Western Sydney turns on ‘out of touch’ Malcolm Turnbull
THE biggest blow to Malcolm Turnbull’s re-election hopes came in a handful of bellwether seats he was supposed to win.
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The “Mediscare” campaign, Mike Baird’s failure to provide funding to upgrade Nepean hospital and even the switch from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull are being blamed for the shock loss of three Western Sydney seats which could force Mr Turnbull into a hung parliament.
Bill Shorten launched his campaign in Lindsay a fortnight ago but, despite this, there had been an expectation on both sides that it would be tough for Labor to win the seat off popular Liberal Fiona Scott.
But this is exactly what happened in the traditional bellwether seat, reasonably emphatically — with results yesterday having Labor candidate Emma Husar ahead of the Coalition by 51.6 per cent of the vote to 48.4 per cent — a 4.9 per cent swing.
Penrith MP, NSW Sports Minister and partner of Defence Minister Marise Payne, Stuart Ayres, said it was clear Medicare was a huge factor in the seat.
“Western Sydney, particularly, in my view responded in droves to the Medicare campaign,” Mr Ayres said.
“I stood on the biggest polling booth in Lindsay, in Penrith. There were unionists out there who just smashed Medicare down people’s throats. People responded to it.”
Last night the Coalition appeared to have 73 seats — three short of the number required to form government — so wins in Macarthur, Macquarie and Lindsay would have been enough to secure a majority, even before other close seats are decided.
Instead, the Liberal Party was wiped out west of Parramatta with swings as big as 12.6 per cent.
Liberal state director Chris Stone said yesterday: “Obviously Labor’s Medicare campaign has got an impact in Western Sydney and naturally we’re very disappointed to have lost a number of hard working local MPs at the election.”
Labor were claiming that Tony Abbott was a factor; the former prime minister having traditionally been more popular than eastern suburbs-based Malcolm Turnbull in Western Sydney, with Mr Abbott’s concentration on issues like national security.
“[The reason we won in Western Sydney was] we had a great ground campaign, we had good candidate selection, and the Abbott factor,” Senator Sam Dastyari said.
Labor’s general secretary Kaila Murnain said the party’s research showed people in that area preferred Tony Abbott and, anecdotally, people were telling Labor workers that Malcolm Turnbull was “out of touch and he doesn’t understand the people of Western Sydney”.
In Lindsay, “Lib Independent” Marcus Cornish’s preferences flowed almost exclusively to Labor.
And given there were 1900 of them, they were critical in a seat Labor is currently ahead in by 2509 votes.
Mr Cornish campaigned on the fact he claimed Fiona Scott had voted for Malcolm Turnbull against Tony Abbott in last year’s leadership ballot.
The Hinch candidate for the seat also received 1206 votes and was preferencing to Labor.
And a Labor pamphlet said “If you’re voting Nick Xenophon Team 1, please give Emma Husar your number 2 to save Nepean Hospital”, bringing Xenophon preferences two to one to Labor.
Despite election promises of a $300 million upgrade at Nepean Hospital, the state government only provided $1 million in planning money in the state budget a fortnight ago — a story which led television news.
Bill Shorten promised the hospital $88 million in his launch and Malcolm Turnbull never promised anything.
In Macquarie, a seat which takes in the Blue Mountains, former journalist Susan Templeman, who lost her house in the 2013 Winmalee bushfires managed a 6.85 per cent swing against long-time Liberal Louise Markus — winning 52.37 per cent to 47.63 per cent.
Templeman campaigned heavily on supporting a “no-fly zone” near the Badgerys Creek Airport, even though Labor support the project.
In Macarthur, the swing was even more staggering. Popular local paediatrician Labor’s Mike Freelander beat incumbent Liberal Russell Matheson with a 12.61 per cent swing, winning by 59.22 per cent on two-party preferred compared to 40.78 per cent.
Mysterious “Medicare” text messages, which were received by voters no Saturday in Western Sydney, Queensland and Tasmania — all areas critical to the outcome of the election — purported to be from “Medicare”said “Mr Turnbull’s plan to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of return. Time is running out to save Medicare.”
In addition to this, Labor sent out text messages from local candidates on Saturday which said for example: “Good Morning. Today is Election Day. This is our last chance to save Medicare. Vote Dr Mike Freelander and Labor today.”
Elsewhere in NSW, Labor picked up Dobell, Paterson and Barton, as they should have as these had become notionally Labor through a redistribution.
They also lost Eden-Monaro, with insiders blaming a lacklustre effort from local candidate Peter Hendy. And Liberal Ann Sudmalis was only 405 votes ahead of Labor in the seat of Gilmore, with Liberals confident of clinging on there through postal votes.
Meanwhile, the National Party did well to head off challenges from Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott in Cowper and to hang onto Page and Richmond.
But Western Sydney is always where the war is won and lost in elections.
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