Aston by-election: Labor’s attack ads resonated with Victorian voters

This is an earthquake for the Liberal Party but not as surprising as the political establishment is suggesting.

The rotting mess that is the party of Menzies in Victoria is meeting its maker.

This needs to be digested.

Victorians do not like the Liberal Party as it presents and they want it to change; it is hurtling towards political and financial collapse without an urgent intervention.

The implications for Peter Dutton can be measured by others closer to the Canberra story.

But Dutton does not work in Victoria, just as Scott Morrison didn’t.

Roshena Campbell, the Liberal candidate, was a potential future cabinet minister but came from the complete other side of town.

The feedback I had from people very close to Aston Liberals was that Labor’s attack ads had resonated.

The ads slammed the fact Campbell came from behind the tofu curtain in inner northern Melbourne and was parachuted into Aston, a million miles and 100 years away from the city’s outer east.

Let’s not forget that when the 2022 Victorian election results were overlaid with Aston, Labor would have won by roughly 500 votes.

On the ground, Aston felt like a Labor seat, especially the northern end but now it seems even the conservative booths have revolted against Dutton’s Liberals.

The Liberals are left with just three seats in the city that is on track to become the biggest in Australia.

The short and long-term implications are profound.