Election 2022: One former PM John Howard in bid to recover another one’s seat in Warringah

John Howard says he finds the result of the election ‘very hard to pick’, with the Liberal Party having no votes to spare.

Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves and former PM John Howard walk the Manly Corso on Sydney’s northern beaches. Picture: John Feder

John Howard says he finds the result of the election “very hard to pick”, with the Liberal Party having no votes to spare.

Making a campaign visit on Wednesday to the Sydney northern beaches seat of Warringah, where Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is challenging independent MP Zali Steggall, the former Liberal prime minister said he believed the election trend was swinging back to the Coalition.

But as the veteran of many election campaigns, Mr Howard said he did not know which way the result would go.

He did not believe there was the same level of interest in Anthony Albanese as the alternative prime minister compared with what he faced in battling Kevin Rudd in 2007. He felt there was a growing feeling in the community Mr Albanese was “not quite up to it”, he said.

“The Liberal Party faces a tough fight in this election where there is no flesh on the bones of the Liberal Party in this campaign; we don’t have votes to spare,” Mr Howard said. “Quite the reverse, it’s going to be very tough.”

During a stroll in which the pair chatted to local voters and others, a constant presence in the background were two broad-shouldered security guards in long black coats who have been with Ms Deves throughout her campaign in Warringah.

Mr Howard, unaccompanied, joined Ms Deves after campaigning earlier in the day with the Liberal Party’s candidate in Macquarie, Sarah Richards. The marginal seat in Sydney’s outer west was won by Labor’s Susan Templeman in 2019 by just several hundred votes, and Scott Morrison is most keen on winning it back for the Liberals as a potential buffer to losses elsewhere.

Mr Howard chats with supporters of Ms Deves’ rival, independent MP Zali Steggall. Picture: John Feder

Mr Howard was called in later in the day to Warringah to lend support to Ms Deves, who has attracted much controversy over her views on transgender people competing in women’s sport as she tries to try to regain Tony Abbott’s former seat for the Liberals, lost to Ms Steggall in 2019.

Asked if he supported Ms Deves’ views about transgender people competing in women’s sport, Mr Howard said he did.

“I agree, the idea that young girls would have to compete in sport with biological males is absurd, and most people feel that way – it’s just a statement of the bleeding obvious,” he said.

Ms Deves, standing with Mr Howard at a pre-poll booth outside a church on Manly’s Corso, said she thought she had a shot at winning Warringah and a recent poll showed that she was competitive.

She said she had spoken to voters who shared her views about transgender people, but had been on the campaign trail every day talking about health services and other issues.

“Polling shows I have a real show in this electorate,” she said. “Zali Steggall has not achieved anything of note in these three years.”