The suburban roundabout that signifies why Labor lost the unlosable election

At an ordinary looking intersection in western Sydney, a new roundabout sits as a sign of why Labor’s arrogance lost the unlosable election.

David Coleman’s opponent mocked him for being the “Minister for Roundabouts” during the election campaign, criticising his hyper local focus instead of a national issues approach.

But in the end, it might just have been the Liberal MP’s excitement about improvements to bottlenecks and black spots in his western Sydney electorate that saw his vote increase.

Former New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma used one of Mr Coleman’s roundabout projects as an example of how Labor has lost its way in the heartland.

Mr Coleman comfortably beat his Labor rival in Banks, Chris Gambian, and Mr Iemma took aim at the arrogance of the Opposition campaign for poking fun at the roundabout focus.

“While the Gambian Army of keyboard warriors from (inner-Sydney) Newtown and Marrickville sat around quaffing their Columbian bean piccolos, Coleman was out building from the grassroots,” Mr Iemma said in a scathing social media post.

“While our transients guffawed at Coleman for attending to local traffic problems and getting them fixed with roundabouts, the locals were expressing their appreciation with a massive increase in vote.”

David Coleman celebrating a new roundabout in Peakhurst in his electorate of Banks.

Insight into how Labor powerbrokers spent the eve of the election, revealed in The Sydney Morning Herald today, drives home the point.

It’s been revealed that the Opposition’s campaign headquarters spent Friday night celebrating their apparently certain win with a lavish boozy feast, massages and cocktails into the evening.

Mr Coleman is happy with the observation from Mr Iemma, saying he’s proud to champion causes that Banks voters are passionate about.

“Local issues are very important to me, and our community,” he said. “We’ve got a lot done locally and will continue to work on local projects — large and small.”

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Labor candidate for Banks Chris Gambian focused almost entirely on national issues and attacked his Liberal opponent for being the ‘Minister for Roundabouts’. Picture: AAP

Mr Coleman has spruiked his focus on issues that matter in his electorate, running a petition about one particularly dangerous intersection.

His campaigning saw the Clarendon and Belmore Road roundabout project in Peakhurst receive $190,000 in the 2017-18 Budget.

“Installing a roundabout will improve the flow of traffic, improve safety, and I’m really pleased we’ve been able to achieve this outcome,” he said at the time.

Another social media post, of Mr Coleman standing in front of the completed project, reinforced his success at achieving results for his community.

“This has been, for a long time, one of the worst intersections anywhere in the Banks electorate,” he said.

“We were successful in getting federal funding to build a roundabout. That roundabout has now been completed and that should have a really positive impact.”

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Despite being a frontbencher, David Coleman has continued to champion hyper local issues in his western Sydney electorate.

During the campaign, the Coalition focused on a range of “congestion-busting projects” across the country — something that saw them cop criticism from opponents.

At a campaign rally at the halfway point, Prime Minister Scott Morrison spent a chunk of time talking about the congestion-busting fund.

“Now, this is the congestion-busting fund which works a bit like a surgeon on a city — it finds those key choke points. We’re not talking about the big projects, there’s plenty of those,” Mr Morrison said.

Former NSW Premier Morris Iemma has attacked Labor’s arrogance, particularly in western Sydney.

“These things that you need to do, whether it’s a widening of a road here, or it’s a carparking station at a particular location in the city so more people can be on a train than clogging up the roads.

“These are the things you have to do if you are really serious about unclogging congestion in our cities.

“All of this is about ensuring that Australians can get to work sooner and safer and get home sooner and safer.

“Yes, it’s cement and it is bitumen and it’s all of these things, but what it is really about is how we are really committed to families, to ensure that people get home sooner and safer in this big city of ours, or in the big city of Melbourne or Brisbane or over in Perth or wherever it happens to be.”

Scott Morrison was unapologetic about his focus on local “congestion-busting projects”.

The Australian newspaper today quotes a Labor campaign source as saying the party had forgotten Sydney’s west, where a number of Opposition incumbents suffered swings against them.

“In Sydney, we were attacking negative gearing, but failed to ­acknowledge mums and dads in Fairfield are thinking about buying an apartment to negatively gear,” the newspaper quotes the source as saying.

The perceived focus on hyper local issues, from funding for bottlenecks to building new commuter car parks, was viewed as a potential ploy to avoid serious national matters, including climate change and the economy.

But in the end, that interest in things that impact the everyday lives of people in the community might’ve been a brilliant strategy.

Originally published as The suburban roundabout that signifies why Labor lost the unlosable election