Liberals split war chest to prop up marginals

The Victorian Liberal Party’s best marginal seat fund­raisers are tipping in about $2 million to three at-risk electorates.

Liberal MP Michael Sukkar is believed to be contributing as much as $1 million from his own fundraising to rescue his eastern Melbourne seat of Deakin.

The Victorian Liberal Party’s best marginal-seat parliamentary fund­­raisers are tipping in about $2 million to three electorates to try to hold back a Labor onslaught.

The money is being added to campaign revenue raised by party headquarters and the richest seats and is designed to build a wall around the seats of Deakin, La Trobe and Corangamite.

Liberal MP Michael Sukkar is believed to be contributing as much as $1 million from his own fundraising to rescue his eastern Melbourne seat of Deakin, which he holds with a normally healthy margin of 6.4 per cent.

Jason Wood, the member for La Trobe (3.2 per cent) and Sarah Henderson, the member for Corangamite (notionally Labor after the redistribution) have personally raised many hundreds of thousands of dollars each to significantly bolster their own campaigns.

The war chests collected by each MP also are being bolstered from outside their electorates as members from wealthy seats such as Kooyong redistribute money to more marginal seats.

The Australian reported recently that Josh Frydenberg would spend up to $1m in his seat amid concerns that it could fall due to a tidal wave of anti-­Coalition sentiment in Melbourne’s wealthy inner suburbs.

The Treasurer is believed to still be redistributing money outside Kooyong but runs one of the wealthiest set of Liberal fundraising books in Australia.

For the first time in months, senior Liberals are becoming less pessimistic about a wipeout in Victoria, believing the vote has started to tighten somewhat, although the result will hinge greatly on the campaign.

On a best-case scenario, optimistic Liberals believe losses can be restricted to between two and four seats, depending on whether or not the 2018 state election result is replicated.

“It doesn’t feel like we are about to be wiped off the face of the earth,” a senior Liberal said yesterday.

“It does feel like it is tightening and it would want to have.”

Labor is still eyeing a significantly strong result in Victoria to enable Bill Shorten to govern with a majority.

Victoria responded particularly strongly to the leadership instability in Canberra.

The most marginal Liberal seats will receive at least $1m in combined funding.

The party is especially worried about the seat of Dunkley, notionally a Labor seat after the redistribution, and believe there is little chance of holding on.

Ms Henderson’s seat of Corangamite, in and around Geelong, is also extremely problematic for the Liberal Party, but she is considered a hard worker who has a high profile in her seat. Chisholm, at 2.9 per cent, is also tough for the Liberal Party to hold.

The Labor Party is eyeing a net gain of up to four seats in Victoria, but has acknowledged reading the landscape in individual seats is complicated.