Federal election 2016: Turnbull on defensive in marginal seats blitz

Malcolm Turnbull has visited almost twice as many marginal government seats as Bill Shorten in the first 22 days of the campaign.

Malcolm Turnbull catches a train from Sydney's CBD to Emu Plains in the seat of Lindsay.

Malcolm Turnbull has visited almost twice as many marginal government seats as Bill Shorten in the first 22 days of the election campaign, as the Prime Minister’s pitch focuses on defending the territory he holds.

An analysis by The Australian reveals Mr Turnbull has spent 68 per cent of his time campaigning in government seats and has already visited 21 of the 29 electorates the Coalition holds by a margin of 6 per cent or less.

Mr Turnbull yesterday made his second trip to the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, which has been won by the government of the day since its inception in 1984, after his previous visit drew fire when he ran out of time to conduct a walk through the Westfield shopping centre in Penrith.

Yesterday it wasn’t baby kissing but rat patting that grabbed attention as the Prime Minister encountered Shane Mundt and his pet rat Splinter.

Mr Turnbull has also twice visited the semi-rural seat of Macarthur in southwestern Sydney and Brisbane-based Bonner — a sign the Coalition is worried about holding these marginals.

GRAPHIC: Leader tracker: weeks 1-3

Mr Shorten has been on the attack and while he has visited just 12 of the Coalition’s marginal seats, he has spent 58 per cent of his time campaigning on the government’s turf, and only 39 per cent in Labor territory.

He too has visited Macarthur twice as well as the Sydney seat of Reid, Darwin-based Solomon and the Cairns-based Leichhardt, where he yesterday promised a $500 million fund to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Shorten’s deputy Tanya Plibersek has conducted her own blitz of marginal seats, sometimes visiting a few days before her leader or a few days after. Ms Plibersek has landed in 14 Coalition-held marginal seats, including a visit yesterday to Eden-Monaro, in southeastern NSW, which has fallen to the party that wins government at every election since 1972.

Ms Plibersek has spent almost as much time campaigning in government seats as the Prime Minister and has twice visited the Launceston-based Bass, Capricornia in central Queensland, Reid and Solomon.

Julie Bishop missed almost a week of the campaign when she was required to travel to Europe for talks on the war against Islamic State.

But the Perth-based Foreign Minister has been chalking up the domestic miles with visits to Frankston-based Dunkley, Petrie in Brisbane and Paterson in NSW, where the Coalition is hoping her star power can secure votes in seats they believe are vulnerable.