluting Karratha gas plant in WA had just been approved by the Albanese government in 2024, (with arcane Environmental Protection laws failing to stop it) so in 2025 she proposal a Climate Resilience plan, which would help high-risk areas and resilience building measures.
“We need to pivot to an innovation-driven economy, where we support Australian ingenuity and new, clean technologies. We have an opportunity to be global leaders, but it will take political courage and vision.”
(Source: The Monthly, by Zali Steggall).
Having sat through Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred myself, and watching the changing rainfall patterns just as Al Gore predicted in An Inconvenient Truth, I can see that there must be strong people pushing to transform Australia to cleaner fuels. God knows, it’s an uphill battle.
Other Moral Grounds
Zali has always held a strong stance against racism, transphobia, and now against ‘dark’ obscured source political donations. Unfortunately, she has also attracted media attention for not declaring a large donation from a former coal investor in 2019, a major oversight on her part. Coal and minerals has been a major source of wealth in this country.
Zali has been married twice and has two kids to David Cameron, her first husband. She earns $230,000 salary as a Parliamentarian.
Today, Zali Steggall remains a pivotal figure in the “teal” independent movement, representing her home community of Warringah with the same tenacity she once showed on the Olympic slopes.
Meanwhile, my skiing hobby ended with a pearler intermediate run on Rainbow ski fields, St Arnaud, New Zealand when I was about 27. Quit while you haven’t broken a knee, I say. It’s not all about the winning, as most of the sports elite will attest; it’s about having fun.
