Federal election 2022 Australia: Liberal Democrat Daniel Lewkovitz joins Allegra Spender in fight for Dave Sharma’s seat of Wentworth

Scott Morrison’s hopes of a second term as PM have taken another hit, with a ‘true’ conservative to contest what could be one of the bellwether seats of this year’s election.

Scott Morrison’s re-election hopes have taken another hit, with the announcement of a ‘real conservative’ to contest what could turn out to be one of the bellwether seats of this year’s federal election.

Highly respected small business owner Daniel Lewkovitz has entered the battle for Dave Sharma’s blue riband seat of Wentworth.

Mr Lewkovitz will contest the seat as a Liberal Democrat alongside ‘Voices of’ independent Allegra Spender, the daughter of late Australian fashion icon Carla Zampatti, to make for an unexpectedly crowded and tightly fought eastern suburbs political battle.

Daniel Lewkovitz has entered the battle for Dave Sharma’s blue riband seat of Wentworth, as a Liberal Democrat. Picture: Richard Dobson

Labor’s Tim Murray and the Greens Dominic Wy Kanak will also contest the seat former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held for 14 years before his controversial departure in 2018.

Mr Sharma has already been wheeled out by the Morrison government to warn voters of the dangers of the conservative vote splintering among the Coalition, the Liberal Democrats and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.

However it’s unlikely Mr Morrison’s most high profile lieutenant outside Cabinet would have anticipated the threat would come so close to home.

“Both major parties have failed at every level of government,” Mr Lewkovitz said.

“We have very weak government because we have very weak opposition.

Dave Sharma (left), pictured with PM Scott Morrison, has a fight on his hands to retain his seat at the federal election. Picture: Brett Costello

“And when times are good it’s easy to be ignorant about that but when times are bad you realise the lack of preparation, resilience and talent that is there.

“For too long voters have been choosing the least worst option and inevitably that goes nowhere. Until now there’s hasn’t been a viable third option in Australia politics but the Liberal Democrats have changed that. Like so many Australians, we’re for small government personal responsibility and individual freedoms. That’s what this country needs.

“It’s become quite clear that big government isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.”

The emergence of Ms Spender, who is a running a climate change campaign backed by a number of wealthy benefactors, and Mr Lewkovitz, the son of immigrants who fled Europe after the Holocaust and has lived locally for his whole life, is set to again shake things up in what was once one of the Liberal Party’s safest seats.

Allegra Spender will run as an independent ‘Voices of’ candidate in the federal seat of Wentworth. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

Wentworth had been held since Federation by conservative parties until Kerryn Phelps claimed it in a 2018 by-election over Mr Sharma, in what was widely viewed as a protest vote against the Coalition’s dumping of Mr Turnbull as leader.

Mr Sharma won the seat back from the Sydney doctor at the last election.

But Ms Phelps only trailed Mr Sharma by less than 3,000 votes in the two-candidate preferred result in 2019, to further illustrate the change of mood in the electorate, despite it returning to the Libs.

Mr Sharma remains favourite to retain the seat but he has a fight on his hands.

And how the locals spread their votes across the leading left leaning independent in Ms Spender and the “real conservative running for Wentworth” – as Sky News presenter Rowan Dean has described Mr Lewkovitz – could mirror the country at large and indicate how the new government will be formed.

Security and risk expert Daniel Lewkovitz. at work at the small business he founded, Calamity monitoring. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I encourage other successful people to get involved in politics as I have because if you don’t rock the boat you end up going down with it,” said Mr Lewkovitz, security and risk expert and CEO and founder of Security firm Calamity, who counts former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman as among his fellow Liberal Democrats candidates.