Peter Dutton playing mind games with shock visit to Chris Bowen’s western Sydney electorate, writes Joe Hildebrand
An election campaign isn’t just about the seat-by-seat results, it’s also about playing the mother of all mind games, writes Joe Hildebrand. SEE THE VIDEO
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It is said that in Australian politics there is no such thing as a safe seat anymore, but even so Chris Bowen must have been rubbing his eyes in disbelief when Peter Dutton dropped by his western Sydney electorate this morning.
Bowen holds the seat of McMahon by more than 10 per cent and it’s hardly on the Liberal hit list, so why did the Opposition Leader pop into a brickmakers to unveil candidate Carmen Lazar?
I’m glad you asked!
An election campaign isn’t just about the seat-by-seat results on polling day, it’s also about playing the mother of all mind games.
As Climate Change and Energy Minister, Bowen is a favourite punching bag for the Coalition and of course energy prices are a white-hot election issue.
So applying the blowtorch to Bowen in his own backyard is a ploy to put him under as much pressure as possible and keep his name in the spotlight.
If his attention is divided between performing as a minister and keeping an eye on his own electorate it increases the chances of him being distracted or making a mistake — which could be a breakthrough for a minister who is notoriously hard to crack.
Plus if the Libs keep showing up in McMahon Labor HQ could be bluffed into thinking they know something it doesn’t, which means they might deploy more resources to defend a seat they don’t have to at the expense of seats they do.
Keeping up? Well here’s where the 3D chess becomes 4D, because the only real threat to Bowen isn’t the Liberal Party at all.
It’s the new independent party formed by Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone which delivered Dai Le the neighbouring seat of Fowler — which Labor held by more than 20 per cent in 2019 but lost to Le in 2022 after it tried to parachute in Kristina Keneally over local party favourite Tu Le — no relation!
And guess what? Carmen Lazar is a former Labor councillor who joined the Liberal Party after being overlooked for the state seat of Fairfield in favour of Bowen’s pick David Saliba.
And Dai Le was also a former Liberal councillor before running for Carbone as an independent. So could Carmen be Carbone’s next candidate?
As it happens, in an incredible coincidence the Coalition camp somehow let slip during the McMahon visit that Carbone travelled all the way to Canberra to listen to Dutton’s Budget reply speech last week.
Maybe it just came up in conversation …
Meanwhile, Fowler is one of the few seats that Labor is hoping to pick up at this election by running the candidate they should have run three years ago, so Carbone and Dai and the Libs need to defend it.
And in politics as in war the best defence is a good offence, hence the attack on McMahon next door.
Let the mind games begin!
Originally published as Peter Dutton playing mind games with shock visit to Chris Bowen’s western Sydney electorate, writes Joe Hildebrand
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