Election 2022: Leaders keep distance on roads most travelled

Scott Morrison and Anthony ­Albanese have beaten almost ­entirely different paths in the first two weeks of the election campaign, with only two seats attracting visits from both leaders.

Scott Morrison was calling the shots while campaigning in Queensland. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison and Anthony ­Albanese have beaten almost ­entirely different paths in the first two weeks of the election campaign, with only two seats attracting visits from both leaders.

Forty-one seats have featured on the two leaders’ combined campaign travels so far, but only the ultra-marginal Liberal-held Bass in Tasmania and the marginal Labor-held Gilmore in NSW – both of which changed hands at the 2019 election – have been on both leaders’ campaign itineraries so far.

The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader have also had contrasting focuses.

Mr Morrison has been balanced between attack and defence, visited all six states and the Northern Territory, and spent about half his campaign in outer metropolitan and provincial seats.

Mr Albanese, in the 11 days before he contracted Covid-19, was more attacking, spending practically half of his campaign in one state, Queensland, and going to inner metropolitan and rural seats most of the time, largely avoiding the outer rims of the capital cities.

Mr Morrison’s itinerary has ­included plenty of trips into opposition territory, as the Coalition seeks to pick up enough seats to secure the net gain of at least the one it needs to retain majority government, having lost its majority in a redistribution.

The Prime Minister has spent the most time, about a third of the campaign, in his home state, where he has been on a more attacking footing, venturing into the marginal Labor-held seats of Parramatta (twice), Gilmore, Macquarie and Dobell.

The Coalition has also sought to shore up Liberal-held marginals with visits to Lindsay, Reid and Robertson, the last of which holds the tag of bellwether seat, having voted for the party that won government since 1983.

The Coalition’s focus on holding on to its most marginal seat, Chisholm, warranted two visits to the inner-east Melbourne seat in consecutive days over the Easter weekend. Other defensive visits to Liberal seats under threat have ­included Bass in Tasmania, Josh Frydenberg’s Kooyong in Melbourne, Pearce and Swan in Western Australia, Longman in Queensland and Boothby in South Australia.

Anthony Albanese with Manildra Shoalhaven Starches worker Luke Sperring in Bomaderry last week. Picture: Toby Zerna

As well as the four NSW Labor seats, opposition seats the Prime Minister’s campaign has targeted have been Fremantle, Cowan and Perth in the WA capital, Griffith and Blair in Brisbane and the NT seats of Lingiari and Solomon, where Mr Morrison attended Anzac Day commemorations.

Before Mr Albanese’s campaign was put on hold, he had spent half of his 11 days in Queensland, and had been slightly more attacking, spending almost 60 per cent of his time devoted to seats held by the Coalition and Greens.

Queensland was widely seen as critical to Labor’s chances of picking up seats to win government on May 21, having failed to deliver promised gains for the ALP at the 2016 and 2019 elections, but Mr Albanese’s extended visit to the Sunshine State across six days was a mixture of attack and defence.

 

It included only two of the 10 seats Labor has held since Kevin Rudd’s 2007 victory but since handed back to the Coalition: Brisbane and Leichhardt.

Mr Albanese, however, didn’t campaign in any of the three coal seats – Capricornia, Flynn and Dawson – nor the Townsville seat of Herbert, where Mr Morrison will resume campaigning on Tuesday. Labor’s decision not to have the Opposition Leader campaign in central Queensland has reinforced strategists’ beliefs that all four seats are unlikely to change hands on May 21.

The Labor leader also did campaign events in the ALP-held Brisbane seats of Griffith and Rankin.

The rest of Mr Albanese’s pre-Covid time was shared between Tasmania – where he kicked off his campaign with visits to the marginal Liberal seats of Bass and Braddon, both renowned for flip-flopping between the major parties over the past 25 years – and NSW and Victoria.

Of the NSW and Victoria seats Mr Albanese has visited so far, only one was Liberal-held – Bennelong in NSW, his last stop before the positive PCR test that halted his campaign – while one was the safe Greens seat of ­Melbourne. The Labor leader made defensive visits to Hunter, Watson, Richmond and Gilmore in NSW, and Macnamara in Melbourne. Mr Albanese has yet to set foot in WA, which was to be his next planned destination before the positive Covid test, SA or ­either of the territories.