Leaders stake claims on enemy turf

The major parties have been on an aggressive footing in the first two weeks of the election campaign, spending more time in their opponents’ seats than in their own.

Most campaigns are predominantly fought in seats held by the government but the close nature of the 2019 poll and the Coalition’s dire predicament — notionally it holds 72 seats but needs to win a bare minimum of 76 and ideally 77 — has both leaders targeting seats they hope to pick up.

Scott Morrison has spent ­almost 70 per cent of his time in enemy territory, slightly ahead of Bill Shorten on about 60 per cent.

Twelve of the Opposition Leader’s 25 visits to seats (including return trips) have been to marginal electorates held by the Coalition, with another four to Labor seats held by 6 per cent or less. The Prime Minister has­ ­recorded seven visits each to Liberal and Labor marginals.

The inner-western Sydney marginal seat of Reid, held by ­retiring Liberal Craig Laundy, has been the top battleground seat, with three visits from Mr Shorten, all in the first four days of the campaign, and two by Mr Morrison.

 

The importance of the seat, which straddles the diagonal fault line that separates the blue ­Liberal-leaning northern and eastern suburbs of Sydney from the red Labor-aligned western and inner-western suburbs, was ­underscored on Tuesday when John Howard joined new Liberal candidate Fiona Martin on the trail in Burwood shopping centre.

The Labor marginals the Prime Minister has visited so far are Lindsay and Macquarie on ­Sydney’s western fringe, Braddon and Lyons in Tasmania and ­Herbert in Queensland for yesterday’s Anzac Day service.

Mr Morrison is expected to spend all of today campaigning in Queensland, a state with nine ­Liberal National Party marginal seats and two Labor seats held by less than 2 per cent. It will be only the second day the Prime Minister has delivered his election pitch in the key state.

As well as Reid, Mr Shorten’s bid to win Coalition-held seats has focused on: Dawson, Flynn and Leichhardt in Queensland, which he swept through this week during 3½ days in the state; Robertson and Bennelong in NSW; Hasluck and Swan in Perth; La Trobe in Victoria; and Boothby in South Australia.

Neither leader has ventured into any of the Coalition’s five most marginal seats: Corangamite and Dunkley in Victoria, both ­notionally Labor seats after a redistribution and widely expected to be Coalition losses; Queensland’s Capricornia, a lineball battle, and Forde, a seat Labor hopes to pick up; or Gilmore on the NSW South Coast, where high-profile Liberal candidate Warren Mundine is ahead in the latest polling.

The potential importance of the Northern Territory’s two Labor-held seats has been highlighted by both leaders already ­flying into Darwin. Mr Shorten ­arrived on Wednesday afternoon for his second visit in a week, while the Prime Minister spent most of the same day in the Territory.

Mr Morrison has already spent two days in Tasmania, where a trio of marginal Labor seats are up for grabs, but Mr Shorten is yet to cross Bass Strait. In contrast, the Labor leader has already passed through Perth but the Prime ­Minister has not yet made it to Western Australia.