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Sandy Bolton, Queensland’s first teal independent, on what the new guard can expect

Just before 9pm on election night, the utterly safe and wealthy Liberal seat of Mackellar on Sydney’s northern beaches fell to a well-known local GP named Sophie Scamps running as an independent.

The victories for the so-called “teal independents” would keep coming, and their success in such tightly held Coalition seats has changed a government, shocked the major parties, and may force the Nationals into an ugly leadership fight.

More than 1,000 kilometres away from Dr Scamps’ victory party was Sandy Bolton, watching the coverage from her Noosa home.

She’s no psychic but nevertheless she saw it coming.

Ms Bolton pried the safe LNP seat of Noosa from the LNP in 2017, running as an independent with teal signage and shirts.

She might be described as Australia’s first teal independent — and is still the only independent MP in Queensland parliament.

“It was like something I knew years ago,” she said.

“We need to see different politics and a different parliament — and here we go, at a federal level I think we’re seeing that.”