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The 29-year-old community advocate is taking on a challenge no one has yet cracked: being elected as a truly independent member of the NSW Legislative Council. Running under his own name and reputation, Kirsh is driven by a responsibility to authentically represent his state and deliver fresh ideas with real, tangible impact.
Josh Kirsh is running as an independent for the NSW Legislative Council (Image: TJI).
Published: 29 September 2025
Last updated: 29 September 2025
When you first told me that you were running for the New South Wales Legislative Council, I needed a minute to look up what that meant. Can you save our readers some time by telling us what that actually is?
You and pretty much 80 per cent of the people who live in NSW don’t really know what it is! You might remember from HSIE [Human Society and its Environment] back in primary school that the state parliament has two houses: a legislative assembly and a legislative council.
The legislative assembly is made up of all the people who come from local seats and the legislative council is a 42 member body. Half of them are elected every four years and everyone runs on the same ticket across NSW. The major parties tend to get about 14 to 17 of those 21 seats that go up. And then there's a few left over for minor parties and independents like me to fight for.
To date, no independent has been directly elected to the legislative council. So I'm aiming to do something that has yet to be done.
You've been a lawyer, public servant, volunteer paramedic dispatcher, community advocate and stand-up comic. Which of these hats has best prepared you for politics?
Kirsh: "I have a lot of faith and confidence that I will be able to bring real change".
A whole bunch of things came together for me that night. I thought: I'm interested in politics; I understand how the law works; I've given evidence in parliament before; and now I've gotten up now in front of a crowd and made them laugh and feel something. All of those realisations were pointing me in a particular career-oriented direction.
You've been speaking a lot lately about leadership paralysis and wanting fresh ideas in NSW politics. Can you give us one or two examples of these ideas?
Obviously climate is an issue that is front and centre of everyone's minds. Living in NSW means living in a state where you drive past the sites of extreme bushfires in order to get to ski fields. It's a state of absolute extremes, whether it's floods, bushfires, drought – all of these situations require a huge amount of work and care and time.
Installing renewable energy, reshaping our grid in suburbs and cities and also out in the regions and rural areas when it's not flooding, when they're not in drought and when the bushfires aren't raging is critical. We need to be providing mitigation and adaptation services; fixing people's houses so they're not going to get swept away; changing building materials so that the cost of insulation doesn't sky rocket. I would love to see us tackle these big challenges.
We also need a vibrant nightlife to come back to the cities in NSW. We had the challenges of the lockout laws, then the construction of the light rail, then COVID, then the cost of living crisis. Our nightlife has been decimated. We know, based on research, that just within the city of Sydney, 70 per cent of core nighttime economy businesses – that's entertainment venues, restaurants, pubs, bars – close by 9pm. Now, if you are an alter kaker and you're happy to go to bed at 9pm, that's wonderful, but some of us would like to be able to stay out.
What I'm proposing off the bat is a partial time-limited wage subsidy for venues that want to employ staff past 9pm but currently think it is too risky financially. In addition to that, the 'Dine and Discover' vouchers that we all got given to go back out after COVID were a fantastic opportunity. Mechanisms like these will revitalise our economic life and nightlife in our cities.
You mentioned that no independent has ever been elected to the NSW upper house in their own right. What's your pitch to voters who think independents are just supporting actors in a two-party show?
I hear the criticism and if you look in our federal parliament right now, the government has a very healthy majority. I think the independents do really good work, but they're hamstrung by the numbers. The NSW Legislative Council never has a majority for the government of the day, so they always have to negotiate with the crossbench to get legislation through.
I recognise the tremendous opportunity that I have as a person who lives in this moment in history, who can speak out and speak up on the issues that [we] live with.
Certainly to our Jewish community, I would say – take a look at who is on the crossbench right now and tell me if you think that they're actual friends of ours. Whether they're telling us that we get our tentacles into everything or they're telling us that we need to grow up [when it comes to antisemitism] – across the political spectrum, the crossbench has unfortunately left our community behind.
An independent would have a massive amount of leverage in the Legislative Council in the next parliament. The ones who have leverage now are not the sorts of people who I would entrust to write the laws for me.
As someone who identifies as both Jewish and gay, do you feel any sort of pressure to have to represent these groups?
I think it's a privilege to be a member of both the Jewish and gay communities. I can't speak for everyone, but for me, although it's brought challenges in various ways, on the whole I would not want to be anyone else. I recognise the tremendous opportunity that I have as a person who lives in this moment in history, who can speak out and speak up on the issues that I live with as members of the Jewish and gay communities.
Working with dynamic, intelligent, creative young people who are passionate about making change brings me so much joy and energy, no matter what else is going on in my life.
The things I’m drawn to are mental health, literacy, housing, youth homelessness, climate and the nightlife issue because these are universal challenges that people can relate to and I want to provide solutions that are practical in order to address those challenges.
You've got a lot on your plate: campaigning, volunteer work, being a community darling. How do you stay grounded and avoid becoming an overachiever running on empty?
I have a very healthy “best little boy in the world syndrome”. I'm never going to say no when an opportunity presents itself.
I have stepped down from the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies in my role as Social Justice Chair because I didn't feel it was appropriate to stay around the board table whilst campaigning for parliament. I literally just came off a shift with Community Health Support as a dispatcher. I have no plans to stop. All these things energise me.
Kirsh at NSW Parliament House giving evidence at the Legislative Council’s 2025 inquiry into antisemitism on behalf of Youth HEAR (Image: LinkedIn).
I’m incredibly fortunate to have a lot of volunteering opportunities, whether it’s with Or, AUJS or Youth HEAR. Working with dynamic, intelligent, creative young people who are passionate about making change brings me so much joy and energy, no matter what else is going on in my life.
Does your mum want me to turn this interview into a matchmaking type of thing? Are we looking for a husband during this time or do you need to focus on your career?
Can you imagine me having time in my schedule right now to go on a date?!
Someone might want to be your campaign manager and your bit on the side.
Well, you know what? If they're interested, they can go to my website. They will get an email from my mum, who is the secretary. I'm happy for her to vet them!
Final question: what’s your secret saucewhen it comes to social impact?
I come to this with a deep understanding of how stuff gets done in government, in parliament, in the public service and out in the community. I may be 29, but there is very little left that the political system cannot throw at me that I haven't previously seen. I have a lot of faith and confidence that I will be able to bring real change.
I’m prepared to wade through the crap that is holding a lot of us back here in NSW and address the challenges that make us feel alone, disempowered and scared.
I will do everything I can to get us to a place where things are a bit easier, where we feel safe and supported, so that we can live in the most vibrant and wonderful state in the most awesome country in the world.
Tami Sussman writes for children and adults and is the author of the novel 'So That Happened … But Maybe You Already Knew That'. She's also one half of the TJI Podcast 'Ashamed to Admit'.
While not endorsing you, Josh, I want to encourage you.
The two-party system produces neither imaginative nor transparent government, so I do encourage you to be an independent worthy of the title.
Comments1
Ian Grinblat30 September at 06:01 am
While not endorsing you, Josh, I want to encourage you.
The two-party system produces neither imaginative nor transparent government, so I do encourage you to be an independent worthy of the title.